Morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to today's press call at Siemens AG. To begin, we would like to inform you that this call is being recorded and webcast. After the presentation, there will be time for questions. If you would like to ask a question, please press the star key followed by the one key on your phone to register to ask a question. With that, I turn the floor over to today's host, Simon Krause, Head of Media Relations and Executive Communications. Please, Mr. Krause.
Good morning and welcome to today's press call for the third quarter of our fiscal year. Today, I am pleased to welcome our CEO, Roland Busch, and our CFO, Veronika Bienert. Welcome. Before we begin, a few notes as always. This morning we released our third quarter results. The presentation, the speeches of our managing board members, and all other materials are available on our website at siemens.com/press. You will also find a recording of this press call there. Just a brief overview of the press call agenda. Following the speeches, as I said before, Roland Busch and Veronika Bienert will be available to answer your questions. Our press call will end no later than 9:00 A.M. As always, I would like to briefly draw your attention to the safe harbor statement, which you will find at the beginning of our presentation. With that, I turn the floor over to Roland Busch.
Thank you, Simon, and good morning. Thank you for joining us today to discuss our Q3, the results. Siemens delivered another record third quarter, performing strongly across all metrics, despite the persistently volatile geopolitical environment. We are making good progress with our ONE Tech Company program. That means, above all, we are accelerating innovation and increasing customer value. Our technological leadership across all our businesses, our sharp focus on thriving industrial AI, and our strong positioning in attractive markets gives us a solid foundation for our success and thus for sustained value creation. Let us take a look now at the highlights of Q3. Our book-to-bill ratio reached an outstanding 1.34, lifting our order backlog to a record EUR 132 billion. Orders increased 14% compared to Q3 2025, surging to an all-time high of EUR 27.9 billion.
Smart Infrastructure, or SI for short, topped the EUR 8 billion order mark for the first time. SI's data center vertical, in particular, showed exceptional momentum, again delivering triple-digit order growth year-over-year and thus even exceeding yet again our already excellent Q2. Demand remained strong, driven by the rapid build-out of cloud and AI infrastructure. Up 9%, Digital Industries, or DI, remained on a healthy growth trajectory with very strong support from the market environment in sectors such as electronics, semiconductors, aerospace, and defense. DI benefited also from the expansion of AI infrastructure, but we are seeing improvements in the manufacturing sector as well. Mobility, or SMO, delivered one of its highest quarterly order volumes ever, close to the exceptional level of Q3 2025. This is how it continues. Looking ahead, several high-profile contracts are already on the books for Q4 in Germany, for example.
Overall, revenue grew 8%, fueled by DI and SI. All regions contributed to this growth. The Americas led the way with an 11% increase, driven primarily by momentum in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and EMEA grew 6%. Asia-Australia was up 10%, led by India, where growth was a strong 13%. Profit industrial business reached a record high of EUR 3.5 billion, resulting in a profit margin of 17.3% on exceptional strength at the SI. Profitability was also supported by tariff refunds in the U.S., particularly at Siemens Healthineers or SHS. Margin expansion translated into higher earnings per share before purchase p rice allocation accounting or EPS pre PPA of 3.14. Free cash flow was a standout achievement, reaching EUR 4.1 billion. Due to this strong performance, we are raising our outlook for FY 2026 at group level. Veronika will provide you with more details in a moment.
To drive our future success, we are continuing to invest. We are expanding our switchgear capacity in Frankfurt, Germany. We are also focusing on bolt-on acquisitions to strengthen our portfolio in both the real and the digital worlds. Now a few words about Siemens Healthineers. We've made progress with our deconsolidation plan. Veronika will give you an update on the German tax authorities' related decision and the further timeline in a moment. In addition to all the contractual issues that we are currently discussing in a constructive dialogue with SHS, we've made a decision to reduce from three to one the number of positions held by Siemens Managing Board members on SHS's supervisory board. This change will take effect as of SHS's next annual shareholder meeting. In February 2027, Veronika and I will resign from our current positions on the SHS supervisory board.
Another point, three companies have grown from Siemens roots in recent years. All three are now market and technology leaders in their respective areas. For this reason, we understand Siemens Healthineers and Siemens Energy's considerations regarding their more independent positioning in the future. We are pursuing a clear strategy in this regard to ensure an orderly process with both companies in line with existing agreements and for the benefit of all stakeholders. Siemens will further sharpen its profile as the trust technology partner for the AI age because we have the unique ability to combine the real and the digital worlds, and that's how we'll grow as ONE Tech company. Now let us take a look at our four growth levers. First, grow digital.
