Schneider Electric SE agreed to buy industrial software firm PTC Inc. for about $22.6 billion, stepping up its effort to tap into the artificial-intelligence boom with its biggest acquisition to date.
The French conglomerate, which makes a suite of electrical products, will acquire Boston-based PTC in an all-cash deal, it said Monday. The transaction will add engineering software for industries including automotive, aerospace and medical technology to Schneider’s offering.
The deal adds to a buying spree among industrial companies expanding in areas booming due to AI demand and related data-center infrastructure. ABB Ltd. in July forged a deal with UK industrial components company Rotork Plc, valued at $5.5 billion, to boost its electrification and automation products. Also in July, Schneider agreed to buy Cognite for $3.1 billion to expand its industrial data and AI software operations.
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The company’s offer is set at a premium of more than 40% to PTC’s last closing price. Schneider fell as much as 10% in Paris, the most since January 2025, after gaining almost 30% this year through Friday’s close. PTC, which was down about 17% over the same period, soared in pre-market trading.
“Strategically, the transaction fills one of the remaining gaps in Schneider’s software portfolio,” Jefferies analyst Lucas Ferhani wrote in a note.
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Europe has fallen behind the US and China in consumer AI, though companies like Siemens AG, Schneider and ABB are still in the running to serve industrial clients, as well as making components for data centers. Siemens, Germany’s second-most valuable public company, this month reorganized its core businesses to better mesh its digital and real-world products.
Schneider Chief Executive Officer Olivier Blum said the PTC deal will create “the industry’s most complete software and AI powerhouse,” while PTC CEO Neil Barua said his firm will “gain substantial scale and resources to accelerate innovation” and expand its geographic footprint.
While shares in software companies like SAP SE and Salesforce Inc have faced volatility this year on concerns that their products will lose out to AI, operators with industrial clients have been less exposed. That’s because their more specialist offering hinges on access to protected data and targets processes where errors aren’t tolerated.
Schneider, which has a market value of about €158 billion, said the total cash consideration of about €22 billion for PTC is secured through a bridge facility provided by Morgan Stanley and Société Générale.
RBC analysts led by Mark Fielding said PTC will add a “high-quality, high margin” asset to Schneider at a reasonable multiple, while warning of the challenges of integration and creating a “leading software and AI portfolio.”
“We note the significant required leverage buildup is likely to reignite long-standing capital allocation concerns around Schneider,” RBC said.
The deal, set to close by the third quarter of 2027, is expected to be funded by a combination of an equity issuance of as much as €6 billion and new debt issuance of up to €17 billion.
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Autodesk Inc. was pursuing PTC in July last year with a cash-and-stock transaction but ultimately dropped the deal for a strategy of smaller tuck-in acquisitions, Bloomberg reported at the time.
Morgan Stanley is lead financial adviser to Schneider on the transaction, while Evercore is serving as adviser to PTC.