PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 10, 2025--
Intelligent power management company Eaton today announced it will open a new manufacturing campus in Henrico County, Virginia, for critical power distribution technologies to help meet record demand from data center customers. With more than 50 new data centers already permitted in Virginia this year, Eaton is increasing regional manufacturing for technologies vital to data center equipment uptime and reliability.
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The company will more than double its footprint in Richmond, increase capacity and add capabilities for manufacturing static transfer switches, power distribution units and remote power panels. Production at Eaton’s new 350,000-square-foot Richmond area facility is expected to begin in 2027.
“Eaton is uniquely positioned to help our data center customers meet the rapidly increasing power requirements for AI factories through our expansive manufacturing footprint, and our focus on innovation and engineering excellence,” said Aidan Graham, senior vice president and general manager of Critical Power Solutions at Eaton. “We’re continuing to invest in U.S. manufacturing and are thankful for the strong collaboration and support in Virginia. This latest manufacturing expansion builds on our history in Virginia and reflects on the incredible abilities of our longtime local employees.”
Eaton’s fully integrated grid-to-chip portfolio is helping meet the accelerating needs of data center customers with modular and scalable systems that can be deployed globally. The company’s investment in Virginia will increase regional manufacturing for higher power gray space infrastructure for North American customers. Eaton investments in North American manufacturing for its electrical solutions have reached more than $1.2 billion since 2023.
“Eaton’s latest investment in Henrico is proof that Virginia companies and workers are stepping up to meet our growing power needs,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “The only thing better than bringing a new business to Virginia is watching an existing Virginia business expand. By producing even more critical power equipment in the Commonwealth, Eaton is helping drive Virginia’s future and strengthening our competitive edge.”
“Eaton’s decision to expand in Henrico reinforces our reputation as a place where manufacturers truly succeed,” said Edward S. Whitlock, III, Chair, Henrico EDA Board of Directors. “With this second major investment in the past five years, Eaton is doubling down on its commitment to our community, further strengthening our local workforce, and supporting technologies people rely on every day. We wish them continued success as they grow and create new opportunities here in Henrico.”
Eaton will expand and consolidate its local manufacturing in the Richmond area at this new campus from three nearby facilities, located within three miles of the new site. Existing Eaton employees in the area will transition to the new location. The Eaton investment is expected to create 200 additional jobs, with hiring beginning in 2026. The project is supported by state and local economic development incentives.
Eaton is an intelligent power management company dedicated to protecting the environment and improving the quality of life for people everywhere. We make products for the data center, utility, industrial, commercial, machine building, residential, aerospace and mobility markets. We are guided by our commitment to do business right, to operate sustainably and to help our customers manage power ─ today and well into the future. By capitalizing on the global growth trends of electrification and digitalization, we’re helping to solve the world’s most urgent power management challenges and building a more sustainable society for people today and generations to come.
Eaton to open new manufacturing facility in Virginia for critical power distribution technologies vital to data center equipment uptime and reliability. Image credit: ARCO Design/Build and Sauer Properties.
The “Architects of AI” were named Time's person of the year Thursday, with the magazine citing 2025 as when the potential of artificial intelligence “roared into view" with no turning back.
“For delivering the age of thinking machines, for wowing and worrying humanity, for transforming the present and transcending the possible, the Architects of AI are TIME’s 2025 Person of the Year,” Time said in a social media post.
The magazine was deliberate in selecting people — the “individuals who imagined, designed, and built AI” — rather than the technology itself, though there would have been some precedent for that.
“We’ve named not just individuals but also groups, more women than our founders could have imagined (though still not enough), and, on rare occasions, a concept: the endangered Earth, in 1988, or the personal computer, in 1982,” wrote Sam Jacobs, the editor-in-chief, in an explanation of the choice. “The drama surrounding the selection of the PC over Apple’s Steve Jobs later became the stuff of books and a movie.”
One of the cover images resembling the “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” photograph from the 1930s shows eight tech leaders sitting on the beam: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, AMD CEO Lisa Su, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the CEO of Google’s DeepMind division Demis Hassabis, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, who launched her own startup World Labs last year.
Another cover image shows scaffolding surrounding the giant letters “AI” made to look like computer componentry.
Five of the eight people selected — Musk, Zuckerberg, Huang, Altman and Su — are already billionaires with a collective fortune of $870 billion, based on the latest estimates compiled by Forbes magazine. Much of the wealth has been accumulated during the past three years of AI fever.
It made sense for Time to anoint AI because 2025 was the year that it shifted from “a novel technology explored by early adopters to one where a critical mass of consumers see it as part of their mainstream lives,” Thomas Husson, principal analyst at research firm Forrester, said by email.
The magazine noted AI company CEOs' attendance at President Donald Trump's inauguration this year at the Capitol as a herald for the prominence of the sector.
“This was the year when artificial intelligence’s full potential roared into view, and when it became clear that there will be no turning back or opting out,” Jacobs wrote.
Some experts expressed caution over the AI boom and the race to develop increasingly powerful systems.
“Leading AI companies are working feverishly to replace humans in every facet of life, and they’re not being shy about it,” said Anthony Aguirre, executive director of the nonprofit Future of Life Institute, which works on AI safety issues.“The impact on our society could be catastrophic if there are no guardrails protecting what’s human, and most important to us."
AI was a leading contender for the top slot, according to prediction markets, along with Huang and Altman. Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope whose election this year followed the death of Pope Francis, was also considered a contender, with Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani topping lists as well.
After winning his second bid for the White House, Trump was named 2024's person of the year by the magazine, succeeding Taylor Swift, who was the 2023 person of the year.
The magazine was bought by Marc Benioff in 2018. Benioff, one of the co-founders of cloud-computing firm Salesforce, has called AI “probably the most important” technological wave of his lifetime. He has repeatedly said he doesn't get involved in Time's editorial decisions.
The magazine's selection dates from 1927, when its editors have picked the person they say most shaped headlines over the previous 12 months.
Associated Press writers Matt O'Brien in Cupertino, California, Kelvin Chan in London, and Michael Liedtke in San Ramon, California, contributed to this article.
TIME CEO Jessica Sibley is interviewed on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, adjacent to TIME's "Person of the Year" cover, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
TIME CEO Jessica Sibley, second from right, joined by OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane, second left, rings the New York Stock Exchange opening bell for TIME's "Person of the Year," Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A sign for Time magazine is displayed outside the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025 in New York. (AP Photo/Donald King)
