PWR February 19, 2026

Quanta Services Q4 2025 Earnings Call - Record results, $44B backlog, and a deliberate push to de-risk supply chains

Summary

Quanta reported a clean year of execution in 2025, delivering record revenue, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EPS, free cash flow, and backlog. Management framed 2026 as another year of double-digit growth, supported by a record $44 billion backlog, disciplined M&A and a large, deliberate investment to verticalize the power-transformer and breaker supply chain. The company is pitching itself as a certainty provider to utilities and hyperscalers, leaning into programmatic, multi-year work while remaining selective on risk and on large fixed‑price projects.

Key financials: 2025 revenue $28.5 billion (+20% y/y), adjusted EBITDA $2.9 billion, adjusted diluted EPS $10.75 (+20% y/y), operating cash flow $2.2 billion, free cash flow $1.7 billion. Q4 revenue $7.8 billion, adjusted EBITDA $845 million, adjusted EPS $3.16. 2026 guidance targets continued double-digit growth and over 20% adjusted EPS growth, with free cash flow roughly $1.8 billion at the midpoint and $250M–$350M of 2026 capex tied to vertical supply chain buildout.

Key Takeaways

  • Quanta delivered record results in 2025 across revenue, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted diluted EPS, free cash flow, and backlog.
  • Full-year 2025 revenue was $28.5 billion, up 20% year-over-year; adjusted diluted EPS was $10.75, also up 20%.
  • Quarterly results: Q4 revenue $7.8 billion, adjusted EBITDA $845 million, adjusted EPS $3.16; Q4 operating cash flow $1.1 billion, free cash flow $946 million.
  • Year-end backlog hit a record $44 billion, management says this provides multi-year visibility into 2026 and beyond.
  • 2026 guidance calls for continued double-digit growth in revenues, net income, and adjusted EBITDA, and the opportunity for over 20% adjusted EPS growth.
  • Management plans a material vertical supply chain investment to de-risk transformers and breakers, approximately $500M–$700M over the next several years, with $250M–$350M of related capex expected in 2026.
  • Quanta completed eight acquisitions in 2025, adding roughly 11,100 employees and increasing total headcount to about 69,500 at year-end.
  • In Q4 Quanta closed Tri-City Group, Wilson Construction Company, and Billings Flying Service, paying roughly $1.7 billion upfront for those three deals via cash and stock; leverage remained below 2x after transactions.
  • Data centers are roughly 10% of the business today, the fastest growing piece of backlog, and management expects meaningful multi-year growth in that end market.
  • Management emphasized programmatic, multi-year contracts with utilities and technology customers, shifting away from short term bid volatility toward negotiated, risk-adjusted programs.
  • Large transmission work at 765 kV is visible but not in 2026 backlog, management expects more sizable 765 kV awards to show up in late 2027 and beyond.
  • Quanta is re-entering and pursuing gas generation work, including CCGT projects; management expects to book additional generation projects, some via JVs, though early awards may not hit 2026 backlog.
  • Margins: electric infrastructure margin midpoint (~10.3%) remains similar to recent years, management took a prudent stance for 2026; organic hiring (about +6,000 employees expected) and regulated work temper near-term margin expansion.
  • Supply chain and craft labor dynamics: management called out tight craft labor, especially for data center work, and said vertical integration and fabrication capacity (about 3 million sq ft plus additions) will help execution certainty.
  • Renewables remain a durable growth engine, management sees double-digit growth and is comfortable working with customers using safe-harbor and multi-year pipelines to manage political and regulatory noise.
  • Quanta will not generally invest capital directly in customer assets like data centers to avoid competing with clients, instead using its balance sheet to self-fund strategic manufacturing and supply chain investments.
  • AI is being adopted to improve engineering and field productivity, management expects to reinvest operational savings into further AI initiatives and workforce reskilling rather than headcount cuts.
  • Fabrication and pre-manufacturing capability was expanded via acquisitions, Tri-City adds custom fab to existing capacity, and management is open to fabricating for third parties when appropriate.
  • Management reiterated disciplined M&A: they see many potential targets, remain selective, and view both bolt-ons and platform buys as additive to the total solutions strategy.

Full Transcript

Conference Operator: Good morning, and welcome to the Quanta Services fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow management’s prepared remarks, and we ask that you please hold all questions until that time. I will then provide instructions for the question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. I will now turn the call over to Kip Rupp, Vice President, Investor Relations, for introductory remarks.

Kip Rupp, Vice President, Investor Relations, Quanta Services: Thank you, and welcome everyone to the Quanta Services fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings conference call. This morning, we issued a press release announcing our fourth quarter and full year 2025 results, which can be found in the investor relations section of our website at quantaservices.com. This morning, we also posted our fourth quarter and full year 2025 operational and financial commentary and our 2026 outlook expectation summary on Quanta’s investor relations website. While management will make brief introductory remarks during this morning’s call, the operational and financial commentary is intended to largely replace management’s prepared remarks, allowing additional time for questions from the institutional investment community. Please remember that information reported on this call speaks only as of today, February 19, 2026, and therefore you’re advised that any time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of any replay of this call.

