Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is just a small excerpt of our Team Purple. This is what we call ourselves. A small part of a total of 108,000 people the world over with various different backgrounds. Today, we are Siemens Energy, but this is going to change as well, as many of you know already, because in 21 days, we will be on Omterra. Welcome to the seventh and last annual press conference under the name and the brand Siemens Energy. We are delighted to have you here. Welcome to you in Berlin and on the screens. I would like to draw your attention to the Safe Harbor Statement. We are in the middle of our quarterly press conference. Here, you will find a short summary of the most important items, and the full text will be found in the presentation via the link.
As usual, our CEO, Christian Bruch, will first give you a look back at the past fiscal year 2026, before our CFO, Maria Ferraro, presents the financial results in detail. In the second part of this press conference, we will turn to the competitive environment before we give an outlook on the medium-term targets for the year 2030. After that, you will be given the opportunity to ask your questions.
Now over to you, Christian.
Thank you very much, Robin, and welcome to all of you to our annual press conference. As Robin has rightly said, this is the last time that we're coming to you under the brand name of Siemens Energy. What I think is true, it's a fascinating environment that we're currently performing in after a very successful year. We have journalists here in the room. Thank you very much for joining us in person today, but I'd also like to welcome everyone who's joining us online, watching us on their screens. It was Werner von Siemens who changed the world with his inventions. He rethought things, had innovative ideas, launched new products, revolutionary approaches that are today the foundation for Siemens Energy. What was true then is more important than ever today. Progress begins with change.
Over the past six years, we have changed continuously and dramatically. We have spun off our independent energy business from Siemens AG, went public, we exited the new-build coal business, we bought all the shares in the wind business, and many changes that we had to challenges that we had to cope with. At the same time also, we have continuously changed as an organization. We have adjusted our structures twice, took layers of hierarchy and complexity out of the company. We devolved more responsibility to the business areas. More than 70,000 new colleagues have joined us. The net figure would be 15,000, as we're talking about 106,000 today. That alone already shows you how much has changed in this company, in Siemens Energy, over the past six years. We've also changed our portfolio.
We have purchased businesses, we have sold others, we have grown our capacities at existing sites, and as you also see in this plant, we have added capacities. Many of the decisions that we have made in the past six years were certainly not easy at the time. Some of them were even controversial. It was always our belief that the decisions we had taken would be right for our business, to grow our company together. Some things have worked, others haven't. The bottom line is that many things have worked out really well, and it is borne out by this past financial year, which for us was an absolute record. We have achieved everything we planned for, actually overperformed as well. We talk about the financial targets in greater detail in a moment, and Maria as well will be reporting on our financial KPIs.
At the top, let me single out a few things. Alongside the financial targets, an important element in 2026 was to break even in the wind business. We managed to do that in fiscal 2026. We also wanted to strengthen our financial foundation again. We managed to do that. We have a free cash flow of almost EUR 9 billion, EUR 8.8 billion to be exact, which means that our financial foundation today is more robust than ever before. At the beginning of the fiscal year, we made announcements. For those of you who attended the Capital Markets Day in Charlotte or saw what we announced there, we said that we are going to grow our capacities even further, strengthen our supply chains. All of that has been done. This is a major tour de force. Why?
We are doing many different things at the same time, many projects, but at the same time, we are building up new manufacturing capacity locally across the world. All of that is something that we have managed to do really well in 2026. This also has increased the value for our shareholders, and we will tell you more about that in a moment. Let's quite specifically look at some numbers here. As I said earlier, it has been a record year for Siemens Energy. During the year, we met all of our guidance adjustments, also thanks to a strong development in Grid Technologies and Gas Services. Order intake increased to more than EUR 68 billion, which is about 18% above the prior year figure. That type of growth, the extent of the growth, is rather exceptional across the global industries.
Growing 20% in an industry where you physically produce the products is really a major feat of force, and we managed to do that. Order backlog stands at EUR 164 billion this year. What we have in our backlog today is going to be future revenue in the years to come. Revenue in 2026 has already grown by 15% to EUR 44 billion over the past year. Our profit margin before special items was 12.4%. It's more than double the number of last year. A significant share of that improvement is thanks to our wind business. You may remember that in 2025, our wind business ran up profits of EUR 1.5 billion. Today, we have broken even. Great achievement, and we are very proud of that, and thanks go out to those people who have contributed to that.
At the end of the day, for 2026, the bottom line is that we come in with a posted net income of EUR 4.129 billion, earnings per share at EUR 4.44. Now, it is true that our shareholders should also participate in this successful fiscal year, and together with this Supervisory Board, we will recommend to the 2027 AGM the payment of a dividend of EUR 2.3 per share. In the past year, you may remember, the dividend was EUR 0.70, so it is more than triple that. In the past year, we repurchased shares worth EUR 3.1 billion, and that again was part of value generation for our shareholders, and it has been part and parcel of the total of EUR 6 billion in our share buyback program, which also means that we have been in a position to return about EUR 5 billion to our shareholders.
In other words, massive changes over the past years as we are coming into that strong year, and we also see that our work is paying off. Well, having said that, still a lot of work ahead of us. It is a very exciting market. We are living in a volatile world, which is full of challenges. Before I continue, let me take this opportunity to thank 106,000 fantastic colleagues in Team Purple at Siemens Energy. Dear colleagues, a very heartfelt thank you to all of you. Now, let us look at the market environment, the environment in which we operate, and also how the market is going to develop in the future. We are very confident. Why? Because the global electricity demand is significantly growing. By 2040, estimates say that global power generation is to rise by more than 60%.
In other words, the world will require massive investments, both in generation and power grids, for a number of reasons. There are different drivers that will condition that growth. It is the electrification of industry and transportation. We see more electrification requirements in air conditioning. It is actually more energy that is required for air conditioning than in data centers. But it is true, of course, that data centers, especially in the United States, are massively growing the electricity demand. But we shouldn't forget that just below that level, we are witnessing now a structural change of the power sector. Why? Because the relative share of electricity in power generation is growing, and it is not only about generating more electricity. Energy supply must be safer, more resilient in the future. Power plant capacity has to be grown.
The grids have to be expanded and modernized, and that requires substantial investments that will go well beyond this decade. We see this very specifically in our markets. We have a record order book for gas turbines, which gives us a very good planning horizon, and we can't say at this point that there is any weakening demand foreseeable. I mean, if you are reading the press, and journalists know what I am talking about, they develop scenarios of where we are going. But we currently witness an ongoing, a consistent demand, and we expect a long-term investment cycle here that will stretch well into the 2030s. Also wind energy will grow, will continue to grow in the long term. This is growth that will create business for us not only through 2030, but well beyond.
Because what we are selling today also creates business for us for decades ahead. Because when you commission a gas turbine, our job doesn't stop there. It needs regular service and maintenance. Already in the first year, some minor maintenance work is required, and then major inspections are needed every five years. It's a recurring business, maintenance, long-term customer relationships that goes far beyond the original sale of the machine. For every additional gigawatt of installed capacity, we expect that we can generate additional revenue of about EUR 400 million over the lifetime of such a plant. That also means that we profit from two developments at the same time. There's a structurally growing market, and there's an installed base that will grow along with that growing market and will create a long-term and profitable service business for us.
That creates good economic conditions for our business in the future. But having said that, we're living in a world that is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable now. Geopolitical tensions that are, in some cases, being fought out militarily, as we see in Ukraine or the Middle East. But also, energy infrastructure today always becomes a target of military attacks. This picture was taken in Ukraine. I was in Ukraine three weeks ago for the last time, and I'm going there regularly because we're supporting Ukraine also in rebuilding their energy and repairing their energy system. What you see there is dramatic. I'm regularly traveling to the Middle East as well. When we traveled to our own plants, we had to deal with drone attacks.
