Vertiv, the US supplier of power and cooling equipment for data centers, published its third-quarter results on 28 October. Sales were up by about three fifths on a year earlier, orders (leaving out acquisitions and currency effects) more than doubled, and the company raised its forecast for the full year.
Cash that arrives before the equipment does
The line worth reading is not the sales figure. At the end of September Vertiv held more than four billion dollars in advance payments from customers for equipment and services not yet delivered, more than three times the balance of a year before. Its own release shows the same balance; Stock Titan, which went through the filing, adds that customers are placing orders ahead of Vertiv's ability to fill them. The last backlog figure the company published, at the end of 2025, is not updated in the 2026 releases, and Vertiv says plainly that customers can cancel or reschedule.
The company names power, permitting, moratoriums and skilled labour as the factors that set the pace, and it closed its purchase of UtilityInnovation Group on 26 October, a move it expects to help customers get power to new sites sooner. Capital spending in the quarter was a good deal higher than a year earlier, which fits a supplier adding plant rather than only working through a queue.
The same queue, further down the line
Anyone who ordered a large generator set this year has seen this from the other side. Generac told its investors a few days ago about lead times far beyond what buyers were used to, and we reported it in that item. Deposits and production slots have become the normal way to hold a place, and a delivery date is only as firm as the contract behind it.
For a project team the practical point is sequence. The engine and alternator may be allocated first, but the enclosure and the exhaust system still have to arrive when the set does, and a site with finished plant rooms and no machines is as expensive as the reverse. When you sign the first big order, ask what happens to the deposit if the site slips by a season.
Sources: Vertiv (Form 8-K release), Stock Titan