Upon completion of the deal, the French energy services giant will combine Cognite with its own industrial software business, Aveva.

Schneider Electric has agreed to acquire industrial data and AI software company Cognite in an all-cash transaction worth $3.1bn.

Upon completion of the deal – which will see Schneider acquire 100pc of Cognite’s share capital – the French energy services giant will combine Cognite with its own industrial software business, Aveva.

Specifically, Schneider plans to integrate Cognite’s capabilities into Connect, Aveva’s cloud-based industrial intelligence platform, which uses a suite of shared software services to “achieve rapid and reliable integration” of industrial data, models, applications, and AI and analytics.

Cognite, founded in 2016 by Geir Engdahl, John Markus Lervik and Stein Danielsen, specialises in industrial software to improve production efficiency in areas such as energy and process manufacturing, among others. Last year, the company’s annual revenue exceeded $170m.

Originally headquartered in Oslo, Norway, Cognite – which currently employs more than 800 people globally – moved its HQ to Arizona in the US in 2025.

“Cognite has built something rare, a truly industrial-grade AI platform that turns the complexity of operational data into a competitive advantage,” said Schneider Electric CEO Olivier 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.”

The acquisition is expected to be completed “in the coming quarters”, according to Schneider, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

Schneider’s acquisition of Cognite comes amid an increased focus on industrial AI in Europe.

In April, Siemens CEO Roland Busch and German chancellor Friedrich Merz both called for eased EU regulations on industrial AI.

In a speech at the Hannover Messe trade fair, Merz warned that if Europe is to boost productivity, industrial AI will need more regulatory freedom than, for example, consumer AI.

“I will ​push to ease the regulatory burden ⁠in the EU on AI and, ​where possible, to exempt industrial AI ​from the current regulatory straitjacket that is too tight for AI within the European Union,” he said at the time.

Meanwhile, Busch warned in an interview at the event that Siemens would prioritise investments in the US and China if the EU did not lighten its regulations in a field he said is already subject to sector-specific regulations.

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