Forgent’s IPO is ‘bringing sexy back’ to the electrical equipment helping power the AI boom, CEO says

The data center and power sectors are booming because of the global AI race but, quietly, so too is the electrical distribution equipment industry that connects the electricity to the Big Tech campuses.

That’s why Forgent Power Solutions—a combination of four legacy companies put together by private equity—was branded less than a year ago and quickly went public with a successful initial public offering in February, growing to a market cap of nearly $8 billion.

“I made a joke in one of the investor sessions that we’re bringing sexy back in the electrical distribution space,” Forgent CEO Gary Niederpruem told Fortune.

Forgent serves three end markets—data centers, power grids, and industrial—and all are expanding, he said.

The data center segment is growing the fastest right now, and Niederpruem expects that to continue, noting the data center sector was largely cloud-based for the past 20 years, which remains a growth area.

“The AI piece has come on relatively recently, and it’s just icing on the cake. There’s no doubt AI has added an accelerant,” he said. After all, Forgent’s order backlog had quickly grown by 45% near the end of 2025.

The newly birthed Forgent is competing with a lot of much bigger players that have broader industry offerings, including Vertiv (where Niederpruem used to work), Eaton Corp. Schneider Electric, and GE Vernova. Their market caps range from Vertiv’s $88 billion—up nearly 1,000% since going public in 2020—to GE Vernova at $217 billion.

To compete, Niederpruem said Forgent focuses its four product families—transformers, switchgear equipment, transfer switches, and prefabricated solutions—on bespoke offerings. Forgent engages early in the planning and delivers with speed and scale to meet detailed specifications to help connect everything from behind-the-meter gas-fired power plants to utility-scale solar farms.

Perfect timing for the AI boom

Forgent’s origin story was marked by rapid consolidation and growth. Peter Jonna left Oaktree Capital Management and founded Neos Partners in 2022 with a private equity investment thesis focused largely on utilities and electrification—a perfect fit for the new AI infrastructure boom.

Within two years, Neos acquired 50-year-old MGM Transformers out of California, States Manufacturing from Minnesota, PwrQ out of Maryland, and Texas-based VanTran Transformers.

They focused on integration and expansion, spending $205 million to build 1.8 million square feet of manufacturing space nationwide—including near the Dayton, Minnesota headquarters—upping the total square footage to 2.3 million. Niederpruem came on board as CEO over a year ago and, after a quiet period, launched the Forgent brand name in August, designed to mean they’re “forging ahead” with their customers.

Niederpruem said they knew “pretty early on” the IPO route was the best exit strategy. “Because of the rate at which we were growing, we knew we were going to have some size and scale that really lent itself best to the public equity markets.”

Niederpruem spent much of his 30-year career at Emerson Electric and its subsidiaries, including Emerson Network Power, which was eventually sold and rebranded as Vertiv. He continued to work there for another five years until 2022, including helping take Vertiv public in 2020. He later served as CEO of the energy conservation firm Cenergistic, and then took the leadership role at Forgent.

“When Neos called with this opportunity, I knew this was right in my wheelhouse and that this is in my blood and in my DNA,” he said, adding that the experience spinning out and going public with Vertiv prepared him for the Forgent roadshow and IPO process.

Now, he said, he just has to focus on growing the business. “All of our [segments] are growing at tremendous rates. We think the math behind each one of those is not only robust, but very durable.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com