During the first nine months of fiscal 2026, we grew the revenue from our digital business 18% on a nominal basis, well above the ambition level of 15% that we set last November. With Vectron X, we've added a new member to Siemens Xcelerator, our open digital business platform. Vectron X is a new, highly digitalized locomotive that builds on our best-selling Vectron platform. The locomotive features a smart driver's cab, app functionalities with standardized interfaces, and near real-time connectivity. A result, enhanced driver experience, higher operational efficiency, and optimized data-driven maintenance. Second, grow regions. We've deepened our collaboration with HD Hyundai in South Korea. Together, we are creating a blueprint for digital shipyards. The agreement with Hyundai has a volume in the low triple-digit million range and covers a broad array of industrial software and automation.
By connecting data, software, and automation technologies across an entire shipyard, we are building the AI-driven operating system for the industry. This system will help shipbuilders accelerate production, improve quality, and reduce rework. We are also supporting the development of a technology center in Washington, D.C., which will foster collaboration between the government, industry, and technology leaders to secure shipbuilding's digital future while strengthening maritime competitiveness in the U.S. and allied markets. Third, grow verticals. The semiconductor industry is also booming thanks to AI. This increased demand has generated attractive orders across our entire portfolio. At the COMPUTEX trade fair, we expanded our partnership with Intel along the entire value chain, encompassing everything from chip design to manufacturing. Finally, our fourth growth lever, grow AI. Our Eigen Engineering Agent is an excellent example of our ability to rapidly scale AI.
As you'll recall, up to 50% greater efficiency and up to 80% higher quality in the production of industrial software. Our agent doesn't just make proposals. It supports engineers from start to finish with engineering in the Totally Integrated Automation Portal, our leading platform to complex automation projects. We've now expanded the product globally and introduced two new capabilities. The Eigen Engineering Agent can now understand a system's electronic setup in a matter of minutes. Engineers previously needed days to enter this data manually. The agent also masters our customers' regulatory systems. It structures a project's software within few minutes so that it precisely fulfills thousands of individual tasks. 100 of customers in more than 30 countries and ranging from small systems integrators to large original equipment manufacturers or OEMs have signed on.
At the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, we launched the agent on the Chinese market as well. For this step, we received the prestigious SAIL Star Award, the only global company to be so honored. The PAC Innovation Radar has just named the Eigen Engineering Agent best in class for advanced industrial engineering in Europe for 2026. Another example, at our Realize LIVE global customer conference, we recently launched Intelligence Center X, a powerful new offering available as part of Siemens Xcelerator to orchestrate industrial AI. Our customers run plenty of AI pilots, but they usually get stuck in the testing phase. Intelligence Center X breaks this pattern by enabling experts to orchestrate AI agents and bring industrial AI into live operations and at scale. The system features four core capabilities that work together seamlessly.
First, it puts together customer data from across the entire life cycle in a knowledge graph. Graph Studio puts individual data from design to engineering, manufacturing, and maintenance, but also from supply chains and customers, for example, into their overall context, live and in real time. Second, this is crucial, Intelligence Center X comes with pre-built industrial ontologies right out of the box. They map how assets, products, and processes in industrial engineering and manufacturing relate to each other. The result is codified industry-specific knowledge ready to use, and the ontologies are linked to our Siemens Xcelerator portfolio, for example, to Teamcenter, our market-leading, most secure product lifecycle management software. Third, AI comes into play. AI Studio delivers machine learning and AI models trained on real operational data.
It continuously monitors model quality and establishes rules, giving AI agents and large language models access to advanced machine learning and data science to make more reliable predictions and decisions. This approach makes AI explainable, predictable, and thus ready to move into production at industrial scale. Fourth, finally, Mendix. Customers use this AI-augmented low-code platform to develop their own AI agents and then connect them to existing systems and external agents. They govern their workflows based on clear rules where humans continue to have oversight to make critical decisions. As a result, the power of automated AI delivers measurable outcomes in business processes. In short, Intelligence Center X makes AI scalable for industry. Early customers are already seeing real successes. Further proof that Siemens is using AI to deliver unique value to customers.
All these applications demonstrate that industrial AI is becoming a reality and further driving growth in data center infrastructure and computing power. The fundamental data for this market remains strong, and we are a trusted partner across the entire spectrum, from hyperscalers and co-location suppliers to enterprise customers. Nine of the top 10 global data center providers rely on Siemens. In the first nine months of fiscal 2026, our order volume reached nearly EUR 6 billion, a triple-digit percentage increase over the prior year. Revenues soared from more than 50% to an impressive EUR 3.1 billion. Our order backlog and existing agreements provide visibility well into 2027 and even beyond, and the pipeline looks healthy. There could be some volatility in order intake because several orders are very large. Our strong position is based on a number of long-term success factors. We have a comprehensive portfolio with modular solutions.
