Schneider Electric to acquire Cognite for $3.1billion

Well, well, well. Schneider Electric just announced that it will acquire Cognite Holding in an all-cash transaction valued at $3.1 billion, and will “integrate the industrial artificial intelligence software company’s data foundation” into AVEVA.

I first came across Cognite a few years ago, when it began commercializing its AI and IoT Data Fusion offering for the process and power verticals — and then expanded into other parts of the manufacturing world. As the name implies, the Cognite Data Fusion platform aims to provide a contextualized data foundation that connects data sources, such as historians, IoT platforms, MES, ERP, CMMS, PLM, and the rest of the alphabet soup, for downstream uses — one of which is AI. Lots and lots of AI.

Cognite was originally the brainchild of software engineers brought in by Aker ASA, paired with domain experts to build software for Aker Solutions, a sister company that carries out engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) projects, and Aker BP, a Norwegian oil and gas exploration and production company. Aker Solutions was basically Cognite’s alpha and beta customer; it used Cognite’s solutions to corral the 3D CAD models, laser scans, piping diagrams, and maintenance logs it needed to design, build, and operate each offshore platform. Eventually, the combo of Aker Solutions, the EPC; Cognite, the software house; and Aker BP, the exploration and production arm, built capabilities that were tested on live North Sea platforms before Cognite then sold those same solutions to the global market. Outside investors and premier global customers eventually made Cognite Norway’s first “unicorn,” with a valuation of $1.6 billion in 2021.

So, why AVEVA and why now?

Aker and the other shareholders of Cognite say the deal “reflects the increasing industrial relevance of AI and data-driven solutions across capital-intensive sectors … Cognite gains a strong industrial owner with global reach and a strong position in energy management, automation, and industrial software. Together, this creates a highly complementary platform with a broad software offering, a large international customer base, and a unique opportunity to build a European “AI for industry champion”. That’s all true — but it’s also likely that a large factor in the timing of the sale is that Cognite finally became profitable in 2024 and reached a scale where Aker ASA had to decide whether to continue investing for growth or let someone else do that. With the sale, Aker should see around $ 1.5 billion in proceeds that it can use for new investments and to invest in its Aker Nscale joint venture with UK-based AI hyperscaler Nscale and Aize, which builds cloud-native digital twin visualization and collaboration platforms.

What about AVEVA?

Schneider Electric CEO Olivier Blum said in the announcement that “Cognite has built something rare, a truly industrial grade AI platform that turns the complexity of operational data into a competitive advantage. This acquisition strengthens AVEVA, Schneider Electric’s wholly owned industrial software company, in the highest-growth segments of the market and positions Schneider Electric at the centre of the next phase of industrial intelligence … I am convinced their unique AI expertise will be a catalyst in advancing intelligence across Schneider Electric’s portfolio. At Schneider Electric, we have always believed the energy transition demands intelligence, intelligence demands data, and unlocking its full value requires AI. And the same is required in operations across process and discrete manufacturing where data in context is leveraged by AI leading to efficiency and sustainable outcomes.”

My opinion: It’s that context that’s the key reason for spending $3.1 billion on Cognite. AVEVA’s current technology excels at traditional predictive analytics — but agentic, operational industrial AI needs the specialized data contextualization layer that Cognite has been building for the last decade.

Back to Mr. Blum: “By bringing Cognite into Schneider Electric and AVEVA, we unite the world’s most comprehensive energy management and automation infrastructure with the software and AI capabilities to make it natively intelligent. Together, we go beyond connecting systems. We give them the ability to think, adapt, and act. This is what industrial intelligence looks like at scale.”

Schneider Electric’s preliminary materials say that Cognite’s annual revenue exceeded $170 million in 2025 and that ARR bookings grew 36%. They’re holding an investor call about the deal tomorrow, 1 July, when I imagine they’ll field questions about the purchase price, product integrations, and so on. More then.