Deere Gets Rolling as AI Buildout Fuels Construction Sales Boom

John Deere may be the world’s largest manufacturer of agricultural equipment, but another business line is the real reason it’s plowing ahead.

The company reported its fiscal third-quarter earnings Thursday, with revenue climbing 6.2% year over year to $11 billion, and income rising 7% to $1.4 billion. Both figures came in ahead of Wall Street forecasts. The results showed Deere crushing a new field, as its construction business proved a beneficiary of the AI infrastructure boom. Shares in the company rose 6.94%.

Goldman Sachs expects $1 trillion in AI spending this year, $800 billion of that by US hyperscalers. To make it happen, the world is gonna need a lot of dump trucks, backhoes, bulldozers and excavators, of which Deere has plenty.

Its earnings are a testament to how the company is already cashing in. Deere’s construction and forestry sales rose 18% to $3.6 billion. Investor Relations Director Chris Seibert said on an analyst call that “customer backlogs now extend well into fiscal year 2027.” The AI boom could not have come at a more welcome time, as it offsets a cyclical downturn in Deere’s biggest and most famous business line:

Time for a Reset: Deere’s full-year industry outlook forecasts large agriculture equipment volumes will fall 15% to 20% this year in the US and Canada, while construction equipment volumes will rise 5% to 10%. Deere CEO John May said the company thinks 2026 will be the end of the current downcycle in agriculture equipment, saying the manufacturer is “well positioned for long-term value creation.”