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Roland Busch
Roland Busch SIE.DE
President & Chief Executive Officer, Siemens
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Europe is missing growth: Siemens CEO

📅 Nov 08, 2026 CNBC International Live 12 MIN 23 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
Europe is "missing growth," Roland Busch, Siemens President & CEO tells CNBC's Dan Murphy at ADIPEC in Abu Dhabi. "Potential growth of the economy in Germany is lagging in all three barometers," he added.

What Roland Busch said

Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.

Roland Busch, President and CEO of Siemens, discussed the Gulf region's energy and data center momentum, noting geopolitical tensions alongside booming demand from AI factories and data centers. He said data center orders are up triple digits but cautioned that current growth rates are not sustainable long-term, though he expects continued build-out through 2030. Busch addressed debt concerns, saying interest rate rises are a warning signal but that committed capital deployment will sustain growth. He highlighted Siemens' electrification business as its biggest exposure to hyperscalers, with frame contracts still active. Busch emphasized industrial AI as a major opportunity, citing simulation acceleration and autonomous manufacturing productivity gains of 20%. He discussed the Altair acquisition ($10 billion) and Dotmatics ($5 billion), explaining their role in creating comprehensive digital twins. On Europe, Busch argued Germany and Europe are missing growth, facing challenges from labor, capital investment, technology, and controlled immigration, and warned that Germany's export model is at stake as China innovates.

Key takeaways

  1. Data center orders are up triple digits, but growth rates are not sustainable long-term, though build-out continues through 2030.
  2. Siemens' biggest exposure to hyperscalers is its electrification business, with frame contracts still active and no hard break expected.
  3. Industrial AI can drive manufacturing productivity by 20% and accelerate simulation by 10 to 1,000 times.
  4. Siemens acquired Altair for $10 billion and Dotmatics for $5 billion to close simulation gaps and expand into molecular design.
  5. Germany and Europe are missing growth, with the export model at stake as China innovates; controlled immigration is needed due to an aging society.

Numbers and commitments

FigureWhat it refers toTypeAt
20% Productivity increase from autonomous manufacturing metric 5:45
10, 100, 1,000 X Simulation acceleration from AI metric 5:45
10 billion Altair acquisition price price 7:18
5 billion Dotmatics acquisition price price 7:34
1.3% Germany's growth forecast this year metric 9:08

Chapters

  1. 0:00Gulf region sentiment and energy demand
  2. 0:45Data center growth sustainability
  3. 2:27Barriers to AI build-out
  4. 3:16Debt and capex cliff concerns
  5. 4:15Hyperscaler exposure
  6. 4:59Industrial AI opportunities
  7. 7:18Altair and Dotmatics acquisitions
  8. 9:08Germany and Europe growth challenges