This call will include forward-looking statements and information intended to qualify under the Safe Harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements reflecting expectations, intentions, assumptions, or beliefs about future events or financial performance, but that do not solely relate to historical or current facts. You should not place undue reliance on these statements as they involve certain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict or beyond Quanta’s control, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. We will also present certain historical and forecasted non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release and operational and financial commentary. Please refer to these documents for additional information regarding our forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures.

Lastly, please sign up for email alerts through the investor relations section of quantaservices.com to receive notifications of news releases and other information, and follow Quanta IR and Quanta Services on their social media channels listed on our website. With that, I’ll turn the call over to Mr. Duke Austin, Quanta’s President and CEO. Duke?

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: Thanks, Kip. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Quanta Services fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings conference call. I’d like to begin by thanking our exceptional employees for their continued absolute performance mindset, dedication to safety, operational excellence, and delivering mission-critical infrastructure solutions to our customers. Your commitment has once again driven outstanding results and positioned Quanta for sustained success. 2025 was another year of significant achievement and advancement for Quanta. Again, we delivered record results as we generated double-digit growth in revenues, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted earnings per share, along with record free cash flow and backlog. Quanta has produced record revenues 8 of the last 9 years, 8 consecutive years of record adjusted EBITDA, and 9 consecutive years of record adjusted diluted earnings per share. Quanta has clearly established itself as a compounder of profitable growth.

These results reflect the strength of our diversified solution-based business model and our portfolio approach, enabling us to adapt to evolving industry dynamics while consistently delivering execution certainty and profitable growth across varied market conditions. Throughout 2025, we continued to enhance our capabilities through strategic, disciplined capital deployment. We completed eight acquisitions during the year, including three significant transactions in the second half of 2025. We acquired Dynamic Systems, a premier turnkey mechanical and process infrastructure provider that strengthens our presence in the attractive and growing technology, semiconductor, healthcare, and listed markets. In the fourth quarter, the acquisitions of Tri-City Group and Wilson Construction Company expanded our craft skill platform to deliver critical path solutions for load-centered facilities and electric utility programs.

In the aggregate, the acquisitions we completed in 2025, along with our organic growth, added approximately 11,100 employees, bringing our total workforce to approximately 69,500 at year-end, reinforcing our self-perform capabilities that provide certainty and differentiates Quanta as a solutions provider. Looking ahead, we see substantial momentum building across our end markets, as evidenced by our total backlog of $44 billion. The convergence of the utility, power generation, and large load industries, combined with accelerating load growth demands, is driving unprecedented infrastructure investment requirements. For example, in October, we announced Quanta’s selection by NiSource to design, procure, and construct generation and infrastructure resources capable of producing approximately 3 GW of power for a large data center campus in Indiana, a project that showcases the breadth of our total solutions platform, as well as our support. That support customer affordability objectives.

Additionally, we continue to advance our vertical supply chain solutions through strategically investing approximately $500 million-$700 million over the next several years in our power transformer manufacturing facilities and vertical supply chain strategy. The majority of this investment will build out production for the 345 kV through 765 kV power transformers and breakers, which we believe will create a significant differentiated solution for our Quanta and our customers in the high voltage transmission market. These programs are just a couple of examples of Quanta’s ability to provide total solutions across converging markets that are designed to deliver speed and certainty. In many ways, we believe we are just getting started. We are confident in Quanta’s ability to deliver innovative, craft-based, and supply chain solutions that are designed to meet our customers’ need for certainty and for their success.

As we said last quarter, we believe we were well positioned to achieve record backlog and another year of double-digit earnings per share growth in 2026, and our full year guidance reflects that conviction. Our strategy remains grounded in craft labor excellence, execution, execution certainty, and disciplined investment. We believe Quanta is uniquely positioned at the center of a multi-decade infrastructure transformation, and we are confident in our ability to generate attractive compounding returns and deliver long-term stakeholder value. With that, I will now turn the call over to Jayshree Desai, Quanta CFO, to provide a few remarks about our results in 2026 guidance, and then we will take your questions. Jayshree?

Jayshree Desai, CFO, Quanta Services: Thanks, Duke, and good morning, everyone. We are pleased to report another quarter of strong execution, capping a year in which Quanta delivered record results across virtually every key financial metric. For the full year, revenues reached $28.5 billion, an increase of 20% compared to 2024. Adjusted EBITDA was a record $2.9 billion, and adjusted diluted earnings per share grew 20% year over year to $10.75. We also generated record cash flow from operations of $2.2 billion and record free cash flow of $1.7 billion. In the fourth quarter specifically, revenues were $7.8 billion, with adjusted EBITDA of $845 million and adjusted diluted EPS of $3.16. All records for Quanta.