We execute reliably, globally, and with a stable supply chain. We offer global expertise in several regional hubs, and we have a strong partner ecosystem. Yet another key point, we are shaping the roadmap toward an 800-volt direct current, or DC, architecture for the data centers of the future, which will be required to deal effectively and reliably with high rack densities in AI factories. There won't be an abrupt or wholesale shift. The adoption of 800-volt DC is likely to progress in stages over the next four to five years, with hybrid architectures dominating the early phases. As technologies mature and requirements and standards evolve, a centralized DC distribution architecture will become economically viable. We expect that alternating current, or AC, and DC will also coexist in brownfield retrofit and greenfield installations.
We are already helping major data center providers design, test, and deploy safe and reliable DC power distribution to tackle the high-density challenge they are facing. We expect the first pilots in 2027. At Siemens, we know how to handle a DC environment based on our extensive experience in other areas such as marine applications, battery storage, and industrial campuses. We have a comprehensive offering with our proven capabilities in digital twins, automation, and electrification. We can design and simulate entire systems or improve individual components. Let me highlight some recent innovations that illustrate our progress. Together with NVIDIA, nVent, and Fluence, we've developed a reference architecture across computing, cooling power, and control systems for NVIDIA's latest DGX Vera Rubin platform. The goal, to maximize tokens per watt and ensure predictable, scalable operations. For this architecture, we've developed a modular and scalable automation framework with ready-to-use SIMATIC libraries.
Our controllers are already automating the critical operational infrastructure in several megawatt-scale data centers. In the electrification area, we are continuously optimizing our pre-assembled and tested systems and are working on new DC products. One excellent example is our collaboration with Infineon, in which we are integrating the company's silicon carbide power modules into our latest circuit breakers, a critical enabler for the safe and reliable distribution of DC power. All in all, we are excellently positioned to succeed in the area of traditional and hybrid data center architectures, and we have 800-volt DC for the future. I'm very pleased with the momentum and performance at DI's software business. At 11% above Q3 2025, organic annual recurring revenue, or ARR, growth remained at a very healthy level. The integration of our Altair and Dotmatics acquisitions is progressing very well.
We are bringing our simulation products together and launching new products on the market. Early revenue synergies are materializing as well. We are complementing our industrial AI offerings with strategic partnerships, such as those with IFS and Xometry, an online marketplace for relaying production orders. Together with IFS, a global leader in industrial AI and enterprise software, we are offering, for example, a digital twin that connects design, production, and system performance in order to increase manufacturers' productivity and adaptability. The software business is moving fast, strategically and at the operational level. With that, I'll hand over to you, Veronika.
Thank you, Roland. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, everyone. Good morning and welcome to our press call today. Allow me to jump right into the details of our record quarter and our expectations for the rest of fiscal 2026. We will begin with Digital Industries. Orders for Digital Industries at EUR 4.9 billion, were 9% above the prior year quarter. The book-to-bill ratio was 0.98. DI's automation business increased orders 11%, and it achieved a book-to-bill ratio of 1.01. In particular, short cycle business drove this growth. As Roland mentioned, overall market dynamics have been increasingly improving. I'm also glad to say that DI saw an upswing in its core vertical of machine building, mainly to China. Yet, we also observed improvements in other regions as well. Despite this positive development, capacity utilization in some of our key industrial markets, particularly in Europe, is still at a relatively low level.
Digital Industries software business delivered 5% growth over the prior year quarter, with orders close to EUR 1.7 billion. A key driver for this growth was DI's product lifecycle management or PLM business, including a major order with a large original equipment manufacturer from the automotive industry. This customer is modernizing its entire system landscape. As expected, the electronic design automation or EDA business was softer. Our order backlog at Digital Industries was stable at around EUR 11 billion. Let's now turn to revenue for Digital Industries, which increased 10%. Revenue for DI software business was up a strong 15%. The EDA business, which grew more than 30%, was the main driver. Revenue in DI's automation business rose based on broad-based growth in discrete automation and process automation. It rose 7% to EUR 3.1 billion.
With a strong contribution from its software business, Digital Industries' profit margin improved sharply to 18.7%, a significant improvement. DI's profit margin benefited from a high share of accretive EDA revenue, it also benefited from the successful integration of Altair and Dotmatics. In the automation business, economies of scale and a clearly net positive economic equation supported margin improvement. This economic equation benefited from sustainable productivity gains that more than compensated for cost inflation and for increasing pressure from rising prices for selected electronic components. Integration-related costs for Altair and Dotmatics reduced DI's profit margin in the third quarter by 70 basis points, in line with expectations. I'm very pleased with Digital Industries' extraordinary free cash flow of almost EUR 1.5 billion, that's an all-time quarterly high. Digital Industries' cash conversion rate was excellent in both the software and the automation business.
