Johnson Controls reported solid quarterly and full-year performance on the back of sustained customer demand in its core Americas region, according to its fourth-quarter earnings presentation. Its order backlog rose from $13.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024 to nearly $15 billion this quarter.
For the year, Johnson Controls exceeded financial guidance given last November and again in July as first-year CEO Joakim Weidemanis’s internal reforms — including having employees use AI in everyday business processes — took hold.
On an investor call Wednesday, Weidemanis said the strong performance offset the financial impact of the divestiture of its residential and light commercial business a year earlier than expected. The company announced the $8.1 billion deal with Bosch in July 2024, saying the move would free up resources to focus on its core commercial buildings solutions business.
Data center thermal management
Weidemanis and Chief Financial Officer Marc Vandiepenbeeck credited Johnson Controls’ growing data center cooling business with leading the company’s growth this quarter, up 9% in the Americas.
Johnson Controls competitors have also cited data center demand in recent strong performance for building systems solutions. Schneider Electric reported double-digit expansion in its core energy management segment in North America last week.
In September, Johnson Controls launched what it described as a scalable coolant distribution unit system that could serve data center blocks ranging from 500 kilowatts to 10 megawatts. The Silent-Aire CDU system is an efficient and flexible alternative to traditional data center HVAC, it said at the time.
Weidemanis reiterated that on the call Wednesday, saying liquid cooling was the future of high-performance data centers as increasingly power-dense chip assemblies push traditional systems toward their physical limits. He pointed to Johnson Controls’ strategic investment in liquid cooling provider Accelsius, announced last month, as key to the company’s goal of “deliver[ing] a comprehensive and integrated portfolio that addresses the full thermal management spectrum from chip to ambient.”
Decarbonization initiatives
In September, Johnson Controls announced a partnership with the city of Zurich, Switzerland, to power the city’s vast district heating system with energy recovered from an expanded waste incineration plant.
Weidemanis said the project would supply heat to about 15,000 homes — 15% of the city’s total district heating load — after it begins operations in 2027. It would more than double the heat capacity of Johnson Controls’ previous largest district heat pump project and be one of the largest heat pump installations to use the zero-GWP coolant, ammonia, he said.
The project “highlights the tremendous opportunity to harness excess heat, reduce operating costs and accelerate decarbonization,” Weidemanis said.
