Axios称AI数据中心建设正外溢拉动涂料、电缆、建材等工业公司业绩

The data center boom is driving the earnings of staid industrial companies in addition to the makers of chips and servers.
Why it matters: The newfound importance of AI to producers of paint, asphalt and industrial cable, among others, mirrors the buildout's growing role as a driver of the "real economy."
The latest: Second-quarter GDP numbers released Thursday showed that investment in information-processing equipment and software contributed almost half a percentage point to the U.S. economy's 1.5% growth rate.
That's down slightly from its enormous contributions last year, but still strong in light of what was typical in the years before the arrival of AI.
Between the lines: These numbers include investments in servers and chips, the costliest parts of a data center. But they don't capture the full scope of the AI boom, which also involves titanic amounts of spending on less sophisticated products.
Case in point: Paint maker Sherwin-Williams knocked earnings out of the park earlier this week, sending its stock up 8.3% on Tuesday — its biggest jump in over four years — despite continued weakness in U.S. housing, which usually drives its numbers.
AI supercharged sales growth of the company's "protective and marine" coating products, which grew in the "mid-teens," the company said, far higher than its overall 7.5% sales growth during the quarter.
"When we talk about AI data centers and the build-out, you think of the race of these hyperscalers," said Heidi Petz, Sherwin-Williams' CEO, adding that "speed matters, and we can provide speed. We can provide a comprehensive one-stop solution for many of their coatings needs."
Zoom out: Sherwin-Williams isn't alone.
Wire and cable distributor WESCO International soared Thursday after trouncing expectations for sales and earnings. Sales at its data center solutions division jumped 45%.
In its earnings call on Wednesday, the CEO of industrial coatings maker PPG told analysts "there's quite a pipeline in data center work which is not only fire protection, but structural steel flooring, insulated coatings [and] dielectric coatings."
Shares of industrial conglomerate 3M — which makes hard hats, industrial adhesives and sandpaper, in addition to Post-it notes — notched their best gain of the year last week, after the company spotlighted that Microsoft was using its patented fiber optic cable connectors in its Azure data centers.
Asphalt and aggregate companies Vulcan Materials and Martin Marietta Materials both spotlighted data center-related demand in their earnings results this week, with executives at Vulcan telling analysts that "large project opportunities continue to drive non-residential activity, particularly data centers."
The big picture: With the hyperscalers alone — Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle — expected to spend more than $750 billion on AI capex this year, there are plenty of profits to be had in the U.S. economy.
The bottom line: As AI becomes an important line of business outside the tech world, it means that more companies will enjoy some of the fruits of the spending frenzy.
But it also means those companies — and the U.S. economy — will be more exposed to risks and volatility that could accompany the boom.