Looking at the geographical regional top-line perspective, Digital Industries' automation business saw strong growth in most regions. China showed positive momentum. Orders rose 17%. Revenue grew on healthy sequential revenue dynamics. They grew 9%, this was mainly fueled by the motion control business. Our local portfolio of products in China was accretive to revenue growth, up by a rate in the mid-20s. The picture in Europe remains somewhat mixed. Order recovery is on the way with a book-to-bill ratio above one with healthy growth. Revenue in Germany was still muted due to discrete automation, while the latter drove clear growth elsewhere in Europe. The U.S. continued its growth path. There, positive effects from the AI-driven investment boom trickled down into the core areas of manufacturing and benefited our discrete automation businesses.
Based on delivering a strong performance after nine months of this fiscal year, we confirm our Digital Industries guidance for fiscal 2026 in all aspects for all metrics. On a comparable basis, we expect revenue growth in the range of 7%-10%. In addition, we continue to expect Digital Industries' profit margin to reach 17%-19% as a target range. For the fourth quarter, we expect Digital Industries' orders to come in at around the same level or the level of the very strong prior year quarter, which had an exceptionally high volume of bookings in the EDA business. Here, we expect that DI's automation business will see a clear increase, while its software business will be below the prior year's record level. Nevertheless, our sales funnel for DI's software business is promising.
We anticipate that Digital Industries' revenue growth will be in the range of 5%-7%, supported by growth in its automation and software businesses. In addition, we expect DI's profit margin for the fourth quarter to remain at the level of the third quarter because of the business mix. Now let's turn to Smart Infrastructure. With an outstanding performance across all businesses and key metrics, the SI team stayed on its successful path again in the third quarter. Overall, SI's orders were up 42%, reaching a new record level of EUR 8 billion. This increase was driven in particular by very strong growth of 58% in SI's electrical products business and 55% in its electrification business.
Both businesses benefited again from a high volume of large order wins from data center customers in the U.S. It also included wins in Europe, where we won, for example, a large project in the Nordics. Even without considering the data center-related business, order growth was strong and reached the high teens. SI's book-to-bill ratio came in at an outstanding level of 1.25. Smart Infrastructure's record order backlog of EUR 23.7 billion gives us really a lot of confidence with regard to fiscal 2027. SI's revenue growth was broad-based and reached 13%. The largest contributions to this growth again came from its electrification business, up 20%, and its electrical products business, up 18%. Consistent backlog conversion led to further expansion of the operational profit margin. SI's profit margin was up 120 basis points year-over-year to 20%.
An impairment related to the e-mobility business partly offset positive effects from tariff refunds. The net effect amounted to 50 basis points, implying an operational margin of 19.5%. Structurally, Smart Infrastructure's business continued to benefit from economies of scale due to high revenue, combined with improved capacity utilization and from sustained productivity improvements. In Smart Infrastructure's product business, pricing measures compensated increasingly, but not yet fully, for higher commodity costs. Smart Infrastructure's free cash flow was consistent at a cash conversion rate of 0.94. The rise was below the top-line growth trajectory. From a regional perspective, Smart Infrastructure saw double-digit growth in orders across the board. Stringent backlog execution drove revenue in all geographies, in all regions.
The U.S. again showed exceptional growth momentum in orders, up 81%, led in particular by demand for data centers and from customers in the semiconductor industry. The buildings business saw growth in the low double-digit percentage range. Germany recorded substantial order growth in SI's buildings business and SI's electrification and electrical products businesses, orders grew around 10% each. Europe, together with the Middle East, also benefited from large data center orders in Finland and Spain. SI's business in China, SI's orders and revenue in China recovered further. The very strong order growth in SI's buildings business was caused by orders placed before anticipated price increases. The increase in revenue, on the other hand, was driven by the electrical products business. Smart Infrastructure service business delivered 7% revenue growth, clearly up in Asia and Europe.
Our SI team continues to expect very healthy end market demand with data centers and power utilities as key engines for growth. After delivering 11% revenue growth in the first nine months of this fiscal year, 2026, given high visibility from the order backlog, we are raising Smart Infrastructure's revenue guidance for our full fiscal 2026. For revenue growth on a comparable basis, we now expect a range of 10%-11%. Building on a very consistent margin expansion trajectory, we are lifting Smart Infrastructure's profit margin outlook by 50 basis points to a target range of 18.5%-19.5%. For the fourth quarter, we anticipate that Smart Infrastructure's revenue growth will approach the lower end of the full-year range. We also anticipate that the profit margin will be in line with our expectations for the full fiscal year. Mobility.