Today, we look at how or what an energy infrastructure should look like, if it can withstand a UAV attack. It also means you need to protect your infrastructure, and you have to develop your grids differently and more resilient, in a more resilient fashion, should any attacks happen. At the end of the day, it means more investment into physical infrastructure. Over and beyond that, there are even more complexities, like tariffs, trade restrictions. How can we keep our international trading system going? How can we protect the supply chains, although they are becoming increasingly tense? The only answer for us is we have to have a global footprint, local production, close to the customer base. We have to develop concepts or contingencies to repair, to fix things if an attack occurs.
At the same time, we also see a massive acceleration of technological change. Artificial intelligence is changing the way we produce, how we operate our businesses at an enormous speed, and at the same time, the new and emerging market participants or competitors. Change is something that we believe in. We drive that by conviction. It's an important priority for us. If you take the most valuable, nine out of the 10 most valuable companies in this world haven't existed 10 years ago. I mean, we're only 6.5 years old, it's true, but our history stretches back almost 180 years. But the message is very clear. Longevity and size don't protect you against change. Also, expectations of our customers are changing very well. The ability to produce and deliver quickly is just as important as quality these days.
In other words, we need to be resilient and robust. If you want to be successful in the long term, you need to continually change. We want to set the course today to make sure that we stay competitive in 2030 and beyond, and use that as a growing platform. This is described by our Elevate Strategy . You may have heard that in the last year already, this is not a new project. Also, the North Star that we are defining for ourselves as a yardstick has been communicated before. Let me talk about these three levers briefly again, because these are very important as a benchmark for us, and we operationalize them. Number one, we want to actively shape the transformation of the energy world. We want to benefit from this long-term growth in electricity demand in this world.
To do that, we invest in areas where we believe the long-term growth opportunities are attractive. In 2026, we have come out of a record period of investments, and another record investment round coming up in 2027. In other words, we are massively investing in our own infrastructure. If you take Grid Technologies, billions of euros will be invested by 2030. We have a multi-billion project in Gas to grow our gas capacities. To contextualize that, in Transformation of Industry, we are going to invest more next year than in the past years. Why? Because our businesses are changing, and it is about consolidating the industrial setup and to make our business sustainably profitable. Growth does not just mean building new factories or installing output, but we have to be more productive. This is what we have done in 2026.
We invested in automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, and processes, just to boost the productivity enhancements in our existing plants. The past couple of years have shown us how supply chains can come under pressure or break as a result of geopolitical conflicts or trade restrictions. We are therefore now investing together with our suppliers. We are strengthening our regional footprint. We want to produce where our customers are. By way of example, that means we are investing a lot in the United States. We also invest in our plants in the Middle East. Essentially, it also means that Asia is going to be an important market for our investments. Very often, it is about capacities, transformers, supplies for gas turbines, et cetera. At the end of the day, it reduces also dependencies on individual supply routes. This is exactly what we need.
We need flexibility. We need the agility that will help us to be more resilient. More resilient in a world that will change going forward. Financial strength, supply chains, these are cornerstones of our success. The third lever here is something that is preoccupying us a lot. We are changing the way we work. What that means is it means we need to have good processes and the right products, but always be laser-focused on quality and use AI in all work processes where it makes sense. This is something that we are currently working on a lot. Using this triad, we will make this company successful. A strong company also means a strong brand, and Robin has said it before. The name of our company founder is one of the best-known industrial brands in the world.
At the same time, we know full well that we can no longer use that Siemens name beyond 2030. It is also for that reason we decided to act early. With Omterra, we are now bringing Siemens Energy and Siemens Gamesa together. It is going to happen in the next couple of weeks, and in January, or beginning in January, it will be very visible also publicly. We are introducing that new brand step by step, and this opens up the new chapter of what will be Omterra going forward. The strategy is clear. The goal is clear as well. We want to benefit from electricity, have an efficient and streamlined organization, be a market leader in our different markets to achieve top profitability, and what is essential, of course, is achieving top customer satisfaction, because we work in a business where long-term customer relationship is key.
These are our five goals that we call our North Star, which will define everything we do. We also critically review our portfolio, and on that basis decide where investments go, where we should be the owner, where we should revise things, and where things are changing. These are precisely the questions we asked ourselves in terms of Transformation of Industry. You have been aware of this discussion. We have decided to make Transformation of Industry a standalone business in operational terms, and in the next step, we want to bring in an external investor. Talks are still outstanding. To put that into context, Transformation of Industry is a successful business. It has achieved an impressive turnaround in the last couple of years. It has great growth potential and opportunities, so we do not face any challenges today.
However, the question we need to address is, what is that business going to look like in 2035, and are we in the right shape at this point, and what is going to happen in the industrial business? Because what we see right now is consolidation, mergers and acquisitions that are a necessity in order to be a successful industrial player. For us, the question is, how can we make sure that Transformation of Industry also can make good use of those opportunities and still stay nimble and agile? Gas Services, Grid Technologies, and Wind clearly benefit from the electrified energy world. That is obvious. Transformation of Industry mainly addresses industrial customers, so there are limited overlaps between these businesses, and also the frequency of project implementation in Transformation of Industry are usually higher than they are in the electricity business.
In other words, the industrial solutions business is also clearly changing now, as we see it, and therefore we need some more entrepreneurial freedom. That is actually the reason why we are pursuing Project Voyager, as we call it. We focus on electricity, electricity for the moment, and at the same time, we need to understand how we can build up a company that is very successful in the industrial environment. I know the question comes again and again, why would not we invest ourselves more in Transformation of Industry? The answer is that in Gas Services and Grid Technologies, there are very attractive long-term growth opportunities with higher margins, higher profitability. If you will, these two businesses are competing for capital if they are major transformative growth businesses. Also in this current situation, we continue to invest in Transformation of Industry in our factories.
This is our own innate interest. For 2027, we actually see more investments than in 2026 in Transformation of Industry. Often, these are about optimizations of existing plants, more maintenance, smaller extensions. These are not the big-ticket items or transformative acquisitions. Share buyback is also part of our capital allocation. We are reducing the number of outstanding shares, and with that, we also support the value of the remaining shares. For TI, we therefore want to find a partner that is ready to invest, but it is always very important for me to underline, we need to understand that we are looking for the right way forward for the industrial business. Maria, myself, and also the Supervisory Board will be laser-focused on this, where we are in this process. At the moment, we want to make it independent, that business, that is.
As a standalone business, both in legal terms and in operational terms, these are the foundations, the prerequisites, in other words. We need to adapt our legal structures in about 50 countries. Also, we are talking at the moment with all the social partners. There are about 17,000 people that will be affected, employees. It is a huge organization. It is very complex, and we take all the time it takes for that. By spring 2027, we want to be in a situation that we can also hold talks with potential investors. A full functional independence before 2028 is not something I see right now. Certainly it is not a process that will happen overnight. It is important for me to say that we were not rushing to make things happen. We are moving it forward consistently. It is supposed to be, and it will be a successful business.
But I said before, we are all interested in developing this business successfully. We have good visibility by the end of the decade, and now it is about consolidating it all beyond 2030. We are doing it from a position of strength. We are growing, we are strengthening our resilience, we are changing the way we work. For this next phase, we also need to have ambitious targets. Well, these targets have been published today. By 2030, we want to make Siemens Energy, or I should say Omterra, to be in a position to be at a fundamentally different level of earnings. We are striving for an annual revenue growth of 12%-14% and a profit margin before special items of 20%-22%. The biggest contribution, obviously, will be made by Gas Services and Grid Technologies.
