EMCOR Group Posts Record $5.15B Quarterly Revenue, $17.14B Backlog as Data Center Work Surges

EMCOR Group reported record second-quarter 2026 revenue of $5.15 billion and a record $17.14 billion backlog on Thursday, then raised its full-year guidance for the second time this year. The Norwalk, Connecticut-based electrical and mechanical contractor said data center and AI-infrastructure construction work is the biggest force behind the surge.

Revenue rose 19.8% from $4.30 billion a year earlier, according to EMCOR’s earnings release, distributed via Business Wire and posted on the company’s own investor relations site. Diluted earnings per share climbed 34.8% to $9.06, up from $6.72 in the second quarter of 2025, on net income of $403.7 million versus $302.2 million a year ago. Operating income hit a record $547.3 million, pushing operating margin to 10.6% from 9.6% a year earlier.

Backlog jumps 44%

EMCOR’s remaining performance obligations, the industry term for contracted work not yet booked as revenue, reached $17.14 billion, up 43.9% from $11.91 billion a year ago and up $3.89 billion since the end of 2025. The company attributed the RPO growth to its Network and Communications, Water and Wastewater, Institutional and Healthcare end markets. EMCOR’s electrical and mechanical segments report data center and other “mission critical” facility work under the Network and Communications category.

Segment revenue growth was broad-based. U.S. Electrical Construction and Facilities Services revenue grew 24% to $1.66 billion, while U.S. Mechanical Construction and Facilities Services revenue grew 31% to $2.30 billion — the two largest dollar and percentage gainers among EMCOR’s four reportable segments. Building Services revenue grew 5.6% to $838 million, and Industrial Services revenue grew 25.9% to $354 million.

“We had an exceptional second quarter, growing revenues nearly 20% and earning an impressive 10.6% operating margin,” Chairman, President and CEO Tony Guzzi said in the release. “We have performed extremely well during the first half of 2026, executing across numerous sectors where demand for our services persists.”

What’s driving the backlog

The formal press release does not use the phrase “data center.” That framing came from Guzzi and Chief Financial Officer Jason Nalbandian on the company’s earnings call the same day. Asked whether data center customers were showing any change in their demand profile, Guzzi’s answer, as relayed in call transcripts, was blunt: “Short answer, none.” He described mechanical-construction scopes on AI data center jobs carrying a revenue “multiplier” of 1.5 to 2 times a comparable non-data-center project, versus roughly 1.5 times on the electrical side, and said project sizes have grown from a historical norm of around 20 megawatts to jobs now running 100 to 200-plus megawatts.

Nalbandian said the mix shift is also stretching how EMCOR’s backlog burns off. Historically, he said, about 85% of RPO converted to revenue within 12 months; today that figure is closer to 75% to 76%, which he tied to the longer construction timelines of large-scale data center projects.

Guidance raised again

EMCOR increased its 2026 revenue guidance to a range of $20.00 billion to $20.50 billion, up from $18.50 billion to $19.25 billion. Full-year diluted EPS guidance rose to $32.00–$33.25, from $28.25–$29.75, and operating margin guidance rose to 9.5%–9.8%, from 9.0%–9.4%.

What it means

The revenue, EPS, operating margin and backlog figures above are drawn directly from EMCOR’s own earnings release and are not in dispute. The specific link between that backlog growth and data centers is attributed interpretation — it comes from Guzzi’s and Nalbandian’s own remarks on the earnings call, not from the written release, though it is consistent with the Network and Communications category the company does cite in writing as its fastest-growing RPO driver.

RealtyWire’s read: EMCOR’s results are another data point in a now-familiar pattern among contractors and landlords with exposure to data center construction — record backlogs, project sizes measured in hundreds of megawatts, and management commentary describing no slowdown in customer demand. That is a real and verified trend in EMCOR’s own numbers this quarter. Whether it holds for multiple years, as opposed to being a temporary capital-spending cycle among a handful of large technology customers, is not something this quarter’s results can settle on their own, and neither EMCOR nor RealtyWire is claiming otherwise.

The RPO burn-rate shift Nalbandian described — less backlog converting to revenue within a year — is worth watching alongside broader construction-cost trends like the Turner Building Cost Index, which has also cited data centers as a demand driver. A backlog that takes longer to convert gives EMCOR more revenue visibility today, but it also means more of the company’s growth is riding on a narrower set of large, long-duration projects tied to AI infrastructure buildout, including major campuses like the one recently proposed in Lovejoy, Georgia.

What to watch

EMCOR’s third-quarter report, expected in late October, will show whether the 43.9% RPO growth rate holds, accelerates or begins to normalize. Guzzi flagged on the call that seasonal factors — heavier building-services activity in the second quarter, lighter industrial turnaround work in the back half of the year, and geopolitical disruptions tied to the Middle East — could pressure margins in the fourth quarter even if revenue growth continues. Investors and rival contractors will also be watching whether other mechanical and electrical firms report similar data-center-driven backlog gains when they report second-quarter results in the coming weeks.