Recorded a solid set of results in the third quarter. Orders included a high share of attractive service contracts and topped our expectations at EUR 7.6 billion. The book-to-bill ratio reached an excellent level of 2.35. Mobility's order backlog increased to EUR 58 billion with an attractive gross margin profile. As Roland already noted, we see a very promising sales pipeline for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. It looks very promising, including the booking of the majority of the EUR 3 billion contract with Italo Holding. This contract includes rolling stock as well as a 30-year service agreement for the German market. Mobility's revenue in Q3 was up 6% over the prior year, fueled by low double-digit growth in the rail infrastructure business. Mobility achieved a solid profit margin of 8.6%.
A somewhat less favorable project mix, as well as slightly higher severance costs compared to the previous year, weighed on the margin. As indicated, Mobility's free cash flow picked up materially and its cash conversion rate improved, due in particular to large payments from customers. Looking at project payment profiles and the timing of order awards, we continue to expect further substantial catch-up in the fourth quarter. After a consistent Q3 performance, we confirm Mobility's full-year outlook for revenue growth in the range of 5%-7% for fiscal 2026. We continue to anticipate that Mobility's full-year profit margin will come in within the target range of 8%-10%, with the expected outcome to be toward the lower end. For the fourth quarter, we expect Mobility's revenue growth to accelerate on strong backlog execution and achieve a level between 9% and 11% on a comparable basis.
We also expect Mobility's profit margin to be within its full-year guidance. The results of our activities outside our industrial businesses are shown on page 17 in the appendix. These results included a strong contribution from Siemens Financial Services, which was fueled by a gain of EUR 156 million from the sale of a stake in an equity investment in the U.K. Ladies and gentlemen, free cash flow in the third quarter came in at more than EUR 4.1 billion and was thus up more than 40% over the prior year. This increase was driven by all our industrial businesses. Free cash flow return on revenue after nine months of the fiscal year 2026 stood at 11%. For full fiscal 2026, we are firmly on track to achieve a double-digit free cash flow return.
We further deleveraged our capital structure metric to 0.6 for industrial net debt over EBITDA, which gives us the freedom to continue to act from a position of financial strength. Our leadership team also remains fully committed to delivering stringent capital allocation and strong shareholder return. As Roland already mentioned, we've made good progress with our plan to deconsolidate Siemens Healthineers. Meanwhile, as expected, we have now received binding decisions from the tax authorities clarifying the relevant tax topics. As a result, we can now proceed with the spin-off of Siemens Healthineers as planned. We confirm the timeline for receiving the shareholders' approval at the annual shareholders' meetings of both companies in February of 2027. Currently, we're working on the contractual details in connection with our earnings release for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. We'll update you in November on the next steps and the related decisions.
At the beginning of July, following completion of the previous program, we launched our new share buyback program for up to EUR 6 billion over a period of up to five years. Execution started swiftly. In the first month already, the share buyback volume was EUR 400 million. Ladies and gentlemen, finally, I would like to come to our outlook and expectations for the Siemens Group at a glance. Following the strong first nine months of the current fiscal year, we raise our fiscal 2026 outlook for basic earnings per share before purchase price allocation accounting, pre-PPA, to a range of EUR 11.20- EUR 11.50. This change corresponds to an increase of EUR 0.45 at the midpoint of the range. We continue to expect to reach the upper half of our full year guidance range of 6%-8% for comparable revenue growth for the Siemens Group.
In a time of highly volatile geopolitics, we are leveraging market opportunities and delivering strong earnings performance with healthy growth and excellent free cash flow. Thank you for your attention. We are now looking forward to your questions. With this, I'd like to hand back to Simon Krause.
Well, thank you, Roland and Veronika. Now we have time until 9:00 for any questions you would like to submit. As always, for technical reasons, it's not possible to mix the german and english-speaking questions. We are going to start with the questions in german. If you dialed into the english-speaking conference call, please submit your questions in english and they will be answered in english. With this, I'll hand back to the operator.
Thank you, Mr. Krause. If you would like to ask a question, please press the star key followed by the one key on your phone. Just a moment. We'll take the first question. The first question comes from Axel Höpner from the Handelsblatt. Go ahead.
Good morning, I have two questions on your business performance. Can you already see whether the momentum is going to continue in the next fiscal year in terms of order backlog and orders? It looks quite good. Second question. The data center and Siemens boom, is it a special Siemens boom or do you see more optimism among your industrial customers and more readiness to make investments?
Good morning, Mr. Höpner. As far as momentum for the new fiscal year is concerned, of course, we don't have a plan for 2027 yet. The plan is yet to be developed or established, we have a record order backlog of EUR 132 billion. That of course gives us really confidence for our start into the new business year, new fiscal year. Maybe my answer is more indirect. I'm going to take a look at the market. What we do see, for instance, when we look at China, is an upswing in machine building. This is, of course, an upstream delivery chain for other areas. There's still a certain excess capacity, we expect further positive development. Although we do not expect a quick change.
As far as data centers are concerned, I'll come back to that second part of your question. Obviously, the momentum seems to continue, definitely in the year 2027 and also beyond.
