GE Vernova Q3 2026: revenue +27% to $12.6B, EPS nearly tripled to $4.81 as backlog hit $197B

GE Vernova makes and services the equipment that generates and moves electricity: gas, nuclear and hydro equipment (Power), grid gear such as transformers, switchgear and substations (Electrification), and wind turbines (Wind). In the third quarter of 2026 (July–September), revenue rose 27% to $12.6 billion and net income attributable to GE Vernova nearly tripled to $1.29 billion, or $4.81 per diluted share (from $1.64). Unlike the first half of the year, this quarter's profit was not driven by a one-off gain. Operating income, the profit from running the business before interest, pension items and tax, rose from $366 million to $1.39 billion. The order book also kept growing much faster than sales: orders were $29.3 billion, more than twice the quarter's revenue, and backlog reached $196.7 billion.

Key metrics

"Organic" growth leaves out acquisitions, disposals and currency moves. Here it mainly removes Prolec GE, the Mexican-American transformer maker GE Vernova took full ownership of on February 2, 2026. The 10-Q says Prolec GE added $944 million of revenue in the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, also excluding restructuring, separation costs, deal gains and pension income. GE Vernova does not report an adjusted EPS figure.

Takeaway: This is the first quarter of 2026 where GE Vernova's headline profit comes from the business itself, not from a deal gain. Operating income rose almost fourfold on Gas Power prices and deliveries. Turbine and grid orders are arriving faster than the factories can ship, with equipment backlog up 92% in a year. In this business, prices are set when an order is signed, so today's backlog decides margins for several years.

Segment performance

Power: price and gas turbine deliveries

Power orders rose 178% organically to $21.8 billion. The earnings release attributes this to "Gas Power equipment, driven by higher volume and price": 55 heavy-duty units (21 of them large HA turbines) and 57 aeroderivative turbines (smaller, jet-engine-derived units often used for fast-start and data-center power). The company signed 11 gigawatts (GW) of new gas contracts and turned 13 GW of earlier "slot reservation agreements" into firm orders. A slot reservation is a deposit that holds a place in the factory queue before a full order is signed. It shipped 5 GW. Gas equipment backlog went from 53 to 64 GW and slot reservations fell from 63 to 58 GW, so the combined total rose from 116 to 122 GW. Revenue rose 25% on more aeroderivative and heavy-duty deliveries and better pricing. The 10-Q credits the $0.6 billion rise in segment results to "favorable pricing and higher volume, partially offset by the impact of inflation."

Electrification: Prolec GE plus organic grid growth

Revenue rose 51%. Without Prolec GE the increase was 16%, from more alternating-current substation and high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) work at Grid Systems Integration and more switchgear and transformers at Power Transmission. Orders fell 9% organically to $5.4 billion. The company says that is because the year-ago quarter included large synchronous-condenser orders (machines that keep grid voltage stable). Orders still exceeded revenue by about 1.4 times, and equipment backlog rose 60% in a year to $42.2 billion, $5 billion of it from Prolec GE. In October GE Vernova agreed to buy Trench Group, a high-voltage grid equipment maker, for about $9.0 billion. The deal is expected to close in late 2027.

Wind: back to a small profit

Wind turned a $61 million segment EBITDA loss into a $72 million profit. Revenue rose 4%. The 10-Q credits "lower project costs at Offshore Wind" and "the impact of tariff recoveries" plus higher services at Onshore Wind, partly offset by fewer onshore turbine deliveries. Orders rose 16% organically, mainly for repowering older onshore wind farms in North America. GE Vernova also settled all outstanding litigation over the Vineyard Wind offshore project. Over nine months Wind still lost $585 million, worse than the $373 million loss a year earlier.