Gas Services will make margins between 25% and 27%, and Grid Technologies between 24% and 26%. In terms of Siemens Gamesa, the ambition is a margin between 8% and 10% in 2030. For Transformation of Industry, presumably under a new majority owner, because we want to remain in this business with a significant minority share, because we see value generation potential, and there, the margin expectation is between 14% and 16%. But it is very important for me to point out that 2030 is an important milestone, but it is not the end of our journey. It does not stop there. Beyond 2030, we see growth drivers, and we see also opportunities to increase our profits from there. What we are building up today will have a knock-on effect after 2030, especially when we talk about our service business in gas.
In terms of Grid Technologies, as I said before, we have long-term investment cycles. At Siemens Gamesa, we still see considerable potential to improve our profitability. In the coming years, we expect long-term demand, because you have seen that 2026 was a weak year in orders, in new orders for wind. In the coming year, we expect a significant increase there. By the end of the decade, we expect more offshore wind development in particular. With the standalone setup of Transformation of Industry, we also want to place a strategic focus for both sides. By 2030, the earnings per share, we want to increase by double digits year on year. We are currently enjoying good tailwind. That needs to be translated into long-term profitable growth. Siemens Energy/Omterra should be made permanently stronger.
With that, it would be over to Maria, please.
Hello, everyone. Good morning. How are you? Nice to see all of you in the room. It is very nice to see you again. Feels like a year has passed so quickly. Hello to everybody online joining us. As Christian mentioned, fiscal year 2026 was a record year for Siemens Energy. In all areas, all of our targets, those that were raised, were either met or exceeded. You see it here with respect to revenue growth, over 15%. Profit before special items, over 12%, at 12.4%. Net income at EUR 4.1 billion, and free cash flow pre-tax, which, as you know, we raised at the mid-year in terms of our targets, at over EUR 8 billion, at EUR 8.8 billion. Really strong execution. I think this is what Christian was mentioning.
It is really that laser focus on how we execute our order backlog that allowed us to get to where we were in fiscal year 2026. That backlog conversion will continue to drive results into the future. Looking at Siemens Energy and what we achieved in fiscal year 2026, I have to tell you, there were many things that Christian and I could talk about. Certainly I had a long list of items that perhaps we could have talked about today, because a lot of good things happened. By the way, in order to make the results that we have, it is the small things behind the scenes that allow us to be that successful, and the people behind it.
Here, I have decided to put four, let us say, in focus. One that, of course, is very near and dear is the stability and the strength of our balance sheet and how that is now reflected in our credit ratings. For both S&P and Moody's, they increased or raised our credit ratings. For S&P, for example, we are now at a BBB+ with a stable outlook. For Moody's, we have a positive outlook with a Baa1. That is very important for us, because as Christian mentioned, the last years have been tough. One of the things that we had absolutely in our mind was the goal to ensure we have a strong balance sheet to support our businesses.
Secondly is, of course, that our shareholders have been with us through this journey. It is important to us that we are able to share back with our shareholders. This year, including the proposal for the dividend of EUR 2.30, that together with the share buyback that we already executed in fiscal year 2026, we are at EUR 5 billion in shareholder returns for our shareholders. Very important for us. Profitability. If we are looking at, as Christian mentioned, one of the levers in all businesses did exceptionally well this year in terms of profitability. But a standout of where it came from is Siemens Gamesa.
One of the things that we promised at the beginning of the year, at the Capital Markets Day last year, is that we would break even. Not only did we break even, we had two consecutive quarters of profit at Siemens Gamesa, and they are well on their way with their laser focus on execution, cost containment, and how do we then bring that additional capacity online and ensure that we deliver what we need for our customers. So, well done, Siemens Gamesa.
Of course, it should be at least noted that we continue to actively manage our portfolio. There are many things that we are doing behind the scenes, but of course, as Christian mentioned, the Transformation of Industry announcement to become standalone company is something that we are actively working on right now. Last but certainly not least, we are announcing that we are expanding our share buyback program. Just to remember, we had already announced last year an up to EUR 6 billion share buyback program, of which we executed EUR 3 billion last year.
Now we are saying we are expanding that program to repurchase up to an additional EUR 9 billion, so EUR 15 billion in total. Putting that into perspective, what that means for our shareholders between now and 2030, it essentially means that between share buyback and dividends, it is around a EUR 25 billion return to our shareholders that we are anticipating throughout the duration to 2030. So, looking back just a moment to see quarter four, I mean, this is and was a strong quarter for us. We had a strong finish to a very strong fiscal year. Already mentioned by Christian, I think, orders up, revenue record, profit before special items at 12%. I mean, looking at how year-over-year, how that really, in some cases, in this case, tripled.
Looking at our order backlog. The order backlog is something that I cannot stress enough on how important that is to us, not only because of the size, because yes, EUR 164 billion is massive, but it is really important about the quality of that backlog, because that is what gives us the certainty to come to you and say, "Next year, we are able to make our targets for fiscal year 2027." More importantly, that we have that visibility that between now and 2030, that is the fundamental, if you would like, foundation that underpins our 2030 targets. So, a very strong EUR 164 billion in backlog.
Book-to-bill. Book-to-bill, this is just essentially saying we are booking more than our selling, so it is the ratio that we calculate that. Why that is important is because it shows you that that momentum, if you would like, in the order backlog continues. One thing that we indicated last year at the Capital Markets Day, and that we say again, that we see a book-to-bill greater than 1x over the midterm. For every year for Siemens Energy and then Omterra, we see a book-to-bill greater than 1x from now till 2030. Last but not least, strong finish on free cash flow, again, based on that profit, but also benefiting from the customer dynamic and advance payments accordingly.
In a snapshot, here are the developments of all of our businesses for last year. Again, fiscal year 2026, exceptional performance by GS and GT, really strong continued performance by Transformation of Industry, and Siemens Gamesa well on its way. Here you see Gas Services profit record 16.4%, the margin of 16.4%. Orders, an outstanding 46% increase year-over-year. Excellent job to the Gas Services team, really building out that electrification momentum. As Christian mentioned, yes, a part of that is AI, but actually, the growth there is very broad-based, global.
Looking at revenue, of course, because we continue to convert the backlog, +20% there for Gas Services, and really exceptional cash conversion there. The team did a fantastic job, EUR 6.5 billion, just shy of EUR 6.5 billion free cash flow. Looking at Grid Technologies, of course, this is the growth leader with 26% growth year-over-year. Again, also, if you recall, we raised the guidance on them with Grid Technologies at mid-year, and they did an outstanding job not only converting the backlog, but don't forget, as Christian mentioned, also bringing that new capacity online, which we're already seeing in both gas and grid, the fruits, if you'd like, of our labors there.
Looking at orders year-over-year, 15% growth, solid double digit, and cash, of course, of over EUR 4 billion. Excellent job to the Grid Technologies team as well. Transformation of Industry, like I said, really solid, continuing on their journey. Looking at orders, revenue, and free cash flow, a very good result and a record profit for them of 12.1% margin. Here you can see Transformation of Industry continues to plug away, and in that case, absolutely, in the industrial space, they did see some headwinds. Great job to the TI team as well. Last but certainly not least, it really gives me joy to have a + 0.1% there for Siemens Gamesa as a profit margin. They did a great job.