What we also see is a certain momentum in terms of investments or CapEx and benefit from this in the U.S. as well. Reindustrialization in the U.S. is going on and there are other areas, aerospace, defense, and semiconductors, where massive investments are made. In terms of the markets and what we see in the markets, we are really very confident. Data centers. First of all, I have to say one thing, and I think in the presentation it was really made clear that we only do a certain share of our SI revenue with data centers. Data centers, of course, also result in investments to be made in utilities. Those two belong together. We see that, too. In fact, this is on a broader basis.
Our customers in the data center industry play an important role, In addition, we also see other verticals, if that was the background to your question. By the way, data centers, this is not just hyperscalers, but also Colos, smaller ones. Focus at the moment on United States this is the m ost of this trend is emerging but a lot is going to happen in China as well. We do hope that Europe is going to catch up as well. Thank you.
Now the next question, Alexander Hübner from Reuters.
Yes, thank you very much. I've got three questions, actually. One can be answered relatively quickly, I think. You talked about tariff refunds, which you didn't see only at Healthineers, we know the figures there, but also with Smart Infrastructure. Could you tell us how much it was, whether you can expect more, or whether that was it, so to speak? The second question, you mentioned the forecast for SI. You raised the outlook. You left it for the group, so you might assume or conclude that this is in a different area, in a different domain, meaning that things are not so good in other domains, or maybe I'm just thinking in the wrong direction. The third question is, you talked about the spin-off of Healthineers.
Did you or were you forced to adjust your original plans in order to satisfy the tax authorities, or are things running as you've shown us? Well, yes. What are the decisions still to be taken which are still on the horizon, so to speak? Thank you. That was it for the moment.
Well, thank you very much for your question. I'm going to start with the last question. This is the one around Siemens Healthineers. Looking at the timeline, I can say, and this also applies to our expectations, I can say that the tax authorities have given us the confirmations. This means that, like we expected, we can handle the situation as is planned. This refers to the annual shareholders' meetings of Healthineers and Siemens AG. We can continue in our activities. We stay on course.
This is also the further approach. There are no corrections, but these are the things that have been mentioned before. The next question about the tariffs. Here I must say that the situation looks like this. In total, I can say that the tariff influences, that is the tariff is paid and those refunded, meaning those referring to Siemens Healthineers, have had a positive influence of about EUR 200 million. This, of course, also influenced the tariff refunds in Q3. Looking at the Siemens core business, I can say that mainly Smart Infrastructure was affected by it, mainly, like I explained before. We had a net effect of about 50 basis points. In principle, I can say that the influence, the impact, is limited when talking about the other Siemens businesses.
All right.
On the forecast, I can talk about it. As you will remember, in the last quarter, we had an outlook or a forecast for AI. This means that we are going to fulfill the expectations which we mentioned in our outlook. No further adjustments are necessary. SI, here I can say that we didn't adjust the things. Therefore, because of the very good business performance, we readjusted these figures. Tariffs and the tariff effects. This is certainly also a deliberation on your part that something can be expected in the third quarter. But again, we can say that this mainly refers to the respective area.
All right, the next question, [Marilyn Martin, please.
Yes. Good morning. I hope you can hear me. I would like to ask you about the outlook for the industrial business in Germany and Europe. Could you elaborate on this, what the outlook is and what things will improve? Thank you.
I'd like to answer this question. Here we see a mixed picture. You can imagine that automotive is a pure growth driver, and in global terms, things go down. We also see some restrictions in China as well. This refers to capital expenditure, and this also applies to the supplier industries. We do not see quick recoveries here. Europe, Germany, here I can say that aerospace and defense sectors are the ones where we see investments also related to semiconductors. Pharmaceuticals, that's moderate. Chemicals, or chemistries, these less so.
We hope, looking at Germany, we hope that faster decisions are taken here because there's a reform package being worked out so that we can take decisions faster when it comes to infrastructure projects, and that the respective structural fund will come alive, so to speak, and we see it in the infrastructure areas. There are certain areas which have fared very well. In addition, this also depends on to what extent we can generate profits and can take decisions faster. I believe that's a very important point. Another example, we've got a data center. If you want to build one of those and you have to wait two to three years until you get a permit for location and site, then of course it will be built in another area.
The last point is, this refers to two levels, referring to Europe, it also depends on regulations, how decisions are taken. This refers to Data Act. In its current form, it is not industry-friendly because it does not distinguish between private personal data and machine data. This, of course, is a decelerator, you might say. Regulating is important, but you want to do it with a perspective and not forget that you have to distinguish. That's one aspect, and the other aspect is reform package. I hope that the reform package, which was announced, will be allowed. Then, of course, there's some other homework we have to do. Industrial area, Mrs. Reicher this morning said that this will go up only in a few years time.