What the headline numbers hide

• A lower tax rate did about a quarter of the EPS increase. The effective tax rate was 27.7%, down from 39.2% a year earlier. Last year's rate was pushed up by finalizing tax items from the 2024 spin-off from GE, and this year includes "an income tax benefit from tax law changes." At last year's rate, Q3 EPS would have been about $4.05 instead of $4.81. That is still up about 147%, so most of the gain is operational. Pre-tax income rose 139% ($1,782 million vs $746 million). EPS rose 193%.
• Higher pension income added a little. Non-operating benefit income (accounting income from pension and retiree plans, not from selling anything) rose to $212 million from $115 million. That added roughly $0.25 a share after tax. Adjusted EBITDA excludes it.
• No one-off gain this quarter, unlike the nine months. Gains on business sales were only $35 million, against $44 million a year earlier. Year to date, net income is $6.7 billion. That total includes a $3,992 million pre-tax gain from revaluing GE Vernova's original 50% of Prolec GE when it bought the rest, and a $366 million gain on selling the Proficy software unit. For the nine months, the $24.81 diluted EPS is therefore mostly accounting gains. The quarter's $4.81 is not.
• Acquisition amortization makes reported profit look lower. Depreciation and amortization almost doubled to $439 million from $212 million, mainly from writing down Prolec GE's acquired intangible assets over time. Prolec GE made a $5 million pre-tax loss on $944 million of revenue, even though it adds to EBITDA.
• Cash is running far ahead of profit, mostly from down payments. Over nine months, operating cash flow of $16.7 billion included a $19.5 billion rise in contract liabilities. The 10-Q says this was "driven by down payments on orders and slot reservation agreements at Power, and down payments at Electrification." Customer prepayments on the balance sheet are now $45.7 billion, up from $25.8 billion in December. This is real cash and a sign of strong demand. But it is paid in advance for future deliveries, so free cash flow will fall back toward profit as those turbines ship.
• Working capital is growing with the business. Inventories rose to $13.0 billion from $10.4 billion and receivables to $11.6 billion from $9.8 billion since December. Both are roughly in line with Prolec GE joining and higher production, not a sign that sales are being pushed out early.
• Buybacks had a small effect. GE Vernova bought back about 1.7 million shares for $1.6 billion in the quarter, and diluted shares fell 2.5% to 268 million. That explains about 3 points of the 193% EPS growth.

On balance the quarter is clean: operating income rose almost fourfold on price and volume, and the lower tax rate added about $0.76 of the $3.17 EPS increase without changing the overall picture.

Did last time's read hold up?

Our Q2 2026 report said the second half "has to be stronger": first-half adjusted EBITDA margin was 10.5%, below the 12–14% full-year range then guided. It also said Wind would need to swing to a small profit in the second half for its loss guidance to hold, and called that the least certain part of the outlook. Both happened in Q3. Adjusted EBITDA margin reached 15.4%, and Wind earned $72 million of segment EBITDA. Management then raised the full-year margin range to 13.5–14.5%.

Guidance and outlook

Management raised its 2026 guidance:

Our read on what that implies:

• Q4 revenue of $13.4–14.4 billion. Nine-month revenue is $33.1 billion, so the new range implies a fourth quarter above Q3's $12.6 billion.
• Free cash flow has already beaten the range. Nine-month free cash flow is $15.3 billion, already 93% of the new $16.5 billion midpoint. The guidance therefore assumes only $0.7–1.7 billion in Q4. That fits with down payments slowing as deliveries catch up with orders.
• Wind is still the weakest part. The new $400–500 million full-year loss, against $585 million lost so far, implies Wind makes another $85–185 million profit in Q4. The wider loss range is a small step back from the earlier ~$400 million figure.

The company expects backlog to pass $200 billion in Q4 and to end 2026 with at least 130 GW of gas equipment under contract (backlog plus slot reservations), up from 122 GW now. The board doubled the buyback authorization to $20 billion, with $10.1 billion remaining.

Three things to watch next:

1. Whether Power's margin keeps rising as higher-priced orders from 2025–26 ship. Power's guidance of 19–21% for the year implies another quarter near Q3's 21.4%.
2. How fast slot reservations turn into firm orders.
3. Whether Electrification orders recover to growth once they lap last year's large synchronous-condenser bookings.