As Christian mentioned, a little volatility and, if you'd like, project phasing in terms of orders, but +7% solid revenue growth, and of course, free cash flow continues to be negative, as we mentioned last year at the Capital Markets Day, and we commit to that. It will continue, and then, of course, positive free cash flow, the commitment is in fiscal year 2028. Excellent year across all of the businesses. They all contributed to a successful year for Siemens Energy, and in all cases, met or exceeded our commitments. Well done. Here it is, in a snapshot, when we think about capital allocation as Siemens Energy, what we're talking about. Just to put into perspective and to simplify, you see cash from operations between now and 2030, we're going to generate around EUR 52 billion, and to put into this capital allocation, if you'd like, category.
Including, as you know, we have a strong net cash balance today of EUR 8 billion. As mentioned earlier, what Christian said is, we look at that in categories, and it is similar categorization as I presented last year at the Capital Markets Day. The first one is really looking at the operations, and how do we continue to support the businesses to convert that backlog. We have, in last year and this year, we also see increases in CapEx, and that CapEx will continue, and averaging about EUR 2 billion a year in CapEx from now to 2030. That first category encompasses all of that. The second one is what I just mentioned. It is about shareholder returns. That is where our dividend is. We have estimated around the 50%, between 40%- 60%, we say there, but 50%, plus up to EUR 3 billion per year share buyback.
That encompasses 45% of the capital allocation envelope. Last but not least, and this is a very important category for us, it is about our strategic value creation. Here is where we have our portfolio development, as Christian mentioned. Here is where we have the ability, should it arise, to do an acquisition, looking at our portfolio, anything that we need. Also other things very important to us. How do we maintain our strong balance sheet? Here is where I have that allocation. Of course, don't forget, we still have the Siemens Energy India Limited commitment, whereby we have to purchase up to 51% in 2028. As a gentle reminder, we are at 16% ownership today. That is all encompassed in that last category. Again, what is important is we have a balanced capital allocation.
We ensure that we put every euro to work to ensure that that gets our return as we want and as you want, as our shareholders. As you see, those shareholder returns continue to grow till 2030. That is true. However, also beyond that. I think that is an important message. Last but not least, I think Christian outlined it very well. We have attractive markets. All of our businesses are well-positioned, and our businesses are well-reflected in those markets. I think you see that both in the fiscal year 2027 outlook and in fiscal year 2030. You can see all of the business areas that Christian already outlined, maybe looking at Siemens Energy. Next year, we expect 14%-16%, both in comparable revenue growth and in profit margin before special items. Again, that strong growth continues, and we are converting that into profit margin.
Looking at net income, we see an increase to around EUR 5 billion. Free cash flow, again, on the back of that strong profit and order backlog and order intake, we see EUR 10 billion of free cash flow for the outlook for fiscal year 2027. Looking beyond to 2030, because of course, we continue that strong double-digit growth to 12%-14% in 2030 for the group, and then margin cresting above the 20% at 20%-22%. What is important about this is, again, I want to underline that we have the backlog in-house. Maybe to put that into perspective, for next year, for example, in fiscal year 2027, 85% of the revenue is already in our backlog, what we are converting today.
The certainty is very high, and it continues to decrease a little bit year-over-year, but we have that transparency to 2030 and beyond. I think it is also important, we are working very hard, as Christian mentioned, when you talk about our Elevate and our North Star, on how do we become more efficient? How do we ensure we increase productivity? How do we ensure that when we bring those capacities online, that we have the productivity that goes with it? Overall, it is very much in our control. We are excited about the future. It is built on a secured backlog.
With that, I would like to conclude my part and hand back to you, Christian. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Maria. We want to shape the future. We have a strong foundation for this today. 2026, and I am saying it again, was a record year. We met or we exceeded our targets, and Siemens Gamesa has been breaking even. Now we are taking that next step. We want to grow our profitability, increase our margins, generate more cash flow. We are investing consistently, we are growing our capacities, and we make this change visible with Omterra. By 2030, we want to triple our earnings, and there we see considerable potential beyond that as well.
For earnings per share, as Maria indicated already, we are aiming for double-digit annual growth rates through 2030. 2030 for us is a milestone, yes, but it continues after that. That is not the end of it. Global electricity demand is set to rise even further. We need our technologies, the market needs our technologies, and we have shown that we can deliver on our promises, and our employees have really proven what they are capable of. Fantastic work. We have achieved a lot, but a lot is still ahead.
With that, I would like to play that ball back to you, Robin, for our Q&A.
Thank you, Christian. Thank you, Maria. Christian has just said it. This is where we are going to start our Q&A. At the top, let me say, it is the same procedure as every year. Colleagues who are joining us on the webcast, this is a journalist event, all right? Obviously, we are looking forward to your interest in the future when we have partner events or employee town halls. You should understand that we only accept questions from the journalists at this point. Now, how is it going to work?
As always, with a show of hands here in the room, and you will be recognized from there. For those of you who want to put a question on the webcast, you have a window or a chat box that says, "Ask a question," and you can drop us a note there. It is just underneath the presentation window. For those of you who are joining us by phone, you have already received our dial-in data, and it is only the journalists, as I said, hit the star button and number one, and we will have your question. For those of you who speak or understand English, if you want to ask your question in English in the original line, you can do that, either English or German.
Now, if on your phone line, and ask a question, please also mute your webcast when you ask your question, because otherwise we are going to get a nasty feedback, which has happened before. Let's get started. We will start with our chat window here. Markus Frühauf from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has asked, "How much are you planning, or how much have you paid for using the Siemens Energy name in the past year, and when will the renaming be complete?"
Christian here, it is 1.2% of relevant revenue, so that is the revenue of Siemens Energy without Siemens Gamesa, which has a different brand. If you do your math, it is about EUR 400 million, not quite EUR 400 million in the past fiscal year. The renaming will take time. Let us say, we are beginning right now. It is not going to happen in all countries at the same time. You would expect a 1.5 year until the whole process is completed, and you can actually see it. We have Siemens Energy stickers everywhere. Change them to Omterra, takes time, step by step. It is not going to happen overnight.
Excellent. Thank you very much. Let us continue here in the room. I had Mr. Steitz and then Mr. Reitkamp.
Mr. Bruch, couple of questions on the U.S. market and data centers. Perhaps we can get your general estimate of what the midterms have meant for your business, both for data centers and renewables. Possibly these are two opposing trends here in America. Quite specifically, there is the expectation that you will be a headwind now on the part of the Democrats when it comes to approval of new data centers. Can you feel that when you talk to your clients? Are there some delays? Are clients hesitating now, saying, "Well, we do not need your slots anymore," or, "We need to move our project timeline to the right"? Can we get a gist of, you see any specific effects already, and what would that look like? We would leave it at that for the moment.
Okay. When you look at the midterms and the results thereof, there is resistance from some local communities in the U.S., but that is not new. That has been there before the midterms. It has been, well, community campaigns, if you will. It is quite different if you look at the different states. Some communities says, "Yeah, we want to have it, tax revenue, jobs," and others, where there is a lot of resistance. What we see is not really a fundamental change of demand or project handling at all. It is important for me to say that we have orders and reservations.
With that in mind, the reservations, if they are not being used, will come back, in other words, to us. This is not going to hit our business, in other words. Generally, for data centers, and we have said it before many times, maybe not everyone likes that, we are building up incredible amounts of infrastructure, equipment, and it is going to cost time. You cannot be quicker by a factor of three, four, or five. It will take time, and I cannot see anything that will surprise me or astonish me. There are people who say, "Yes, there will be delays, and there is resistance."
