Verified
Nucor
Experimenting- Steel
- ~33,000 employees
- C3 AI apps at multiple sites
- AI Center of Excellence
- AI-native hiring (Oct 2026)
- No AI ROI disclosed
Nucor runs AI mostly in planning and mill operations: C3 AI says its demand forecasting, inventory optimization and production scheduling applications are live across multiple Nucor facilities (Sep 2025), and Nucor has described AI scheduling at its Memphis SBQ mill and machine learning for furnace control at Nucor Steel-Arkansas. Jeffery Roberts's Business Technology Integration team set up an AI Center of Excellence, and Nucor Business Technology, which has an AI and Emerging Tech team, was hiring in Oct 2026 for AI-native software development, with Azure the preferred cloud.
nucor.comTheir approach to AI
- The platform
- Nucor runs C3 AI's demand forecasting, inventory optimization and production schedule optimization applications on the C3 Agentic AI Platform across multiple facilities, according to C3 AI (Sep 2025); Nucor Business Technology also builds its own software, and Jeffery Roberts's Business Technology Integration team set up an AI Center of Excellence for AI adoption and education (AWMI, Sep 2026).
- The models
- Nucor names no AI model provider; C3 AI said in Sep 2025 that it had closed a C3 Generative AI agreement with Nucor, and Nucor Business Technology job postings from Oct 2026 ask for retrieval-augmented generation, agent and LLM integration skills, with Azure the preferred cloud and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure also considered.
- The reach
- Nucor has not said how many of its roughly 33,000 teammates use AI tools; C3 AI says its applications support day-to-day planning, inventory and scheduling decisions at multiple Nucor facilities, and Nucor University offers teammates LinkedIn Learning courses on AI (2025 Sustainability Report).
- The catch
- Much of the detail on Nucor's AI program comes from its vendor C3 AI; Nucor itself has quantified only an 80% cut in scheduling man-hours at one mill (Jul 2024) and reports no AI spending, user counts or AI-credited financial return.
Snapshot
- Employees
- ~33,000 (2025)
- About 200 work in the Charlotte head office (2025 Form 10-K)
- Technology budget
- Not disclosed
- No IT or AI spending figure in the 2025 Form 10-K or 2026 proxy statement
- AI/ML headcount
- Not disclosed
- Nucor has not published the size of Nucor Business Technology, its AI and Emerging Technology department or its AI Center of Excellence
- Who owns AI
- No named AI executive
- AI sits with Jeffery Roberts's Business Technology Integration team in Nucor Business Technology, led by President Sushma Walker
- Platform
- C3 AI, plus in-house builds
- C3 AI's planning applications run on the C3 Agentic AI Platform (C3 AI, Sep 2025)
- Models
- Not disclosed
- C3 Generative AI agreement (C3 AI, Sep 2025); Oct 2026 job postings ask for RAG, agent and LLM integration skills
- Reach
- Not disclosed
- C3 AI applications at multiple facilities; LinkedIn Learning AI courses open to teammates
- Use cases
- Several in production
- C3 AI planning apps, AI scheduling at the Memphis SBQ mill, furnace machine learning at Nucor Steel-Arkansas; AI-native software planned (Oct 2026)
Key findings
C3 AI said on Sep 3, 2025 that Nucor had expanded a multi-year partnership to build an enterprise-wide AI program across its steel mills, steel products and raw materials operations, with C3 AI's demand forecasting, inventory optimization and production schedule optimization applications live across multiple facilities and Nucor extending C3 AI to more plants and to agentic AI.
Nucor's most specific AI result on its own record is production scheduling at its Memphis SBQ mill, where EVP John Hollatz said on the Jul 23, 2024 earnings call that AI had cut the man-hours spent on that process by about 80%, with yield and working capital gains he did not quantify.
Jeffery Roberts, who joined Nucor in 2021 after more than a decade at Capgemini, leads a Business Technology Integration team that oversees software engineering, enterprise data analytics, AI and emerging technologies and that recently set up Nucor's AI Center of Excellence (AWMI, Sep 2026); Gaurav Malhotra, Nucor's Department Manager for AI and Emerging Technology, said in Aug 2026 that demand forecasting and inventory optimization were among Nucor's focus areas.
Nucor Business Technology job postings from Oct 2026 say the division wants AI-native development to be the way it builds software, seek an Applied AI Engineer for its AI and Emerging Tech team to build applications on enterprise AI platforms such as C3.ai or Palantir Foundry, and name Azure as the preferred cloud.
Nucor's 2025 Form 10-K does not mention artificial intelligence and Nucor's earnings calls treat AI mainly as demand for data center and power steel; as of Nov 2026 Nucor discloses no AI spending, user counts or AI-credited financial return.
