00:00Jean-Pascal Trucois, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for being here.
00:04So we're seeing quite a lot of divergence and developments in terms of the multipolar world.
00:11Geopolitical tensions are really driving a regionalization, I think, when it comes to supply chains.
00:16How does that factor into Schneider's operating model right now?
00:21Well, we've always chosen to be very regional.
00:25But at the same time, we are a global company.
00:27I look at the figures. Globalization has not stopped.
00:32Actually, it has kept going on developing even last year on this year.
00:36So it keeps growing. But it's taking different routes.
00:40And tendentially, it's becoming to be more regional.
00:44On at Schneider, we've always chosen to be very regional because, number one, it's about speed of delivery.
00:52It's about delivering complicated systems or complex systems according to our customers' needs.
00:58So it needs last-minute adaptation, a lot of co-development.
01:02It's also about including other actors, so our suppliers, our partners who are integrating our system.
01:11So by nature and by strategy, we've always chosen to be very regional.
01:17So then what has changed maybe in the past few weeks for what it is that Schneider does in the
01:23various markets that it does, that it operates in?
01:26Well, if you refer to the Ormuz crisis, I think you have two categories of countries in the world.
01:32You have countries which have fossil fuel and which have countries which have no fossil fuel.
01:38And the second category is 80% of the world population.
01:42And for all those who don't have access to fossil fuel, it's not the first crisis that has been meeting
01:48in the recent past, it was Ukraine, and then now there is Ormuz.
01:52So it's a call for acceleration of electrification, which we serve all energies, especially in Africa.
01:59We realize that the first priority is more energy, and we support the oil and gas industry to get more
02:06efficient, to get more decarbonized, and to develop.
02:10But at the same time, all new technologies are supported by electricity, and therefore, we support every country here to
02:20electrify, from the grid to decentralized generation, centralized generation, and more energy efficiency everywhere on the continent.
02:30And this is what we've seen as a main change.
02:33People have realized that they can't be relying on somebody else's to get access to energy.
02:40Everybody realizes that energy is critical.
02:43Energy brings a lot of costs on inflation.
02:46Right.
02:47So people are really ramping up to be more locally producing energy and to be more independent from those variations.
02:55When you think about some of the megatrends that Schneider maybe underpins Schneider's growth, you talk about electrification, energy transition,
03:02there's AI.
03:03There's a mix of themes that we're focused on.
03:08Where do you see maybe the most growth opportunity for the company?
03:11Everywhere.
03:13So that's good.
03:14I've been 40 years in this industry.
03:16I've never been as excited as today.
03:20Electrification on the road.
03:21It's not only about data centers.
03:23Everybody's speaking about data centers.
03:25It's about mobility cars.
03:28It's about buildings becoming more electrical, more AC because of temperature increase, more heat pumps in the northern hemisphere.
03:37And everything basically is becoming more electrical.
03:39You need semiconductors, tons of electricity needed.
03:43Electrification really increasing much faster.
03:46It's an inflection point.
03:47The world, past four decades, 20% electric.
03:50In 20 years' time, 50% electric.
03:54So that's a real transition.
03:56What is the catalyzing force, though?
03:57All of those, data centers, mobility, AC, and so on.
04:02Energy transitions don't happen through the supply.
04:06They happen through the demand transition.
04:09When you take an EV car, you become electric.
04:12That makes the world more electric.
04:14When you have AC in your apartment, you participate to this.
04:18When you use technology and go on a data center, it's a lot of electricity.
04:22You make the world every day more electric.
04:24Now, the second transition, of course, it's not a transition.
04:28Both are revolutions.
04:30That second revolution is AI.
04:32And what it means for us is that all of our customers want to deploy AI.
04:38To deploy AI, you need to be connected.
04:40You need to digitize.
04:41You need to get access to data, which means our digitization business, which is 60% of our turnover, is
04:50accelerating tremendously.
