Forget the hype around traditional AI leaders for a moment. While Nvidia and Palantir Technologies continue their impressive runs, a lesser-known champion, Vertiv Holdings (NYSE: VRT), has been quietly delivering monster returns, significantly outperforming its high-profile counterparts. As the foundational backbone for AI data centers, Vertiv’s integral role in powering the AI revolution makes it an often-overlooked yet critical investment, especially considering its attractive valuation and accelerating growth.
In the relentless pursuit of the next big artificial intelligence (AI) stock, investors often fixate on the chipmakers and software developers at the forefront of innovation. Companies like Nvidia, with its dominant position in AI graphics processing units (GPUs), and Palantir Technologies, a leader in generative AI software, have undeniably seen spectacular growth. Nvidia’s stock has jumped 62% in the past six months, while Palantir’s has doubled in the same period, driven by surging demand for their critical AI solutions.
However, the real monster AI stock quietly surpassing these giants in recent months is Vertiv Holdings. This crucial infrastructure provider has delivered an astonishing 152% gain in just six months, showcasing the immense, often-underestimated value of the companies that provide the physical backbone for the AI world.
Vertiv’s Critical Role in the AI Ecosystem
Vertiv is not a software developer or a chip designer; instead, it is an essential provider of infrastructure for data centers and communications networks. Its offerings include power management systems, thermal management solutions, data center racks, enclosures, and various software and services. These products are vital for ensuring the reliable operation of data centers, especially those running complex and power-hungry high-performance computing and AI workloads.
The skyrocketing demand for AI means an equivalent surge in the need for robust, efficient data centers. Vertiv’s services are at the heart of this expansion. For instance, the company has partnered with CoreWeave, a rapidly expanding cloud infrastructure provider, to deploy dedicated AI data centers. Vertiv’s cooling distribution units were crucial in CoreWeave’s Nvidia GB300 NVL72 rack scale system, and the company also provides modeling and thermal simulation to ensure operational stability.
This integral role explains Vertiv’s accelerating growth trajectory.
An Order Book on Fire: Vertiv’s Accelerating Growth
Vertiv’s financial performance highlights its critical position in the AI boom. In the first half of 2025, the company’s revenue surged by 30% compared to the same period last year, reaching $4.67 billion. This follows a strong 16% revenue jump in 2024, indicating a clear acceleration in its growth. For 2025, Vertiv projects an organic sales growth of 24%, underscoring the sustained demand for its solutions.
A clear sign of robust demand is Vertiv’s book-to-bill ratio, which stood at 1.2 in Q2. This indicates that the company is receiving orders at a faster rate than it can fulfill them, leading to a backlog that supports future revenue. With over $3 billion in orders received in the second quarter, Vertiv raised its full-year outlook. Despite tariff-related challenges, its non-GAAP earnings increased by 42% year over year in Q2.
Furthermore, Vertiv recently strengthened its position in the AI data center market by acquiring Great Lakes, a provider of data racks and cabinets, for $200 million. This strategic move aims to bolster its capacity and offerings amidst surging demand.
The Unstoppable Demand for AI Infrastructure
The long-term growth prospects for Vertiv are immense. The power demand from AI-fueled data centers is projected to skyrocket by an astounding 165% by 2030, according to Goldman Sachs. This monumental increase is driven by a massive expansion in capacity required to handle complex AI workloads.
Industry estimates suggest that data center capacity could quadruple between 2023 and 2030, potentially reaching 219 gigawatts (GW) in a mid-range scenario, as reported by McKinsey. Even with such aggressive expansion, a deficit in data center capacity to meet AI-fueled demand is anticipated by the end of the decade. As more AI data centers are built to address this looming gap, the demand for Vertiv’s cooling, power management, and data center rack solutions is set to explode, ensuring robust earnings growth for years to come.
A Valuation That Still Entices Investors
Despite its phenomenal run, Vertiv stock remains attractively valued. It currently trades at 34 times forward earnings, which is lower than the U.S. technology sector’s average price-to-earnings ratio of 52. This suggests that even after its impressive gains, the market may not have fully priced in Vertiv’s explosive growth potential.
Adding to its appeal is a price/earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio of 0.91. A PEG ratio below 1 often indicates that a stock is undervalued relative to its expected earnings growth, making it a compelling buy for growth-oriented investors. For comparison, while Alphabet (Google’s parent company) has seen its shares jump more than 40% in the last 12 months due to its AI initiatives, and is trading at a much lower price-to-sales multiple than Nvidia, its direct impact on AI hardware infrastructure is different. Similarly, Meta Platforms, another mega-cap AI play, has soared nearly 140% in the last year, with its own efforts in AI chips aiming to reduce dependence on Nvidia, as noted in a recent Bloomberg report on Apple’s potential use of Google Gemini. These companies highlight the broad AI investment landscape, but Vertiv carves out a distinct niche in indispensable physical infrastructure.
Given the critical and growing demand for AI data center infrastructure, Vertiv’s robust financials, strategic acquisitions, and relatively attractive valuation make it a strong contender for investors looking beyond the obvious AI leaders.
The Long-Term Investment Perspective
For investors seeking to capitalize on the AI boom without paying the premium valuations of giants like Nvidia (which trades at 36 times sales compared to Alphabet’s sub-6.5 multiple), Vertiv offers a compelling alternative. Its role as a foundational enabler of AI ensures that as AI adoption expands across industries, Vertiv’s services will remain indispensable. This makes it a powerful long-term play for those looking for sustainable growth in the AI sector.
