The chief executive of the world’s largest manufacturer of transformers has warned that the sector is “overwhelmed” and isn’t able to meet surging demand for the equipment driven by AI data centers, the Financial Times reported.

Hitachi Energy CEO Andreas Schierenbeck reportedly told the FT transformer makers would find it challenging to increase output fast enough to match demand to upgrade power grids.

“Ramping up capacity is definitely an issue. It’s not easy and it will probably not ramp up fast enough,” he was quoted as saying, adding that expansion plans by utilities would be stalled and the lifetime of current infrastructure would need to be extended. “Everybody is overwhelmed by the demand.”

Hitachi Energy is a unit of Hitachi Ltd. (HTHIF, HTHIY).

According to the report, Hitachi Energy has become an important growth engine for the Japanese company after it took over ABB Power Grids four years ago. It is aiming to raise revenues $1B to $2B annually to $30B by around 2030, FT said.