Air Liquide
Industrial gas leader with €27B revenue pivoting to hydrogen infrastructure while maintaining 460bp margin improvement over five years.
Air Liquide posted €27.06 billion revenue in 2024 with €3.31 billion net profit, but the numbers obscure a metabolic transformation. The French industrial gas giant operates like atmospheric circulatory systems - invisible infrastructure that makes modern industry possible. The company supplies oxygen for steelmaking, nitrogen for semiconductor fabrication, hydrogen for refineries, and medical gases for hospitals across 80 countries. This is keystone infrastructure: remove it, and entire industrial ecosystems collapse.
The biological parallel is mitochondria - organelles that manage cellular respiration. Air Liquide doesn't manufacture products; it manages industrial metabolism. The company's 460 basis point margin improvement over five years (targeting 200bp more by 2026) comes from optimizing gas production, pipeline networks, and delivery logistics. The €250 million investment to supply Micron's Idaho memory chip plant and €280 million for Dresden semiconductor hub show the pattern: Air Liquide embeds itself into high-value manufacturing as essential infrastructure.
Phase transition defines the 2024-2025 strategy. The company committed €500 million in green bonds to energy transition projects, built a 200MW electrolyzer in Netherlands (ELYgator), and created TEAL Mobility joint venture with TotalEnergies for 100 hydrogen truck stations across Europe. This is not corporate social responsibility theater; it's metabolic adaptation. Hydrogen for heavy transport and industrial decarbonization represents new circulatory pathway as carbon-based energy faces regulatory pressure.
The €110 million European subsidy for Antwerp-Bruges low-carbon hydrogen network and pilot ammonia cracking unit converting ammonia to renewable hydrogen show Air Liquide positioning as infrastructure for post-carbon industry. The company's unique competitive position: it already owns industrial gas networks, customer relationships, and regulatory approvals. Converting from grey hydrogen (from natural gas) to green hydrogen (from electrolysis) exploits existing infrastructure while adapting to new environmental constraints. When basic infrastructure operators successfully navigate energy transitions, they often emerge with strengthened monopoly positions. Mitochondria that adapt to new fuel sources maintain their essential cellular role.