Well, that is normal infrastructure development anyway, because infrastructure is not going to happen overnight, and there will be delays, of course. The question, do I see negative effects for our business in terms of our orders? Clear answer is no. Is there enough demand going forward? Definitely yes, as an answer here. I think we don't believe the midterms will fundamentally change the picture. Well, having said that, some growth rates for data centers were unrealistic, to be honest, and nobody wanted to hear that, but it wasn't realistic. So, you still have to build it physically, in other words. But I think the demand for electricity and data centers is still intact, also going forward.
You have to look at each individual community, and yes, there will be discussions, quite naturally, and we have to wait and see how that will also change with the change in policymaking, or whether there's just some local resistance in the communities. But we must say, during that hype phase, there are some installations you're wondering, is that really the right place, the right installation to produce electricity, just to be quick? At the end of the day, you generate noise or environmental damage that is critical as well. So, I think this discussion we're seeing now is actually more healthy than anything, I think.
Now, for renewables, it's very interesting. It's happening very quickly. People are now taking a different stance on wind. They're pivoting back to wind, and something is happening in the American market, and I definitely expect in onshore to see more momentum, more dynamism in the U.S. market.
Can I follow up on that, please? You said that in the past, the data center business was about one-quarter of your orders in gas. Is it still today the case?
Yeah, that's about the corridor. In our order backlog, we have EUR 15 billion for data centers, gas and grid together. So, just a bit less than 10% of all Siemens Energy orders are related to data centers. The backlog rate at gas has been constant, and we want to keep it constant. Why? Because in the past quarter, we have taken in orders, not in the U.S., I just talked about the Middle East before, the Emirates, just in order to balance the whole portfolio a bit.
Excellent. We continue with Andreas Heitker from Börsen-Zeitung. Now, before you ask your question, if you have a question on the webcast, and you are joining us by phone, first of all, you need to push the star and one button, and then the back office will recognize you. Mr. Heitker.
Thank you very much. I have a couple questions on Transformation of Industry. Mr. Bruch, you said you want to keep a reasonable minority share. Is that what, 20%? Is that 49%? So, what is an appropriate share? As you're going to talk to potential investors next year, would it be possible for you to imagine strategic investors, or is it just going to be financial investors that you're going to reach out to? Another question, are you planning to go public with Transformation of Industry? So, do you have the IPO on the cards, or is that not part of your plans at all?
Then last one, there was a lot of talk and discussion about this sale of Trench Group Berlin, and many people are wondering, maybe that was a bit of a low price that Siemens Energy sold at the time, that company. Is there anything you can say? How do you expect the Transformation of Industry going forward with what you have learned now from the Trench Group?
That is a bouquet of questions. First off, we do not know really what our stake is going to be. I see it higher than 20%. We are always saying about 40% is the minority stake, appropriate or adequate stake we would like to keep, because we believe in the value increase, in the growing of the intrinsic value of that company, but it has not been discussed yet. We are not there yet, I should really say that. We leave everything open when it comes to the types of investors. It could be financial, it could be strategic investors, because so far, we have done nothing but communicating this whole thing to the market in order to garner some interest.
There is very high interest, I should say that, exceptionally high interest that we are seeing now. Next year, as I said, we are going to be in talks. I find it is important to say here that we see a confluence of our interests, so that we have the same interests, both the investors and ourselves. An IPO is not ruled out. First of all, operational independence, and then step by step, we will do what needs to be done at a later point. The Trench Group. Let us remember what happened in the past. We had a discussion back in 2023, and it was part of a divestment of several businesses. You may remember India, because we also sold shares in India in order to stabilize the company financially.
At that point in time, Trench was in rather mediocre economic situations, and it would have required massive investments that we could not take out at the time. With that in mind, it is not really the Trench Group today what it was when you sold it. The new investors spent a lot of money, and they profited a lot from a positive market. With that in mind, to say, "Well, we sold it for too low," is not the right statement to make. I think it was 12 or 15 bids that we got at the time, and obviously, we chose the biggest one. It has actually shown you what the market situation was, because that was all we got.
The logic at the time was the components produced by Trench are not part of our strategic core business, and the investments that we have made instead into today's Grid Technologies were definitely the better investment. You should not forget that we started with Grid Technologies when they had revenues of EUR 5 billion. Today, we are up to EUR 25+ billion . That would not have happened if we had not invested in Grid Technologies at the time. That was just a prioritization issue at the time. Therefore, I wanted to contextualize that. What can you learn from that going forward for any types of sales? It means the future is always plentiful in terms of challenges and opportunities, and you would have to take a qualified decision on what you want to do at the right time.
You have to invest at the right time in a business if you want to be successful in the long term. I am relatively confident that if the Trench Group had remained with us, we would not have allocated the money because we had invested it elsewhere, and then Trench would not be as strong. Well, it can be annoying if you look at it today, but I did not at the time. This is really an important realization. You have to have your priorities right. It is important to do those processes with a lot of diligence. That is actually what we are doing right now, and this is why we are talking a lot, we are discussing a lot also with employee representatives, which is fair enough because all of these processes have chances, but also risks, and these have to be balanced.
Thank you very much. Before we move over to Mr. Höpner from Handelsblatt, you are on my list, do not you worry. Let us take a look at our phone calls because we have received a question from Stephen Dunne from reNEWS.
Hello, Christian. I just had a question about your plans for offshore wind expansion. In your analyst presentation, you say that the company wants to convert its offshore leadership position into profit growth. We are seeing in offshore wind over the coming years challenges with projects reaching FID. We are seeing the supply chain concerned about a slowdown in orders in 2028, 2029, and 2030. Albeit you guys have a very strong position in offshore wind, are you concerned at all about a softening in offshore wind in the coming years, and what is your long-term view of the offshore wind market in general?
No, thanks very much for the question. The offshore wind is obviously, at the moment, let us say, a market which is very much focused around certain countries. The U.K. is one, Germany is the other, Denmark. You see a couple of European countries and a couple of Asian countries. As you said, we are enjoying a very strong position. We have a good workload in the factories, 2027 and 2028. We do need FIDs now for 2029 and the years thereafter. We are, and you have seen it maybe also with my statements, continuously alerting politics and governments that these investment decisions need to come if we do not want to have a gap in the supply chain, or in the factories. That is absolutely necessary.
I do see positive momentum. I have to say, the U.K. is a good country in that regard. Germany, you see the delays, but also the intentions to reactivate the auction process of the 16 GW, which have not yet FIDs. Concern, yes. However, I also see people working on it, and my expectation is that in 2027, we see an increasing order intake on the offshore wind side, which is absolutely also necessary. This is also what we underline. If not, then absolutely we run the risk that factories or supply chains will see a gap in terms of the workload, and that would be really detrimental to the buildup of the industry.
I do believe, maybe just on the midterm picture, offshore wind is needed in an overall portfolio of electricity production, not in every country, but for example, in places like North Sea or Baltic Sea or certain parts in Asia, absolutely yes. I think it would be insane not to build on offshore wind production, and this is why we continue to push for it. But governments have to make sure they create the boundary conditions around it.
Okay, thanks. Just checking, is everyone familiar with the abbreviation FID?
Final investment decision. [Non-English content ]
These are the final investment decisions.
Thank you very much. Over to you, Mr. Höpner.
Thank you very much. The share price is something I would like to know about. You are under more pressure than the AI developments. How can that be explained? It is 1/3 less than the others. How can this be explained? With regards to AI, you said a margin of 14%-16% in the next few years to come, and therefore you want to keep investments more limited. A standalone solution is better. I find it hard to imagine how you can keep wind within the group. What needs to happen up until 2028, 2029, 2030? Are you talking about the trend or the business? What is the foundation that justifies that this company will be kept inside?
