Schneider Electric Bets on Local Prefab Factories and PTC Software for Gulf AI Build-Out

"To build a data centre, you'd better have capabilities not only in engineering but also in assembly and manufacturing, close to where you build the data centre," Sheta told Arab News in an interview published on Tuesday.

Sheta told Arab News that Schneider designs and builds prefabricated units at application centres across the region and delivers them "in every country where we operate". It also runs a prefabrication factory with a partner, usually as a co-investment, to make the IT pods its customers order quickly.

The Scale of Demand

The market Schneider is chasing is growing quickly. Arab News cited PwC Middle East projections that regional data centre capacity will triple, from 1 GW in 2025 to 3.3 GW within five years. PwC also estimates the region could attract $1.1 trillion in cumulative data centre investment by 2050. MEED Insight tracks more than 174 active and planned data centre projects across the six GCC states, worth over $93 billion in total.

Sheta argued that building locally also protects against supply risk. In a PwC scenario with tighter export controls on advanced chips and limits on critical raw materials, the Middle East is the region most exposed, and cumulative data centre investment falls 29%.

From Server Halls to Factory Floors

The second part of the strategy is software. On October 5, Schneider agreed to buy US industrial software company PTC in an all-cash deal that values PTC's equity at about $22.6 billion, according to the announcement filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The companies expect to complete the deal by the third quarter of 2027.

"Throughout the product lifecycle of any factory, PTC gives the manufacturer an excellent AI-powered overview, from the design to the afterlife of the product," Sheta said. He said that when Schneider polled its Gulf customers, half said AI would change their production.

The gap between ambition and results is still wide. Schneider's own 2026 survey of 1,453 manufacturers in 14 countries, including Saudi Arabia, found that only 13% have AI embedded end to end in their core operations. Skills gaps and legacy systems were the main barriers. Rockwell Automation's 2026 State of Smart Manufacturing report ranks the Middle East as the region most committed to digital transformation, with manufacturers spending close to 30% of operating budgets on industrial technology. But Rockwell's global survey found that only 43% of the data manufacturers collect is used effectively.

The UAE Footprint

Speaking separately to the Emirates News Agency (WAM) at ADIPEC 2026 in Abu Dhabi, Sheta said more than 1,000 Schneider engineers in the UAE work on industrial AI, autonomous control and related automation software. He said the company has industrial partnerships in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah and a regional hub in Dubai.

Sheta told WAM that AI is raising productivity and energy efficiency in the energy sector, but it is also increasing demand for qualified people to develop and run the technology. He said Schneider opened a training centre for digital technologies in the energy sector last year and hires and trains at least 100 UAE nationals a year.

At the same conference, Schneider chief executive Olivier Blum said electricity production needs to rise alongside better efficiency as industry, cities and electric vehicles expand, Al Bayan reported.

For Gulf governments and data centre developers, Schneider's pitch fits with localisation programmes and with concerns about how long it takes to get critical equipment. Whether local assembly can keep up with the pipeline PwC and MEED describe will help decide how fast the region's planned capacity actually comes online.