Cash flow from operations in the quarter was $1.1 billion, and free cash flow was $946 million, both fourth quarter records. During the fourth quarter, we completed 3 acquisitions: Tri-City Group, Wilson Construction Company, and Billings Flying Service, for aggregate upfront consideration of approximately $1.7 billion, funded through a combination of cash and Quanta common stock. These businesses complement our strategies and expand our power delivery capabilities for large load center facilities and utility capital programs. Even after deploying this level of capital, following the third quarter acquisition of Dynamic Systems, we maintained a leverage ratio below 2x, a testament to the strength of our cash generation and our commitment to balance sheet discipline.

Looking ahead, this morning, we provided our full year 2026 financial expectations, which reflects continued double-digit growth in revenues, net income, and Adjusted EBITDA, as well as the opportunity to deliver over 20% growth in Adjusted EPS. These financial expectations are supported by record backlog at year-end of $44 billion, the strength of which is broad-based, driven by ongoing investment in grid reliability and resilience, growing demand for power generation, and the long-term infrastructure investment required to meet rising electricity consumption across the economy. These are multi-year structural demand drivers that provide us with meaningful visibility heading into 2026 and beyond.

Additionally, we expect free cash flow of $1.8 billion at the midpoint of our range, which includes $250 million-$350 million of expected capital expenditures related to the vertical supply chain solution that Duke described. Our range of free cash flow also contemplates the collection of the remaining balance associated with the large Canadian renewable transmission project discussed in prior calls. Additional details and commentary about our 2026 financial guidance can be found in our operational and financial commentary and outlook expectation summary, both of which are posted on our IR website. In summary, 2025 was a year in which Quanta continued to deliver on its commitments, providing certainty to our stakeholders and compounding earnings. We enter 2026 with record backlog and a strengthening outlook.

The convergence of utility modernization, power generation expansion, and large load growth continues to accelerate, and Quanta’s workforce, breadth of solutions, and execution capabilities position us well to serve our customers’ most critical infrastructure needs. We remain focused on disciplined growth, operational excellence, and creating long-term value for our shareholders. With that, we are happy to answer your questions. Operator?

Conference Operator: Thank you. We will now move to our question and answer session. For today’s session, we will be utilizing the raise hand feature via the webinar. If you’d like to ask a question, simply click on the Raise Hand button at the bottom of your screen. If you have dialed in, please press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute your line. Once you’ve been called on, please unmute yourself and please begin to ask your question. Again, that is star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute if you have dialed in.... We ask that all participants limit themselves to one question. If you have an additional question, you may re-queue, and those questions will be addressed, time permitting. Thank you. We will now pause a moment to assemble the queue. Our first question is from Julian Demoulin-Smith from Jefferies.

Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Julian Demoulin-Smith, Analyst, Jefferies: Hey, good morning, team. Thank you guys very much. Nicely done. Truly, kudos! Maybe just coming back to the analyst day, coming up here, and a little bit of a preview, if I can. How do you think about this setting the tone for a high teens earnings growth, if you will, through the back half of the decade? And specifically within that, can you talk about what’s embedded in 2026 guidance as it pertains to data center contracts? And also, obviously, Jayshree, you’ve, you’ve just announced, or you closed on a number of acquisitions. Again, how, where are you positioned with respect to capturing the data center opportunity and, and the, you know, internal versus still, still needing further external, acquisitions to really, achieve the scope that you’re desiring?

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: Yeah. Good morning, Julian. So in the data center, kind of how we’re thinking through it, it’s, it’s roughly like 10% of the business at this point, and then that would be a go-forward basis. Backlog is certainly growing. It’s, it’s our fastest growing piece of backlog. There’s a lot of opportunity there. I continue to see us booking significant backlog this year and beyond. It’s a multi-decade, probably, the way I see it, at least a decade of, you know, growth in that area. So, you know, we’re having success there, and I do believe the company is well positioned to, you know, take that growth. And I forgot the other four questions. What was the other one?

Jayshree Desai, CFO, Quanta Services: Just how do you see the several years?

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: Oh, the several years. Yeah, look, I, I think when we see it, you know, the management team’s put up a decade of type results. Same management team, same philosophy, better markets, larger TAMs. I like our chances to continue what we’ve done in the past.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Steven Fisher, from UBS. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Steven Fisher, Analyst, UBS: Thanks. Good morning. Congratulations on the deals. Just wanted to ask you a little bit about the electric margins, kind of steady for the last few years. I wonder if you could just bridge some of the puts and takes between 2025 and 2026. I imagine there are some things underlying there, you know, in terms of SunZia, and perhaps other things, and maybe just more broadly, about the margin initiatives that you have. I know you’ve got a number of them. Could you just talk about how you see some of those things coming through in terms of vertical integration, improved resource sharing, mix, et cetera? Thanks.