Questions asked in this interview

9
  1. 0:12What are you hearing from customers and clients in the region?
  2. 0:45How sustainable is the momentum that we're seeing in this data center build out right now?
  3. 2:27Is it compute and chips, or is it energy, as the OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seemed to suggest yesterday?
  4. 3:16... big fear is, given the debt levels that we see among the AI data center build out space, that we could be heading towards some kind of capex cliff, or maybe even some kind of debt implosion within this industry. Are those fears overblown?
  5. 4:15I mean, how exposed is Siemens if we see the hyperscalers scaling back?
  6. 4:53Is anything that you're seeing in that sector giving you pause for thought though, or anything keeping you up at night?
  7. 5:29So, what is the opportunity for Siemens there?
  8. 7:25And walk me through that acquisition. I mean, why now?
  9. 9:08Is Europe facing a fragile moment as we come into 2027?
Dan Murphy 0:00 ↗
Let's continue the conversation this morning. I'm very pleased to say that Roland Busch is here. He is the president and CEO of Siemens, joining me around the desk here in Abu Dhabi. Roland, a warm welcome to the program, sir. It's great to see you.
Roland Busch 0:11 ↗
Hi Dan. Thanks for having me.
Dan Murphy 0:12 ↗
Well, first and foremost, give me a sentiment check on the Gulf right now. What are you hearing from customers and clients in the region?
Roland Busch 0:20 ↗
I mean, obviously the geopolitical tensions are happening here as we speak on the one side. On the other side, there's a lot of momentum coming because the energy sector is really booming. There's a lot of demand there in more dimensions, and data centers, AI factories are pulling the demand. So therefore, it's a certain dynamic, also in regard to how technology can change the whole energy sector, the oil and gas sector.
Dan Murphy 0:45 ↗
So I'm curious to unpack that as well, because investors really love the data center story and they love this connection with AI and industrial technology. You said with regards to data centers, orders are up around triple digits. How sustainable is the momentum that we're seeing in this data center build out right now?
Roland Busch 1:08 ↗
Two dimensions: supply and demand. So I mean, what is the context between AI and energy? It's basically AI factories are producing quality intelligence or artificial intelligence that requires a lot of energy demand. So therefore, you have to really build up new data centers. There's a lot of consumption which puts a lot of constraints in your supply chain. Anything. I mean, it's the chips, the electrical equipment that we are providing. So it's the space and energy. So this is one thing which is driving growth. On the other side, the demand. Currently the demand is very much driven from training frontier models. I mean, the training costs megawatts and megawatts, and you have to keep the pace in order to stay ahead of the curve. But then comes inferencing. The more the technology is getting mature and comes into the industrial space, the more inference and compute comes on top. So, you have a demand there as well, which is growing as we speak. The growth rates which we saw in the past are in a long, long run not sustainable. I mean, we see that going on for the next couple of years, but there must be a way how you really build your supply chain and follow up. On the other side, nobody knows how much more demand comes from inferencing as we speak, and that would give another push to the demand.
Dan Murphy 2:27 ↗
So, what worries you the most at the moment? And what would you say is the biggest barrier to this build out? Is it compute and chips, or is it energy, as the OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seemed to suggest yesterday?
Roland Busch 2:38 ↗
To be very honest, it's all of it, right? Because it comes in such a high speed, which the system was not really prepared. The operating system was not prepared to serve that. And think about also the geopolitical discussions, that will end up in redundancies. So, let's say if you look at the globe and all the capacity we have, I think still build out is needed, but then you will build something on top in order to have your own compute in Europe. I mean, we want to have a certain amount of own compute. It doesn't mean that we want to be independent, but it means that we want to have a choice when it comes to it. And the same happens also in UAE and everywhere.
Dan Murphy 3:16 ↗
Right. Are you concerned that there's too much installed capacity taking place right now? Because the big fear is, given the debt levels that we see among the AI data center build out space, that we could be heading towards some kind of capex cliff, or maybe even some kind of debt implosion within this industry. Are those fears overblown?
Roland Busch 3:35 ↗
Let's put it that way. Number one, I mean, since interest rates are going up, debt is a topic. So, therefore, there's a warning signal, so to speak, on the one side. On the other side, if you take all the money which is on the block to be deployed, I cannot imagine how you can deploy that money in that time frame given. So, therefore, the growth rates are already very high. But another perspective is, if you look for the next — I mean, we talk about 2025 until 2030, we don't see really a substantial slowdown of the build-out. It has to come along with constraints, but I mean, everybody is working really to solve these constraints. So, I would say the growth will continue the next couple of years.
Dan Murphy 4:15 ↗
Do you think the hyperscalers are getting nervous though? I mean, how exposed is Siemens if we see the hyperscalers scaling back?

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Cite this transcript

APA, MLA, BibTeX
APA

Busch, R. (2026, November 8). Europe is missing growth: Siemens CEO [Interview transcript]. CNBC International Live. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3217363/

MLA

Roland Busch. "Europe is missing growth: Siemens CEO." CNBC International Live, 8 Nov. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3217363/.

BibTeX 
@misc{busch2026_3217363,
  author       = {Roland Busch},
  title        = {Europe is missing growth: Siemens CEO},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, CNBC International Live. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {nov},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3217363/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}