Nevertheless, the outlook is something that this is helpful because here we are talking about investment which will cover several years. You need some kind of security and reliability, and we hope that these topics will be covered appropriately.
The next question, Marcus Theurer from FAZ.
Good morning, Ms. Bienert. Good morning, Mr. Busch. I hope you can hear me. I have a question about your net income after nine months which declined 18%. I think this includes proceeds from sales in the previous year. Ms. Bienert, maybe you can update me here. What was the reason? Without special items, what would be your net income? Excluding special items. Mr. Koerte is now in charge of Smart Infrastructure. In addition, he was in charge of technology and strategy. Mr. Koerte, now, in the Managing Board, do you think about a reallocation of responsibilities? Last but not least, now the ONE Tech Company, why is it not a secret restructuring program?
I'm going to start with the two questions before I hand over to my colleague, to Veronika. Today, this was published, and yesterday we discussed it on the Supervisory Board. We decided upon a reallocation of responsibilities within the Managing Board. As far as Peter Koerte is concerned, he's going to remain in charge of strategy and SI. Technology will be reallocated to Cedrik Neike, while Peter is still in charge of data and AI, our AI activities. That's his responsibility. We also have a certain realignment of responsibilities in terms of the regions, who is in charge of which region. All together, this is a very balanced portfolio of responsibilities now, but also balanced workload shared among members of the Managing Board. Much on this allocation of responsibilities. Maybe just one other item. You mentioned the ONE Tech Company. There is a new department, in fact, which reports directly to the Managing Board.
We call it Foundational Sales. This is not about operational sales or sales operations, but it's about processes, the processes and tools we use in sales, and also what we want to roll out across the entire company. Cedrik Neike will be in charge of this, and it is one possibility to allow us that what we've done for automation, the improvements and changes to our sales organization automation, that this can be rolled out to the entire company, which will make us more productive. ONE Tech Company. It's clear, it's a growth program. When you look at our figures, you can see it's reflected there. We are accelerating our growth. We are accelerating momentum, and it's a program with a target for higher profitable growth by offering better customer benefit, customer centricity, faster innovation.
In my report, in my speech, I gave you a couple of examples showing you what we already do there. As a matter of fact, naturally, as part of the ONE Tech Company program, there will also be changes to the functions. Global Responsibility team, this is what we have for our functions. We want to make our services more professional, those services who then give those functions to our businesses. We want to roll out our tools globally to make ourselves more productive. Naturally, that's also part of the game. It always means we have to be stringent on costs, growth, customer orientation, or centricity on the one hand, but also cutting costs, being cost efficient so that we have the necessary headroom or room for maneuver to make incremental investments. Yes, AI is going to change jobs. Some jobs will change.
Some jobs will no longer be needed, but new jobs will be created. It's not a restructuring program. It's a growth program. Again and again, we'll have to take a look at the cost and make adjustments to our cost, and that's part of normal business.
About our net income. To make it clear, let me just check back, or maybe you can be more specific here. What exactly you mean when you ask this question about net income? I don't really understand what you mean here. After nine months in your key data, in your key figures, it's EUR 7.04 billion net income. That's 18% less than in the same period in the previous year. I also see that for discontinued activities in the previous year, there's a difference. Yes, that was Innomotics, the Innomotics sale, which had an effect last year.
That was probably the effect that you referred to, the EUR 2.1 billion sales proceeds from Innomotics in the previous year, and that was the reason why there was a change. Naturally, we don't have this kind of effect every year. We don't. Okay, that was a special item, special effect from Innomotics, EUR 2.1 billion. Thank you.
Right. We don't see any further questions in the German line. Now we're going to switch to the English line, where we have John Revill, if I can say this correctly, and the operator is going to connect you.
One second. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question in English, please press the star key followed by the one key on your phone. One moment for the next question, please. The next question comes from John Philip Revill from Thomson Reuters. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everybody. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
Super. A fairly simple question to begin with. With the following agreement with the tax authorities regarding Healthineers, what does this actually mean then? Does this actually mean that the distribution to Siemens shareholders will be tax-free? That's the first question.
With regards to the Siemens Healthineers procedure. The transaction structure really aims to ensure really a consistent and beneficial withholding tax treatment for shareholders. The tax effects at shareholders level really depend on various factors. I think that's what you mean. There is, for instance, residency shareholders or whether they are held private, the shareholder, or whether they are business assets. Therefore, that's the background. I assume you are asking whether it is a similar kind of approach for this holding tax, like for spin-offs we had, for instance, like for Osram or Siemens Energy, and that could serve as a proxy.
Right. The bottom line is ultimately, does it mean that the agreement now is it will be generally tax-free then for Siemens shareholders? Is that the bottom line? I was a bit confused there.
