Air Liquide Sales Rise 3% as AI Chipmaking Demand Lifts Electronics Business
The French industrial gases supplier reported €7.26 billion in third-quarter revenue, led by semiconductor customers, and outlined the first €1 billion of a planned buyback.
French industrial gases group Air Liquide reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of €7.259 billion, a 3% increase on a comparable basis, as semiconductor manufacturing demand supported its Electronics business.
The company said Electronics sales grew 12% on a comparable basis, reflecting demand for carrier gases and advanced materials used in chip production, including facilities serving artificial-intelligence computing. Industrial Merchant sales increased 5.3% on the same basis. The Americas and Asia-Pacific recorded comparable growth of approximately 6% and 7%, respectively.
Air Liquide said its investment backlog had reached €6.2 billion and that investment decisions exceeded €4.1 billion over the first nine months of the year. The company plans to execute an initial €1 billion tranche of its broader share-repurchase programme by the end of December 2026. That amount is a planned transaction, not a completed repurchase.
Management maintained its outlook for a 100-basis-point increase in operating margin in each of 2026 and 2027 under the specified comparable measures. Revenue comparisons exclude certain currency, energy and scope effects, which means the reported growth rate and comparable growth rate are not interchangeable. The results show growing semiconductor exposure alongside the group's established industrial-gas businesses.
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