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: Yeah. Thanks, Steve. I think when we look at the company, you know, large, large-- there are large projects that, that we’re continuing to see. But, you know, 2026, we don’t anticipate starting any 765 type work. We don’t see any major large projects in it. It’s really just solid growth across a broad spectrum of markets. There’s nothing, there’s no SunZia. I got you. With the company at $33.5 billion, SunZia is really not gonna move the needle at this point. I think you’re seeing broad-based type growth that you’ll continue to see. You know, I think the difference is you’re- we’re in two verticals. You have the technology TAM that’s well over $1 trillion, and the utility TAM over $1 trillion and growing.

So as we look at both those markets and take those opportunities, the company has a significant portfolio of ways to grow well beyond what we should be talking about in SunZia. I think that’s passed, and we’ve done a nice job there, commending the team that put that together. But again, like, we’re happy to build SunZias, and we’re happy to do the baseload work of everyday programmatic spend with both our technology and our utility customers, and that’s what you see the company focused on. The large project dynamic comes with that, but you know, the initiatives of 765, again, like, we talk about it a lot, it’s not in backlog yet, and it’s not something that we see in 2026.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Jamie Cook, from Truist Securities. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Julian Demoulin-Smith, Analyst, Jefferies: Good morning. Nice print. I guess just to question, you know, since the announcement with NiSource last quarter, I’m just wondering what the path towards doing more CCGT, you know, projects. I’m just wondering if additional customers are coming to you now that you sort of dipped your foot in this. And as you do this, should we continue to see joint venture as a path? And then I guess just my follow-up question, margins in electric infrastructure, 10.3% at the midpoint, similar to the past couple of years.

I’m just wondering if investors should think of this as sort of the new margin target, and why wouldn’t there be opportunities for margin expansion with 765 coming online soon, and you know, just bigger, larger projects should be favorable to margins. Thank you.

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: Yeah, thanks, Jamie. I’ll go backwards. I think when we look at margins and margins improvement, yes, I mean, we have opportunity to improve that. You know, I think we took a prudent approach to the midpoint of the guidance, and, you know, there’s certainly things within it that we can improve. Organically, we’ll grow around 6,000 employees. That’s pressure on those margins, as we’ve talked about in the past, and we continue to kind of have the same ratios. So that tempers some of the margins. You know, still 50% plus of the business is under a regulated environment with our utility customers, and we look more at compounding that... over multi-decades versus trying to enhance margins of a percentage point here or there. Yeah, I do think we can operate better.

We certainly have a mindset to do so. It’s also about risk. I mean, I think the company’s really working on the quality of earnings and the risk profile. We’re unwilling to take the risk you may have seen in the past, but the margins are there, and so it’s really a compounding story, Jamie. I don’t think you’re gonna see any of these outward margins, and especially in our regulated business and even in our addressable market. With technology, we’re working hard with the technology customers to have more of a programmatic look to this, and that’s the company. That’s who we are. We want to collaborate in multi-decade look. We’re not trying to do anything other than enhance our customer’s ability and the stakeholder, their customer from affordability to everything else.

We have to be a part of the solution of the industries that we serve.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question-

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: I would say, Steve, Steve asked something on margins. I want to go back to that, sorry. I do think the company has initiatives internally that from vertical supply chains and all the things that we’re doing. Sorry, Steve, I didn’t catch you. That will help us but you also have healthcare and all, all kinds of things that are pressing, including, what I, what I just discussed with Jamie. So sorry, I missed that part.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Manish Samaya, from Cantor Fitzgerald. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Manish Samaya, Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald: Thank you so much, and congrats on a strong quarter, a strong year, and obviously a strong outlook. The question I have, Duke, again, pertains to what’s happening in the marketplace. Maybe if you can just give us a sense of, you know, the pricing discipline that’s holding in the marketplace, combined with potential supply chain dynamics that might be also a potential headwind as we look at the growth opportunities that you have.

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: Yeah, I mean, I think when you look at supply chain, you know, you see our announcement this morning, it’s really around trying to de-risk the supply chain as well as take advantage of what we see in the marketplace. I mean, you know, the $300-$500 million, probably up to $700 million over the next three years is de-risking us. If the transformers, breakers, the things that we’re building don’t show up, we have issues, significant issues. So I think, you know, part of that was a collaboration with the industry and our client, AAP, on building transformers to their spec. And that’s something that we take very seriously, and we know that our clients want certainty.

This company’s built on certainty and billings, transformers, all the things that you may not think, "Why are they doing that?" We’re doing that to de-risk this company long term and allow us to be certain as we look at it, while addressing affordability to our clients. I think that’s a big thing, is affordability, and we’re working on those things with our vertical supply chain, which allows us a great sense of certainty. When we guide and when we tell our customers that we can do something on time, on budget. As far as craft, we’ve invested in craft for two decades. That’s who we are. Anytime you have a tight, tight craft labor market, Quanta does very well.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question is?

Manish Samaya, Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald: Duke, the other question I had was on pricing dynamics in the marketplace.