Well, the share price, I try to influence what I can influence, and of course, I can only influence the share price to a limited extent, and we try to deliver as much as we can. Our results, our promises need to be kept, and this also means that continuously we try to increase the earnings per share. Of course, it is quite annoying to see that if we receive AI news, we are suffering more. If I say that less than 10% of our profit portfolio have to do with AI, and we are subjected to more tremendous pressure, but that is the way it is. With regards to the share price, it is also appropriate to say that the share market decides what happens at the end of the day and what a fair multiple is for an industrial company. That is what we are.
Of course, we are in favor of AI, we use AI, but at the end of the day, we are an industrial company who produces physical products, and this needs to be further developed. And I want to be fair vis-à-vis our industrial peers and get an appropriate evaluation. Of course, there has been a lot of volatility in recent months. What we are trying to achieve, and this is probably also what you heard in the course of my presentation, is that we want to be in a stable and robust position. We want to have results that can be predictable. We want to have returns that can be planned in the interest of our shareholders step by step in order to keep the situation calm in these turbulent times. But we focus on sales and revenue generation and only on earnings per share to a limited extent.
Wind, in comparison to the 14%-16%, needs to be explained as followed. Wind, of course, is also driven by electricity, and the question is, the generation of electricity in 2035 or 2040, what does it look like, and which role will wind play in combination with other technologies? And we do not yet know. That is one thing. And the other thing is, yes, I want to be able to understand much more and much better how different markets develop.
Offshore, it is one thing. It is a very decisive market, but it is too early to say today whether offshore will continue to be a strongly growing market. That might be the case. Or will offshore be a market where it is hard to say, as our colleagues just mentioned, that the right investment decisions will be taken. It is too early for that. There are some things that we have to address in the next couple of years to come. Electricity generation, what will it look like in 2035 to 2040? The second question is, onshore and offshore, will this play a significant role?
I t's too early to say that with regards to the margin. It's a justified question, but we're not yet there.
Thank you so much. Back to the chat. Mark Böschen from the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Questions concerning the utilization of AI. First of all, which progress can be achieved with the help of AI in the way in which you work and the KPIs? Second, what are the overarching targets with the utilization of AI? I assume that he means within the company. The third question is, where will AI be used at Siemens Energy?
Let me start off by suggesting that Maria starts off because with regards to the central functions, many AI processes, Maria is in charge of that.
Because I think we talk a lot about AI, and we actually enable almost, well, a large portion of our employees are using AI already. What's important is that we're allowing them to look at, in their day-to-day lives, how to ensure that we, like Christian mentioned earlier, tie that back to that efficiency, doing things simpler, automating wherever we are. One thing that we did earlier this year is we took all of the functions together, and we put a program in place called Functional Excellence, but essentially under that simplicity efficiency factor within Elevate. So, in short answer, we're enabling our employees more and more. I mean, we have 108,000 employees. I think at one point we were one of the highest in terms of utilization of Copilot licenses in the world.
Therefore, it's really now about how do we embed that into our processes, make ourselves more efficient, and see, because as a growing company, the answer not always should be how many immediately headcount and so on. It's really how do we ensure that we do things much more efficiently. That's what we're monitoring. Stay tuned. We'll talk more about that in the quarters to come. But certainly, this is a focus for us within Siemens Energy.
[Non-English content]
Let me add to that. There are three more topics which are clearly on the horizon. We want to integrate AI in our daily working processes, and what we did in connection with this program is that we said, "AI comes first. AI can do the job." That's our assumption. Then we try to weave that into certain working processes. But where do we still need the human intervention? Where do we need the governance in order to ensure that we can keep up the high-quality level that we're at? That relates to working processes. Second one, AI and robotics. This needs to be combined in production. Let me give you an example. If you look at warehousing in the new sites that we're building, AI-enabled warehousing, that's fascinating because you can increase productivity dramatically in warehousing with the help of AI in combination with robotics.
The third item is AI on the side of our customers, especially when we talk about services. How can we also use predictive elements, predictive maintenance? How can we improve the interface to our customers where products are being produced? You might remember that together with NVIDIA, we also rolled out network software on the basis of AI to simplify the utilization of our components within the grid, because it's not only about building more infrastructure, but making it more robust. That is also what we are doing with the help of AI. There are various different fields of activities, and as Maria said, we will keep you informed.
[Non-Englsih content] Excellent. Thank you very much. Let's continue in the room with Ms. Thier from WirtschaftsWoche.
[Non-English content]
Now, you've made it very clear and said that you've grown your margins for Gas and Grid, and you're planning to grow them even further. This year, you built 51 gas turbines here out of Berlin, rather than 36 last year. So, I was just wondering, can you take us to the shop floor? How can you possibly manage to do this massive productivity increase? How was that possible? Is that also because of higher prices?
Well, many things. The increases are just in gigawatts, in the gigawatt range. That is shouldered by our plants. We're not building new factories. It's important to bear in mind, we're doing it not only for Berlin. Berlin is doing large gas turbines, but we have supply parts in Florida, where we do blades and vanes. In all cases, we try to eliminate the bottlenecks, so where we invested in new machine. Here in Berlin, you see a new balancing plant, in which we've invested a balancing bunker. You see construction sites across the premises here. We're doing quite something. Sometimes it's making more efficiency enhancements in routes and infrastructure. It also includes more employees. We made quite a few new hires, and we will continue to do that.
What I'm saying is, wherever we can eliminate wait times, we're trying to address that, especially the supply chain in gas turbines. Because what's happening here is just the, well, assembly. But if our colleague who's assembling a gas turbine needs to wait for four weeks before a part arrives, well, you could build more turbines if it all comes on time or in time. So, we're trying to systematically optimize the supply chain. In gas, we are talking of the vertical integration, bringing more together in-house. Including AI optimization and robotics, we can double capacities out of existing plants, not only here, but also in Finspång in Sweden, where we're building the medium-sized gas turbines.
I think a lot more potential we have in this company. In Berlin, we are limited in terms of transportation because we're building huge machines here, and getting them out is a limiting factor. But productivity is a fantastic tool, and we need this lever going forward in order to grow our margins.
Follow-up on this on gas, if I may. The German government is currently revising its export guarantee guidelines. From an industry point of view, it's to be welcomed. It's going to be easier to export gas turbines abroad. How important are export guarantees for you, especially if you bear in mind that your business is going really well at the moment? Is that still a necessary requirement for your business or not?
Well, I was very much in favor of it because the past years have been very hard, and those were absurd discussions we've seen in the past. Because let's take an example where we got an export guarantee was in Iraq, where we wanted to avoid the flaring of gas and instead use this gas to generate electricity, which makes a lot of sense, I think. Even that was not an easy discussion we've had. There were times where several billions of export guarantees were available for gas, and this has significantly decreased over the past years, and it is my hope that we are gaining more momentum again. Where's that important?
It's especially important in regions that are not really figuring high on the agenda, so regions like Iraq, take, or Central Asia. With that, it is definitely or absolutely true. This is why this revision is so important. It's always or has been in the past a case-by-case decision. I cannot keep discussing with a regulator for six months if I'm competing with a Japanese competitor who does it differently. Therefore, this revision is very important because we need to communicate to our clients. It is relevant, not for all of our projects, but in some regions of the world, it does. It is my hope that we get a good catalog of criteria for export credit guarantees.
I would hope that also for nuclear turbines, that to be the case, because we also are supplying nuclear components, and hopefully something will happen. But it's harder than it is with gas, of course.
Thank you very much. Let's go back to the chat. Christof Rührmair from dpa has asked four questions. Let me start with two. In terms of resilience, as you said, Christian, in order to mitigate a drone attack, how do you see the German or the European energy infrastructure? How much harder or much more expensive would it be in order to increase the resilience or the security of European energy infrastructure?
