Caterpillar Earnings Beat Helped by Data Center Power Demand

Caterpillar Inc. got an earnings boost from selling power generation equipment to AI data centers in its fourth quarter, helping drive quarterly results that topped Wall Street’s expectations.

The company’s power and energy segment — now Caterpillar’s biggest and fastest-growing segment — posted a 25% profit jump compared to the year-earlier period thanks to higher demand for its power-generating equipment. That helped blunt declining profit from the company’s more traditional businesses of selling heavy-duty machinery to construction and resource industries.