Caterpillar: Old-Economy Winner in the AI Boom

Caterpillar makes bulldozers and diesel engines, and it became one of the biggest winners of the AI boom. The reason isn't a software pivot. A data center is a building that draws power at the scale of a small city, and when the grid can't deliver fast or reliably enough, that power comes from the engines and generators CAT has built for decades. Its Power and Energy backlog roughly doubled toward $50 billion, with a Vertiv partnership announced in late 2025.

For founders and operators, this reframes what it means to win a technology wave. It pushes you to look past the glamorous layer of any boom toward the unglamorous, physical needs it creates, and to ask whether your business could be the supplier the trend can't function without.