This is something we cannot confirm from our side. We assume, as of today, that it will be in the same manner like for Osram or Siemens Energy. Yeah.
Right. Okay. That's tax-free in those cases then?
Right. The entire transactional structure really aims to ensure really a consistent beneficial withholding tax treatment for shareholders. That is how we understand it, and that's how we will proceed. Yeah.
Okay.
There is much more comfort right now. Yeah.
Excellent. I'm just generally looking at the results, mostly, Mr. Busch, here. How much of the DI improvement was also linked to artificial intelligence, do you think? Was that linked to demand for more chip building from chip builders, or how much was the AI linked to the recovery and the improvements at factory automation, would you say? At DI.
It was a little bit noisy, but I think the question was how does AI create a pull on the demand of our automation portfolio, right?
Yeah.
Several areas. Number one is data center and AI factories themselves. They are more and more loaded with high performance GPUs. Call them AI factories. These AI factories have a very interesting phenomena. They are much more dynamic in the way how they are consuming energy up and down. That means that normal building control units are not powerful enough. We see in the future more and more really industrial PLC controlling the shop floor. Valves have to be opened and shut much, much faster. We have to control the whole system much faster. This is why we released a SIMATIC with special functions, they are geared now for usage in high performance data centers/AI factories, number one. Number two, all these AI factories, they need racks, and these racks, they have plates, and these plates have electronics with a server, kind of.
This is a kind of a tremendous demand for electronics, Foxconns and the like, Lenovos. They are building, of course, more and more factories, and they need to be automated. This is where Siemens is definitely, Siemens business is called. Next thing is AI will also enable more and more capabilities on robotics, autonomous robots or humanoids. In the industrial space, maybe this is where we see the first pickup humanoids. They need to be manufactured. More robots, more humanoids. Whenever you want to manufacture them, obviously, you want to do them fully automated, and that's where Siemens has a strong play. Maybe the last element is that you know that we are working also on new ways of automating. We call it virtual PLCs, software-defined automation, which enable a much, much more dynamic rollout. You have to have more flexibility.
You can control a whole plant out of a control center. This goes also via AI technologies, which are then also pulling a demand in our hardware, so to speak. The last element would be the more AI functionality you will see on the shop floor, the more compute units. We call that Edge. We have Edge devices. They are powered by GPUs, and this is a part of our core portfolio element that we also see a kind of a pull for automation back to back on more AI capabilities on the shop floor. Short answer is yes.
Overall then, how much of this result was actually driven by AI, whether it being the data centers or the digital factory kind of stuff? How much of this result this time around is linked to AI?
That's what I explained.
How could you quantify it, though? Is it substantially linked to AI, do you think this today?
I don't have precise. I mean, going forward, we are looking into the markets.
Sure.
Currently, we see an automation market which grows by, let's say, something between 3.5% and 5% eventually, is that and these numbers are, I assume, not baked in the eventual new functions. You have to differentiate, and this is really one of the topics which we are going to address, the conventional way of looking at markets on the one side. This is a plant, for example, semiconductors. By the way, they will all semiconductors, then you need more semiconductors, and we will automate semiconductor plants. This is one piece. The additional market demand from, let's say, ramping up robotics faster, that's not baked in because it's unclear how performance robots are. We take it as how many AI enablement you have on the shop floor.
If you look at current market numbers, it's not reflected. I believe this is something which is just adding on top of any growth numbers we see in the markets as of today. Hard to quantify.
Okay.
Now.
Yeah. I know you can't give a number, but just sort of in words, how important was AI to these figures today, though, do you think? Just in words, with the data centers, but also in the increasing demand on the factory floors. Is this a kind of a substantial contribution today, or how important was AI to the results today?
What we said, we made an estimation. We made an estimation, we said in the last quarter that we have a three-digit million, something like EUR 300 million of AI-enabled functionality which goes in our software portfolio, for example. It's hard to really separate out how much additional volume or volume is really linked to AI because as I said, for example, if Foxconn ramps up plans, how much of this ramp-up is driven by AI? How much is driven by a demand for normal laptops and whatnot? Hard to say. I cannot really give a kind of estimation even. I would look at it more from a total perspective how these markets are developing.
Okay. Thank you. Bye.
All right. Thank you. We are out of time, and we do not see any more questions in the line. Thank you very much for your interest. Next up is the conference call for the analysts with Roland Busch and Veronika Bienert, and that will begin shortly at 9:30 A.M. The analyst call will be broadcast live at siemens.com/analystcall. You'll hear from us again at the latest on November 12th, 2026, when we will release our fourth quarter and full year results. Thank you very much and goodbye.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our conference call. A recording will be posted at siemens.com/conferencecall. We say thank you and "Auf Wiedersehen".