Now, obviously, we are not an infrastructure operator. We need to look at how the actual object is protected, and we've seen attacks here at the substations a couple of months ago. We're not well protected in this part of the world, so it's vulnerable infrastructure.
The second is, what'll happen if one line fails? Are we in a position to replace it with reserve capacity?
I think we're in good shape here, if you look at the TSOs. I mean, Berlin was a bad example, but you shouldn't extrapolate it to the rest of the country. But fundamentally, the realization is, if this happens again, or if what happens in Ukraine or in the Emirates, this is not something we are prepared for. We're not. We have to work on it now. This is why I've always said that resilience is an important focus on the agenda. Where do we need spare parts, and where do we need to store them? What needs to be repaired and fixed quicker? I see a discussion in the Middle East now, a discussion about protective installations, grid structures over infrastructure, or concrete casings, that sort of thing.
I don't see this in Europe, but in other parts of the world, they are physically protecting their infrastructure, and that's going to be costly. How much this is going to cost, I cannot say. We are talking to our clients about it, also with our Ukrainian colleagues, who are currently trying to get an understanding.
Okay, the second question, and I'm going to read it out to make sure everyone can hear it. Do we assume that when you give up the majority of Transformation of Industry, that this will generate a financial contribution, a significant financial contribution?
Brief answer was yes.
Okay, third question. The staff increase at Siemens Energy, will it continue beyond the next couple of years, or will AI actually reduce the overall headcount numbers?
Good question, but I don't know. At the moment, we are building up staff numbers slower than we are growing our revenue, but I don't think we really have understood what AI can do for us. It's too early to say, perhaps. Or let me put it differently. We want to make good use of the fortune we have to grow now in order to be forced to go into massive restructuring. Our industry has a good opportunity to do that, whether we grow our headcount or not. Well, for 2027, we're definitely planning it because we need people in our plants, in construction sites, and in service. Now, whether that is the case in 2030, I don't know.
Okay, and the last question. I'd like to give that to Maria. It's about profits midterm by mid-2030s. Where is that increase, that lever going to come from going forward in the long term? Is that also going to mean that net profits will increase just as dynamically?
Sorry, I just need to wait for the translation. In terms of where is the increase coming from to get to our 2030 targets, this is a very important question. Thank you for that, because it goes back to what Christian and I mentioned in our presentations. It goes back to the backlog, the transparency in our backlog. As I mentioned, we already have, for example, in this fiscal year in which we are already in, 85% of the revenue, if you'd like, the orders are being executed already, are in-house already. That percentage goes down, let's say 65% the year after and 60% thereafter. It really gives us that transparency to ensure that we have, again, a foundation for each of those years between now and 2030. What you said is important. It's about the cost development.
How do we ensure that we maintain our margins throughout that period? I couldn't agree more with what has already been said with respect to operational excellence. In one of the presentations that we make, Christian talks about what we call non-conformance costs. These are costs that come out as you're executing a project, for example, that are unexpected. We have a very, very keen eye on that to ensure that that reduces year over year. We saw that already from 2025 to 2026, and this is something that we call operational excellence, how we execute what we do. In addition, we look at productivity everywhere we can. This goes to AI, but it goes to many other factors. It's not just AI when we talk about productivity.
It's looking at where we get our supply, how do we ensure that everything is on a cost basis that is effective for us. Last but not least, we have other things, of course, in our repertoire, which, of course, is, for example, the brand fee contributes, and all of these factors together really allows us to ensure that we have that basis. So things that are essentially in our control that allows us to say, "Here's where we believe we will get to in 2030." It's in our hands.
Thanks a lot, Maria. Next question goes to Malcolm Moore from the Financial Times in London, and it is in the chat, that is why I read it out. First question, has the Iran war and the resulting energy crisis changed the demand outlook for gas? Second question, do you see any evidence yet of changing energy investment as a result of this war?
Yeah, maybe to the first question, no. We see continuous demand for gas-based infrastructure in the sense of gas turbines or gas power plants. We also see that the customers believe that the midterm prices of gas will be okay. That also has something to do with the decent volumes on the LNG side which come into the market. That is not just Middle East. Obviously, Qatar is one thing, but at the same time, you see obviously the volumes coming from the U.S. and other places. Fundamentally, no, it is not what we are seeing. The second point, obviously, any evidence of changing investment? Absolutely, yes.
For those of you who maybe have been on last week's ADIPEC in Abu Dhabi, which is probably the largest energy conference in the meantime, there was a very clear statement also from the countries down there, "We will invest into resilience of energy infrastructure, and we are fully aware that this costs money." This means more energy infrastructure and better operated. Very clearly, you see a different attitude, particularly in the countries which were heavily affected.
Okay. Thanks a lot. Next question goes to Spain, I assume. José Ruiz Fernández of El Periódico de la Energía. The long waiting times for new orders is driving data centers to consider at least alternative behind-the-meter solutions, such as fuel cells. Have you calculated how many potential orders in your Gas Services division are you missing potentially because of these long waiting times?
No. To put it into perspective, we normally, in our projects, because we talk about a different size, do not compete, for example, with fuel cell installations, which is by one fuel cell a smaller size, looks similar like the electrolyzer which sits there on the side, and then you multiply it. That is okay and very much dependent at the moment on the air permits, because the air permits for fuel cells are different. But I don't see it cannibalizing or competing. You talk today about a couple of gigawatts which are potentially there, but it's not a direct competition between the two products.
Okay, thanks. [Non-English content ].
Okay, over to the lady in the room, Mrs. Martin from Bloomberg.
Thank you very much and good morning. I have a question concerning your investments or your investments outlook. We had the midterms in the U.S., the gas tender in Germany. How does this influence your outlook with regards to investments? In which regions are you going to invest? Can you elaborate on that?
Well, the regional allocation does not have that much to do with the current political framework conditions, but much more with a long-term outlook. In the U.S., the situation is as follows. In 2026, this was the most important country with regards to order intake. It's the most rapidly growing energy market as well. But we are represented in an under-proportional manner in the U.S. with regards to our own site employees. 2/3 of our employees are based in Europe, 1/3 in Germany, but less than 10% of the revenues are generated in Germany, mind you.
Therefore, the decision that we are taking is very much based on the question, how in the most rapidly growing region, Asia and the U.S., how can we invest consistently and make sure that the infrastructure that we have can be made as productive as possible? That is the underlying rationale of our capital allocation, because from here, we want to be able to be internationally competitive, although the demand is not really coming only and exclusively from Europe. Of course, this does not change based on short-term political changes.
Thank you very much. Back to the chat. The next questions come from Ulf Meinke from the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. Four questions in total. The first two. With regards to the plan of having a standalone Transformation of Industry, to which extent have you already developed a plan? Are you open-minded, or are we also considering to keep Transformation of Industry within Siemens Energy?
Well, the open result is based on an open-minded attitude. As long as I do not get the feedback from the financial market or the investors, everything is open. And of course, we also take into account this is a very valuable company, and if this is not reflected in the feedback we get from the other investors, and if an IPO is not of interest due to unfavorable framework conditions, everything is possible, and that is how we see it. Because otherwise, it would not be fair. We have not yet taken a final decision, and this is how we communicate it to the workforce. They know that we are working on it, but we are working on it on a step-by-step basis.
The result of this trend is very open, but the target is that we want to sell the majority of the shares for strategic reasons. As of today, we have not yet taken a final decision. That is it. I already told you that we have taken some steps going forward, but no final decision will be taken before 2027, and the standalone solution will be brought about before 2028 because it is a long-term process.
