Schneider Electric continues to expand its activity in industrial software and AI applied to industry.
The French group announced the acquisition of American software publisher PTC for approximately $22.6 billion (€20.1 billion). The deal, conducted entirely in cash, remains subject to the approval of a majority of PTC’s shareholders and to the necessary regulatory clearances. Closing is expected by the third quarter of 2027.
Why PTC?
PTC, based in Boston and listed on Nasdaq, employs more than 7,000 people and serves over 30,000 customers. Its software spans computer-aided design (CAD), product lifecycle management (PLM), applications (ALM), and services (SLM).
The company generated €2.4 billion in revenue in 2025, with an adjusted EBITA margin of around 40%. Schneider Electric anticipates an annual growth rate of about 10% in revenue and in its annualized recurring revenues through 2029.
For Schneider, PTC brings a business with a strong subscription component, high margins, and solid cash generation, while expanding the group’s presence in discrete and hybrid manufacturing industries.
Linking Design, Manufacturing and Operations
The acquisition, the largest in Schneider Electric’s history, fits within the group’s “Energy and Industrial Intelligence” strategy. The idea is to connect the product and machine design data provided by PTC with the operational and energy data it already leverages.
In practical terms, Schneider aims to build a unified digital thread—a data chain that links a product’s design, its fabrication, its operation and its maintenance. This contextual data backbone should feed industrial AI applications.
PTC thus completes Schneider’s software portfolio, which already includes AVEVA. The Cognite acquisition, announced last July, remains subject to closing conditions and regulatory approvals as well.
An End-to-End Software Platform Ambition
With PTC, Schneider Electric expects software and services to account for about 24% of its revenue, including PTC and Cognite. The group counts more than 15,000 software-dedicated employees and over 50,000 software customers after the deal.
Schneider states that the combination is also set to roughly triple its addressable market in industrial software, notably thanks to access to discrete and hybrid manufacturing industries. The group is banking on cross-selling, expanding its distribution channels, broader geographic coverage, and the joint development of AI-enhanced “digital threads.”