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: Yeah, I mean, Look, I think we look at it more in a collaborative manner, where, you know, we were bidding on a 1-year type, 2-year type things. Now, we’re not bidding at all, we’re negotiating 5-, 10-year type programmatic spends, and that’s the difference. It, it’s, it’s more longevity, more risk, risk-adjusted type, look at the business solution providing, pull through. ROIC goes up in these environments, our return on invested capital, because of things that we can do and offer in a solution base. So I really see just a longer term. It’s not a margin story, I’ll say it again.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Mark Strauss, from JP Morgan. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Mark Strauss, Analyst, JP Morgan: Yes, good morning. Thank you very much for taking our questions. Duke, I just wanted to follow up on Jamie’s earlier question on gas power generation. Can you just talk about what you’re seeing in the pipeline there, how you’re expecting that backlog to trend in 2026? And then are you planning to expand beyond the Zachary JV going forward? Thank you.

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: Yeah. Thanks for reminding me, I missed that. So I do think when we look at our gas generation business, we’re certainly looking at the market, listening to the market. They’re asking us to build these types of combined cycles, single cycles, all types of generation, and we put together a great team, a great platform. I’m super excited about what we have booked. The opportunities, yes, I do believe when you look at the opportunities, we will book more generation. We will book it both in a JV setting, we’ll book it with just us. I mean, we’re certainly capable internally of building generation and we’ll. So it’s really around the risk, where, you know, that’s something that-...

We’re not gonna deviate on it. It’s part of it and our customer base, and anyone that calls asking for generation, it’s risk adjusted. We’re not getting in a position where of the past, where we earn fixed price generation, not doing it. So if people want us to build it, it will be risk adjusted. And yes, I believe we’ll book backlog throughout the year. There’s no shortage of inbound calls when we wanted to build generation. So I’m confident you’ll continue to see that backlog growth, it—which is not in backlog yet. So the first one’s not in backlog. I suspect we’ll have multiple in backlog before the end of the year. And, you know, I think it’s more of a 2027, 2028, 2029 type build, where that’s the ramp on it, and it’ll continue on out.

We’ve built a nice platform. I’m excited about it.

Conference Operator: Our next question is from Ati Modak, from Goldman Sachs. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Ati Modak, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Hey, good morning, team. Duke, in your prepared comments, you talked about strategic initiatives to expand programmatic customer relationships. Can you talk about that a little bit more? Give us any color on what you’re thinking of and what we should expect there?

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: I mean, I think when we look at the utilities and we look at the technology customers, it’s our job to, you know, certainly help with their builds and make them successful. That’s how this company views it. And as we do that, you know, look, people want certainty, they wanna, they have to have it. And I think that’s what we are known for, is execution certainty. And construction risk is not something that we’re concerned with, primarily on the regulated utilities, except gas-fired. So we’ll really, I think we’re just in a good spot there, and the discussions we’re having are solution-based discussions, and they have issues with labor constraints, vertical supply chain issues.

We’ve done a nice job seeing down, you know, seeing out 5, 10 years and putting ourselves in great positions here to take advantage of those things. It may have looked funny to Wall Street 5 years ago, and they’re showing up today as something that looks visionary, and I think that’s what we’re trying to accomplish.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Mike Dudas, from Vertical Research Partners. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Ati Modak, Analyst, Goldman Sachs2: Yes, thanks. Good morning, Duke, Kip, and Jayshree.

Conference Operator: Morning.

Ati Modak, Analyst, Goldman Sachs2: Oh, yeah, good. Just checking to make sure I’m like... Hey, hey, Duke, nice decade. So-

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: Thank you.

Ati Modak, Analyst, Goldman Sachs2: Looking at the, looking at the, you know, the, the news flow and demand expectations are, are-- appear to be off the charts and getting bigger. Get a sense of how, how ex-- how real the market is with, with your discussion with utilities on the, on the, on the load factor side. Is-- are there a lot more fluff in the market? Is there reality? And what, and what are some of the hurdles? Are there hurdles becoming less important or more important to execute what the plans of your customers are over the next several years, you know, maybe regulatory or some of those issues there? Thank you.

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: I mean, anytime you’re really contemplating doubling the size of, you know, the largest human infrastructure project in the world, I would tell you, like, it’s hard. And there’s stops and starts and all kinds of different things that you can find out in the marketplace, and certainly on social media. Yeah, I think some of it is hype, but even if you discount it 50%, it’s still doubling the size of the largest infrastructure project in the world. And I don’t see any demand slowdown at all. I don’t. And we can see out kind of five years, it may be longer. I mean, we’re probably in 2032 now, kinda looking at things and booking things. So I think it’s, you know, way out there.

We have to build generation in this country, all forms, and I think it, it’s something that our customer base, our utility customers are certainly—they’re regulated in many ways, but I’ll speak for them. They have a great business, and it goes unnoticed of how the energy business is growing substantially. It’s a growth business, and, you know, we’re right in the middle of it with them. You’re gonna get some political windfall, you know, kind of rhetoric here with what I would consider, unfounded things that go on with data centers and things like that. You know, when you look at the Indiana project, it’s $7 a month, you know, rebate, basically, to every ratepayer in NiSource, maybe more. So I just—I think we have to do a better job as an industry, promoting how good this industry is.

