Johnson Controls (JCI)

Building systems + data-center cooling (Johnson Controls) — HVAC + controls at scale

AI exposure 18% — derived from reported segment revenue, not asserted.

Where it sits

Physical Infrastructure → Thermal & Cooling · figures rebased to FQ3 FY2026, reported 2026-07-29

Applied HVAC & data-center cooling (full-stack thermal management for data centers) leads 2 businesses in this sub-tier that together are 70% of revenue, so Thermal & Cooling is effectively the whole company rather than one leg of it. The rest is tagged separately: Industrial & Automation Software at 30%.

Also tagged: secondary in Software Stack → Industrial & Automation Software.

Reported segments

• Building Solutions (systems + services, by region) + Global Products — 100% of revenue

Johnson Controls ($6.6B FQ3 FY2026, +9% YoY, organic +10%) — now PURE commercial buildings (sold Residential & Light Commercial HVAC to Bosch ~$6.9B, July 2025). Resegmented to GEOGRAPHIC (Building Solutions N.America/EMEA-LA/APAC + Global Products), so product split not separately disclosed -> Tier C. Primary B2 Thermal & Cooling (data-center cooling is the explicit AI growth driver — full-stack thermal mgmt). Building automation = B5 (OpenBlue). Fire & Security off-map. Candidate B5 tag (building automation software).

How the 18% is built

• Building Solutions (systems + services, by region) + Global Products — 100% of revenue × 18% AI-driven (disclosed). Mgmt Q3 FY2026: data centers = "high-teens percentage of fiscal 2026 revenue" (18 used as the midpoint of high teens), guided to ~one third of revenue in three to five years. Backlog $21.0B (+32% organic) and orders +27% organic are the supporting mechanics.

Investment read

Moat. Now a pure commercial-buildings franchise after the ~$6.9B sale of Residential & Light Commercial HVAC to Bosch — installed base, service attach and spec-in position are the advantage. Data-center thermal is full-stack rather than commodity chiller supply: York YDAM, Silent-Aire CDU liquid cooling (500kW-10MW), the Accelsius two-phase direct-to-chip stake and NVIDIA-co-developed AI factory reference designs create spec-in switching costs.

Bottleneck / pricing power. Moderate pricing power — commercial HVAC is competitively bid, but spec-in and service attach hold the position. The order book is where it shows: orders +27% organic in Q3 FY26, a third straight quarter above 25%, and a record $21.0B backlog (+32% organic) converting at ~70% within twelve months, with adjusted EBIT margin up 260bps to 16.9%.

Role in the AI stack. The building-systems + data-center-cooling layer.

Connected companies

• Microsoft (MSFT) — JCI supplies: data-center cooling (CDUs, chillers) for Azure; NVIDIA-aligned thermal
• Amazon (AMZN) — JCI supplies: hyperscale cooling (York chillers, Silent-Aire air handlers/modular) — AWS not publicly named
• Alphabet (GOOGL) — JCI supplies: chillers + hyperscale cooling equipment — Google not publicly named as customer
• Equinix (EQIX) — JCI supplies: end-to-end cooling for colocation facilities
• Digital Realty Trust (DLR) — JCI supplies: chillers + CDUs for hyperscale data-center REIT
• NVIDIA (NVDA) — JCI supplies: AI-data-center thermal reference designs (chillers/CDUs) aligned to NVIDIA DSX architecture
• ON Semiconductor (ON) — JCI is supplied by: power semiconductors for HVAC controls/drives
• Texas Instruments (TXN) — JCI is supplied by: analog + control ICs for building/cooling systems
• Carrier Global (CARR) — JCI competes with: data-center + commercial HVAC majors — JCI Silent-Aire/YORK vs Carrier QuantumLeap
• Trane Technologies (TT) — JCI competes with: commercial HVAC + thermal management leaders
• Vertiv Holdings (VRT) — JCI competes with: data-center thermal rivals — JCI chillers/Silent-Aire vs Vertiv precision/liquid cooling
• AAON (AAON) — JCI competes with: data-center cooling — AAON BASX vs JCI Silent-Aire
• Meta Platforms (META) — JCI supplies: HVAC/cooling for META AI data centers
• Oracle (ORCL) — JCI supplies: HVAC/cooling for ORCL AI data centers

Others in Thermal & Cooling

• Vertiv Holdings (VRT)
• nVent Electric (NVT)
• Carrier Global (CARR)
• Trane Technologies (TT)
• Modine Manufacturing (MOD)
• AAON (AAON)
• Ecolab (ECL)

All 174 companies · What moved this quarter · How the map is built