Two more questions on this particular topic. Ulf Meinke wants to know, as a rep of the IG Metall Workers Union, they criticize that the board with the carve-out will lose decisive know-how. Is this point of criticism understandable? The last question is, where will this new company be based? Joe Kaeser, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board in this context, alluded to the fact that Duisburg is a very important site for Transformation of Industry. Might Duisburg be a site where this company might be shifted?
Well, onto the IG Metall Workers point of criticism, of course, such a process with a lot of risks and opportunities, and it needs to be discussed. But we have to bring about changes in order to be fit for the future and fit for the market, and you always try to find the best solutions. Of course, you cannot exclude risks, but you also need to tap opportunities. Not taking action might also turn out to be risky. Continuing with business as usual might be right or it might be wrong. That is also what you can see in other sectors.
Now I think it is fair to say, let us look at both options, risks and opportunities alike, before we take a final decision, and that is what we are currently working on. Well, the site, well, I am free to take applications, and lots of lord mayors or premiers send me letters, but we are not yet there. We have not yet reached that particular stage where we select a site where Transformation of Industry might be based. We have plenty of time for that, but of course, I am really happy about every feedback or application. Competition is good.
The next questions come from Martin Hesse from Spiegel. First of all, Siemens Energy is using AI infrastructure of NVIDIA. Due to the most recent developments and news on the CEA and its China connection, do you think it is necessary to find alternatives for a stronger utilization of AI, alternatives to NVIDIA as an industrial company for Siemens Energy? Is it possible to become more independent from companies such as NVIDIA?
I have to add to that, we do not build our own data centers. We have our own data center in Florida where we develop our grid software, and we did that with the help of NVIDIA or NVIDIA chips. This is where we need the computation basis, and we cooperate with a company in the development field, but you do not invest in the data centers or chip manufacturing ourselves. I have to say this again and again. This is a question that our customers should answer.
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I do not know whether the current news really have an impact on us. The question is, who can build appropriate chips? Who can manufacture appropriate chips? A company is more than just one person. This should not be overestimated.
Excellent. Next question comes from the chat as well. Unless there is any question in the room? I cannot see anyone. Bernd Radowitz from Recharge.
Have you noticed a return of an interest in offshore wind among customers in the U.S. after the midterms?
I would say, let this small plant grow a little. You see first questions, but I think it is very early after the midterms. Keep in mind, the offshore wind industry in the U.S. has suffered tremendously, particularly from the insecurity. What you do need for projects which normally take five, six years execution time, you need security in the long term. There is not about a midterm. The question is, do we see this as a viable source for the next 10 years to come? I think it is a bit early, but let us see what is coming now.
Okay. Next question goes to Claus Skovholm from Energy Watch. The question is, you have previously stated that you would not comment on a potential spinoff of the Siemens Gamesa business before you had completed the turnaround. I kind of had the same question from Handelsblatt. Siemens Gamesa is now profitable, Claus states. What are your thoughts on a split now?
No, as I said before, turnaround was one thing. We also said at that time always, we want to have a clear picture of the market of wind after 2030 to judge where can margins go. As I said, for me, the key question still is, what is an electricity generating infrastructure looking like 2035 and beyond? That is something which we still need to answer.
Okay, thanks. [Non-English content].
Next comes from Karsten Wiedemann. It's a very lively chat discussion today from Tagesspiegel Background. I've been waiting for this question because it's right spot on Berlin. What are the expectations of the hydrogen market, and how do you see the electrolyzer production here in Berlin?
First of all, of our colleagues that are not in the know, we are in the fantastic electrolyzer production facility in Berlin. It's beautiful. With our products and the manufacturing here on site, I think we've become a market leader in the electrolyzer business. But the market is not nearly where we expected it to be by 2030. In the short term, this is not going to change radically. But the few projects that are out there in the market must be consolidated, and they exist. They exist. It will depend on how RED IV will be decided on.
Whether for refineries, green molecules could become an appropriate fix. Again, it's too early to tell, but it's going to take much longer for this market to develop than we had originally thought. But it is still our belief that hydrogen must play a role in the energy system of the future.
Thank you very much. Can I scan the room again? Are there any questions? If not, we would like to wrap up and come to the last Q&A round. Again, Michael Schmidt, what were the specific reasons for the positive development in the wind energy business? Can you come back to that just quickly? What are the factors that made that turnaround possible? How do we see the new Renewable Energies Act and the Wind Energy at Sea Act here, as it has an impact on Siemens Gamesa or Omterra in the future? The third question, last one, what are the specific measures that could be helpful for the ailing offshore wind business in Germany?
Okay, positive developments, as we said before. Many, many small things, cost reduction across the organization, growing our margin in the service business. All of that is thanks to our quality fixes and higher availability of wind turbine generators and productivity enhancements in our plants, especially for offshore. In other words, I think we had installed 5 GW last year. Record numbers in productivity over the past year. That has been a decisive contribution to make it happen. I said before, saying it again, the big lever in wind, especially in offshore wind for good margins, is productivity more than anything. Keeping the product consistently good and optimize your factories. This has worked really well.
Quality costs are under control, something that has contributed to that. The amendment of the Wind Energy Act in this country is a step in the right direction, I think. For the pending tenders, it is the right way forward. I am slightly concerned that the process for implementing the law will take, again, too long, so we are ending up with a gap. What is not addressed is what is going to happen with the existing projects of the 16 GW that have already been awarded, and that could be invested in today, but not using the old conditions of the industry.
There is some unregulated gap that is still open, and I think more needs to be done to avoid this lacuna.
I think the question is, what would help?
Anything would help. Existing projects that have been in development must be implemented. To speed that up, it would help us a great deal. For instance, purchase prices and also grid connectivity, or rather, who is standing in for the risk of a delay of grid connection? Today, it is the offshore wind farm operators that have to foot the bill, and then such a business plan is going to be on very shaky ground if that happens. Unless you resolve that issue, we will be talking in circles to understand what needs to be done. Yes, step in the right direction, but it is not nearly what we need. Not enough.
Thank you very much, and thank you very much to all of you for your questions, both on the chat and here in the room. This marks the end of our press conference. If you have any follow-up questions, please talk to our press team. We are happy to do that. The next quarterly reporting call will be on 11th of February , 2027, with our earnings call on the first quarter. The earnings call on 2026 for analysts with Christian Bruch and Maria Ferraro starts at 11:00 A.M. on our website. You will find also the dial-in link for the webcast.
Before we come to the very end, here is a personal word. This was my last annual press conference from Siemens Energy because I am going to change jobs at the end of the year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you personally for this very good cooperation. There have been stormy times and rough waters over the past years. Not everything has been quite as upbeat as it is today. It was tough also, that interaction with you, and it was always an engaging and fair cooperation.
We have always appreciated that, and I would really like to thank our outstanding press team and all the other teams in communications who have made this possible. All I can say is, all the best to all of you. Enjoy the Christmas time and stay safe and healthy.
Now let me butt in here on the part of the company and management. I am also very grateful to what Robin Zimmermann has done. Those have indeed been six stormy years on a ship on high seas, but no one went overboard so far. You are leaving now in a quiet phase. You are switching ships, as it were, but thank you very much for this collaboration, and all the best for your personal future.
Excellent. One final thing for people here in the room. There is snacks served next door, and there is a little get-together, so you can talk to us there. As you leave the room, turn left. Christian will be having an interview in front of the electrolyzer, so can we ask you to pack your bags quickly and leave the room from here? Maria will join us as well. Everything we are talking about now will be off the record. It is a good tradition, and we would like to keep it that way. So, once again, thank you very much, and talk to you soon.