We’re trying to do the right thing for the stakeholders while advancing the system and generation capabilities to double the size of what it is today. I, you know, I’m super excited about it, and the utilities are super excited about it. They’re doing a great job managing through all this political rhetoric, but, underneath, I can tell you legs are moving fast and people are doing things.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Sangita Jain, from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Duke, it looks like the hyperscalers and co-locators are increasingly looking for financing partnerships for large projects as the project sizes get bigger.

Jayshree Desai, CFO, Quanta Services: ... Would you ever consider becoming an investor in a large infrastructure project if the scope of the award measures up against your risk profile?

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: Yeah, I mean, Sangita, we’ve looked at those things in the past. I would, I would say we never compete with our customer on those type of things. So you get in a situation where if you invest significantly with a co-locator, hyperscaler, and things that, like that, you run the risk of, of, competing with who, who our client is, and we, we don’t do that. So, can we help with supply chain? Can we do some things to help move things along? Sure. We have not taken outside money for any of our, expansions. We just haven’t. I mean, we’ve been offered, you know, on transformers, all kinds of different things. We don’t need capital. We need capital, but we don’t need anyone else’s.

We want to control our own destiny, and I think it’s extremely important that we have the balance sheet where we can do those things and enhance what they’re able to accomplish. But as far as at this point, us putting in capital into, you know, an asset such as a data center, I can’t see it. We can do things in other ways. And in the company, what we see going forward, based on our ability to deploy capital in the core business, I like what I see there much more than trying to invest in something that we don’t you know, that’s not core to us. That’s how I see it.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Brian Brophy, from Stifel Nicolaus. If you’d like to unmute your line and ask your question.

Speaker 2: Thanks. Good morning, everybody. Nice quarter. Appreciate you taking the question. Duke, you mentioned, you mentioned previously you’re seeing a tight craft labor market. I guess, can you talk about some of the areas of your business where you’re seeing more or less tightness currently? Thanks.

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: I mean, it’s across the board, you know? I think, you know, we’ve got to do a good job of getting pipelines of craft in here. I was in D.C. yesterday with Veterans in Energy, and I can only say, like, we’re working hard at building these pipelines into the company. And we’ve got to get out and promote it and make sure that we stay in front of it in our colleges and campuses and all the things, working with our unions and non-unions. Everything that we’re doing, I think will help us, but it is tight. You know, I would say anything around the data center stuff is probably the tightest market at this point. You know, the utility-type transmission, big transmission, things like that, hasn’t really started yet.

You’ll see that in the back half. Distribution’s kind of, you know, modest growth in that. Telecom’s moving the right direction. I think you’ll start to see fiber splashers, things like that, get tight. But in general, it’s good. We, we know where it’s going. We see it. We’re investing in the right spots, and we’ll take advantage of those markets.

Conference Operator: Our next question is from Nick Amicucci from Evercore. Please unmute your line.

Ati Modak, Analyst, Goldman Sachs3: Good morning, guys. Just a quick one for me. As we kind of saw at the end of last week, just wanted to get a sense of kind of the ability to kind of push the button on executing on more renewables projects, just given that we have now some guidance, albeit preliminary, but on the FIOC side. Have you guys seen kind of have the conversations kind of picked up, you know, granted, over the past week, just with regards to those and just kind of get it moving those things forward?

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: Yeah, I mean, I, I’ll let Jayshree comment as well, but from what I see, you know, we continue and have continued to stay, you know, kind of double-digit type growth plus in, in our renewable business, and we can see out, you know, through to 2030. I’m not concerned with that business. It, it’s... You know, there’s always gonna be a FIOC. There’s always gonna be something in that business that, that it’s noisy, and we have to operate through it. When you think about solar and batteries, it, it’s the very fastest thing we can put on, on the grid right now, in many areas. So we can build it fast. We don’t, we don’t have to wait on turbines or anything like that.

So, so I do think there’s opportunity there, and we’ll continue to see that, and it’ll be a form of energy for the foreseeable future. You know, wind’s getting some bad press, but you’ll still see wind get built, and not under some sort of political pressure and all kinds of different things, but it’s still getting built underneath, and it’s needed to fill the generation gap. And Jayshree, I’ll let you comment on the rest.

Jayshree Desai, CFO, Quanta Services: No, the only thing I’d add is, the customers we’ve been working with, as you know, they’ve been very, very strategic about getting ahead of a lot of these political dynamics, with safe harboring and the projects in which they’re working and having a robust enough pipeline to deal with some of these things that are just endemic to the renewables industry. So we have continued to work with them on a multi-year basis, and so it’s allowed us to be comfortable with where we sit in our renewables expectations. We’ll of course continue to work with them over the next several years, as the dynamics around the FIOC and other things become more clear. But as of now, it’s as Duke said, it’s just business as usual.