04:52And we propose in all of our systems, smart buildings, smart manufacturing, smart grid, smart data centers, smart cities, more
05:01AI at every level.
05:03When do you see that 60% maybe increasing?
05:06And are there parts of the world you see it increasing faster than others?
05:09I see it increasing everywhere, but it goes energy, electrification, and AI go together.
05:21AI needs a lot of electricity.
05:24Electricity to be managed correctly needs a lot of AI.
05:28So the places where those are developing the fastest are China and the U.S., China because they are the
05:35world champion of electrification,
05:38U.S. because they are also now putting up a lot of electrification for data centers, Europe a little bit
05:46slow.
05:47And then we see now a massive movement taking place in Middle East on every head of state I've spoken
05:56to over the past four days in Africa is thinking about the data center plan.
06:01Think about it.
06:02Africa needs many more data centers.
06:05Yeah.
06:05I was going to ask you about heads of state because you need, to a certain extent, you need the
06:10government and the public sector on board in terms of policies,
06:13no matter where you are in the world, in order to enable your own operating model.
06:18Where are the gaps that you're seeing?
06:19You said Europe is still a bit slow.
06:22What is it that you tell heads of state when you're meeting with them?
06:25Well, we need to realize it's not the same world, right?
06:29Technology needs speed.
06:31That AI wave is starting now, and it's extremely fast.
06:36The adoption of AI has no comparison in the past.
06:41Immediately, like OpenClaw came out, for instance, in China.
06:46Day one, it had 100 million users.
06:48Never seen before.
06:50Well, day one, not here one.
06:52Day one.
06:53So there is urgency to get equipped with those digitization AI capabilities.
07:00We have to work together with governments.
07:03It's, as always, a question of partnership.
07:05So it's about simplifying the processes, the red tape, to get access faster to land, to power, to fiber, to
07:17set up data centers.
07:19And it's about working together with local partners so that we can bring our technology to the service of local
07:27operators.
07:27We believe, I believe, that this will generate both electrification and data centers.
07:35It will generate tons of local companies.
07:38Because once you have a data center on local computing, you create an ecosystem of coders, software houses, new startups,
07:47that then will change also the face of your infrastructure on your industry.
07:53Everything is becoming more digital.
07:55So we need that electrical on digital infrastructure.
07:59Do you see some resistance or reluctance from policymakers on that front?
08:02I don't see any.
08:03None.
08:04It's more like the challenge is so new on the scale of it is so huge that we all have
08:11to work together, really work very closely together,
08:15because we can bring international experience, the learnings of many other countries to help and to support.
08:24But that's, yeah, it's teamwork.
08:26And JP, maybe just finally, when you talk about creating new ecosystems, does that potentially mean more M&A opportunities
08:32for Schneider?
08:33Schneider, are you looking to any new opportunities out there?
08:38We've done a lot of M&A.
08:40I think I've done a lot of M&A.
08:42It probably looks out on my face.
08:44But the priority is really partnerships.
08:48Think of us as the microprocessor or the chip inside the process of digitization and electrification.
08:57We bring technology.
08:58We are the energy tech company partners of industry release.
09:03And therefore, our privilege route is to help entrepreneurs to create companies.
09:11It's to help existing actors to bring more technology to the market.
09:17But how does that benefit the company then?
09:18Then, well, when somebody else sells PCs on data centers, we make money with our technology.
09:26And it's a give-and-take.
09:28But we want to bring that layer of technology, which gives space for other players, local players,
09:35because I believe local industrialization is the other priority of Africa.
09:40We bring them 80% of the value around which they can build their companies.
09:46And we've got multiple examples around that.
09:49So electrification, digitization, local industrialization, that's our priorities.
09:55No M&A in the near term.
09:57No.
09:58No.
09:58No.
09:58No.
09:58No.
09:59No.
09:59No.
09:59No.
09:59Thanks for your time.
Comments