We continue to see good growth there. There will be times, of course, where our customers will have to deal with certain political dynamics, but they’re—these are customers that are comfortable doing so. And we’ve intentionally stayed with customers who can do so and who have a track record of over a long period of time of managing these things. And the demand continues to be very, very strong for those, for those projects our customers are working on. So, it’s just business as usual on the renewable side.

Conference Operator: ... Our next question is from Adam Thalhammer, from Thompson, Davis & Co. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Adam Thalhammer, Analyst, Thompson, Davis & Co: Hey, good morning, guys. Great quarter. Hey, there was a comment in the prepared remarks about large transmission projects becoming increasingly visible. Can you just compare what’s in backlog for large transmission to what you see out there in the bidding environment?

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: Yeah. I’m not sure how to define it. You know, what’s large now these days? So I would just say we have no significant 765, no 765, which I consider those large projects, in the backlog. I don’t. There’s not a lot of large dynamics in there. It’s more programmatic, spend, more so than any kind of main project that I’m aware of. It’s minimal. It’s. I mean, look, we see it coming. We see it stacking. We’ve talked about it. I think you’ll see us book later half of 2027, significant amount of 765, and other types of work. It’s not just 765, it’s 345, 500, data centers, I don’t know, generation. It’s stacking.

I feel confident that there’ll be some chunky awards all the way through the next 3-5 years, right? We’re just getting started. I know the backlog’s growing. I see it too. We’re taking market share, we’re doing the right things. We’re focused on the base business, we’re not letting off of it, and then the management team is highly focused on not giving up on that base business, in fact, growing it.

Conference Operator: Our next question is from Justin Hawk from Baird. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Justin Hawk, Analyst, Baird: Great. Good morning, everybody. I wanted to ask about the custom fab capabilities that came from this acquisition this morning, I guess, at Tri-City. Is that, I guess, all new to you or did you have some fabrication capabilities from Cupertino or elsewhere before this? And maybe just talk about, you know, the capacity you have there. And also, is that all being done for self-performed construction work, or is that something where you’re selling those pre fabs to others to use? Thank you.

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: Yeah, thanks. Yeah, we did have some fab capabilities come in with Tri-City, a great group there that, you know, we like what they were doing. That just adds to the 3 million sq ft we already have. So we have significant amount of fabrication, pre-fab. We call it pre-manufactured because it is manufactured. So I do think when we look at it, it’s a little different. Everybody’s specs a little different, so we’re fabricating, really from a manufacturing engineer type fabrication, so it’s a little unique. I would go back and tell you, Cupertino, over a decade ago, was the first mover in this, and we have a lot of experience with fabrication and pre-fabrication, what goes wrong and what goes right.

We’ll continue to work with our customers, whoever the customer may be. We’re certainly willing to fab for others, if that’s what the market is. You know, that—we say it all the time, it’s fungible. In many ways, those facilities are fungible, but there’s no shortage of people wanting to shore up capacity for, you know, 3- to 5-decade type arrangements. So we’re happy to do that as well.

Conference Operator: Our next question is from Chad Dillard, from Bernstein. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Chad Dillard, Analyst, Bernstein: Hey, good morning, guys. So my question’s on the architecture shift from 54-volt to 800-volt DC for data centers. Just curious how that changes Quanta’s TAM. And, you know, maybe you can talk about whether you see any impacts on front of meter, but probably more so behind the meter. And then secondly, you know, as you reengage in the power generation side for natural gas, can you talk about the opportunities you’re seeing, again, the mix between, you know, front versus behind the meter?

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: Yeah. So voltage going to DC, some of the architecture that NVIDIA’s put out, you know, that’s a lot of the learning chips or, you know, you can see anyone using NVIDIA going into those type of architectures. I believe we’re in front of that. I don’t see it changing our TAM at all. You may get, you may get more medium voltage type arrangements in there. Still a lot of low voltage type things. You know, we’ve done a lot of research on it. We feel good. We work with the NVIDIA and others to make sure that we see where they’re going and make sure we have the craft necessary. So I feel comfortable with that.

But I don’t think, like, when you think through it, there’s still a lot of the older architecture that will be used throughout. I, you know, it’s, it’s something that we’ll have both, when we think through it. So both are growing significantly. We’re in front of that architecture. I do think that when you look through the intermittency of the chips, much better to put it on the utility. Let the utility take the, that intermittency. It’s, it’s smarter, it’s better. It, it’s just the amount of, you know, you’ve got constraints in the queues and things like that. People are trying to go behind the meter simply because you can’t get to the meter. So that, that’s. It’ll, it’ll be both sides of this. There’s some, you know, good things and bad things on both in regulatory environments.

You know, we got to get the regulations right and make sure that the ratepayer is not the one that’s got the bill, that’s, you know, got the tab. That is not happening today. I think the utilities, you can commend them. They’ve done a fantastic job of regulatory, making sure that the technology is paying their way, and technology wants to pay their way. So all the nonsense around that is just, you know, what I consider verbiage that’s out there today on, on social media, wherever it is, and normally around some political aspect of it. It’s not reality. So I-- Look, we see opportunities on both sides. We’ll participate either side, but I do think most off grid, a lot of off grid will be used for your backup power as, as you move generation on.

So you’ll start with 100, 200 max, and then back up for a bit, and then come on with no utility type solutions. So that’s what I see.

Conference Operator: Thank you.

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: As far as natural gas, Natural gas, you know, we’re still in there. We’ve never left. It’ll be a part of the business. We see it and, you know, it’s certainly backing up some of these. We’re getting involved in them, where they’re backing up some of the hyperscalers and data centers. So yeah.

Conference Operator: Our next question is from Liam Burke, from B. Riley. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Liam Burke, Analyst, B. Riley: Thank you. Good morning. In 2026, on the M&A pipeline, Duke, are you seeing sufficient opportunities to either add to your, to your base business or large enough to actually make a difference as the business continues to get critical mass here?

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: Yeah, I would say every acquisition makes a difference, but when I, when I think about it, yes, we see opportunities, you know, as far out as we can see, as far as good businesses. I can’t tell you the cadence. But businesses that I didn’t, you know, we’ve known. I’ve known the Wilson family my whole career, and super family, happy to have them here. They fit here culturally, very excited. They give us some underground capabilities out in the east, which I think is fantastic, as well as shore up some things in the west. You know, some of these things you don’t see coming. We have a good reputation where I believe culturally, we want a certain type of company. There’s no shortage of people wanting to sell their businesses on any given day, I promise. Like, they’re, they’re out there.

How we look at it, we’re very selective, and we’ll. All of our strategies, we’ll lay it out in April, March, I guess, Kip. He won’t let me talk about it much. But, in general, we’re pretty excited about that as well, of talking about kind of what we see. And I see it as the same type of cadence. It may be lumpy along the way. We may not do a deal in a year. So I just think we’ll continue to be selective and follow the paths that provide the solutions to our clients. When we’re looking at this, someone’s asking us to do something, typically, and we need the platform to provide the solution. So you saw us invest organically in our vertical supply chain. It’s needed. We need to do it.

We’re gonna do it. It’s something that’s, you know, what I feel like the demand is coming in, and we have to, you know, make sure that we can meet the demand. So, that said, we’re taking opportunities to both organically invest, as well as look at acquisitions from platforms to bolt on. They all add up.

Conference Operator: Our next question is from Phil Shen, from Roth Capital Partners. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Ati Modak, Analyst, Goldman Sachs5: Morning, Duke. Jayshree, thanks for taking my questions. You’re building so much of the infrastructure for AI. Can you talk through any initiatives you guys have to take advantage of AI to lower your OpEx? Can AI meaningfully change your outlook for OpEx in the coming year or two? And then, as it relates to, you know, bidding and booking dynamics, you know, Duke, I think you were sharing that you guys are booked out through 2030 for renewables. Was wondering if you might be able to share a kind of similar color for the other segments. And then ultimately, you know, how much work are you guys turning down? Thanks.

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: Yeah, I want to clarify, I don’t think I said we’re booked out. I said we’re booking through, just to make sure that we get on the same page there. We’re, we’re certainly taking advantage of, we can stack, and we’re not booked by any means. We’ll, we’ll take all comers, on, on renewables. What was the other question? Sorry, you got me off on that one. Oh, yeah. So AI. Yeah, look, I we would have our head in the, head in the sand if we weren’t looking at AI, what it can do for the company. We’re, we’re already seeing ways to...

You know, I think when we look at M&A, we’re not looking at engineering anymore, because I think AI is gonna be significant there, and it’s gonna really affect the way we have 2,000+ engineers, and we’ll definitely incorporate AI into it. So I just think there’s a lot of things that will change, and we’re in front of that. It’s something I’m highly focused on, both from cost and the way that we can get more productive in the field. You know, there’s a social aspect to this as well. I think, you know, when you really look at what the impacts are on these companies, it’s hard decisions to make, and you know, we’re trying to make sure we’re a growth company.

I won’t really fire people, we grow people, hire people, and so we’ve got to make sure as we displace, that we have avenues for people to, to move into different skill sets, and that’s what we’re doing here. So I think every bit of savings you get, we’re pouring back into AI initiatives.

Conference Operator: That was our final question. I will now hand back to Kip Rupp, Vice President, Investor Relations, for closing remarks.

Duke Austin, President and CEO, Quanta Services: I’ll be Kip. I want to thank our men and women in the field. They’re the very best in the world. They have absolute performance mindset, and they are Quanta. I want to thank you for participating in our conference call. We appreciate your questions and ongoing interest in Quanta Services. Thank you. This concludes our call.