Where Nucor sits
- Stage
- Experimenting
Nucor sits at Experimenting: what Nucor itself has disclosed is mill-level work, AI scheduling at the Memphis SBQ mill (Jul 2024) and machine learning for electric arc furnace control at Nucor Steel-Arkansas (May 2025), plus an AI Center of Excellence set up by Jeffery Roberts's Business Technology Integration team for AI adoption and education. Nucor has named no sanctioned AI assistant for its roughly 33,000 teammates and has not confirmed AI running in production at scale. The strongest evidence for more, C3 AI's statement in Sep 2025 that its planning applications are live across multiple Nucor facilities, comes from the vendor, and Nucor's own filings never name C3 AI. Nucor would reach Piloting once it confirms a sanctioned tool or platform live for groups of teammates and a handful of use cases in production.
How the stages are defined - Ownership
- No AI executive named; AI sits with Jeffery Roberts's team in Nucor Business Technology, led by Sushma Walker
- Platform
- Hybrid: C3 Agentic AI Platform for planning apps (per C3 AI), plus in-house builds
- Models
- Not disclosed; C3 Generative AI agreement (Sep 2025), LLM skills in job postings
- Hosting
- Not disclosed; Oct 2026 job postings name Azure as the preferred cloud and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure as an option
- Reach
- Not disclosed; C3 AI apps at multiple facilities, AI courses open to teammates
How they deploy
AI as a market for steel
Nucor's public statements about AI are mostly about demand. Nucor's 2025 Sustainability Report lists the rapid build-out of data center infrastructure for advanced technologies such as AI among the efforts Nucor's product portfolio is built to support, and says demand for its data center products grew alongside the expansion of AI, cloud computing and digital infrastructure after Nucor bought Southwest Data Products and launched Nucor Data Systems in 2024. The same report says rising energy demand from AI and the digital economy makes power generation and transmission steel a major growth opportunity for Nucor.
An enterprise AI program with C3 AI
Nucor's largest disclosed AI deployment runs on software from C3 AI. C3 AI counted Nucor among the new customers of its fiscal year to Apr 2023, said in Dec 2023 that it was optimizing production schedules across several Nucor mills and that Nucor had started AI forecasting and a generative AI use case for health and safety procedures, and said in Sep 2024 that its demand forecasting, inventory optimization and production schedule optimization applications supported daily decisions across multiple Nucor facilities. In Sep 2025 C3 AI said Nucor had expanded into a multi-year partnership to build an enterprise-wide AI program across steel mills, steel products and raw materials, and was extending C3 AI to more plants and to agentic AI with a focus on throughput and working capital. The detail comes from C3 AI's quarterly results releases; Nucor's 10-K, annual report and earnings releases do not name C3 AI, though Nucor's Gaurav Malhotra was quoted in Aug 2026 describing the demand forecasting and inventory work.
AI in mill operations
Nucor's executives have described one AI use inside the mills; a conference paper, a vendor and trade press describe others. On the Jul 23, 2024 earnings call Leon Topalian said Nucor was embracing AI and automation across many areas of its businesses, and John Hollatz said the Memphis SBQ mill used AI to schedule a complex steelmaking process. A paper presented at AISTech on May 6, 2025 by a Nucor Steel-Arkansas author and AMI Automation said AMI's SmartKnB platform, which combines process logic and machine learning models, improved electric arc furnace performance and refractory life at Nucor Steel-Arkansas. An SME Advanced Manufacturing article from Jan 2023 described Nucor work with Delta Bravo AI from 2022 to predict how steel mixtures perform and where to cut them. On the Jul 28, 2026 call Topalian said Nucor would use AI and automation for safer and higher-return outcomes.
A central team for adoption and education
Nucor's internal AI work, as far as it is public, runs through Jeffery Roberts's Business Technology Integration team, which oversees software engineering, enterprise data analytics, AI and emerging technologies. The AWMI event page for Roberts's Sep 17, 2026 keynote on AI and the steel industry says his team recently set up Nucor's AI Center of Excellence to accelerate AI adoption and education across the organization. A Nucor Business Technology posting from Oct 21, 2026 places an Applied AI Engineer in an AI and Emerging Tech team that builds AI applications on enterprise AI platforms such as C3.ai or Palantir Foundry for scrap, electric arc furnace, casting, rolling, finishing, logistics and commercial work, and runs training to drive adoption. Nucor has not said when the AI Center of Excellence was formed, how large it is or what it has delivered.
AI-native software in Nucor Business Technology
Nucor Business Technology (NBT) job postings from Oct 2026 say the division is building the next generation of manufacturing software for Nucor's steel operations and wants AI-native development to be the way it builds. NBT's software architect is to modernize Nucor's manufacturing execution systems alongside its ERP landscape, make build-versus-buy calls, and design retrieval-augmented generation, agentic systems and evaluation-driven delivery into NBT's products. A new NBT Solution Engineering team for the Bar and Engineered Bar Mill Group will start with digital ordering and commercial capabilities and is expected to use AI-assisted development tools.
A decentralized company
Nucor describes itself in its 2025 Form 10-K as highly decentralized: about 200 of its roughly 33,000 teammates work in the Charlotte head office, and division general managers make most day-to-day operating decisions. Nucor says its operations are highly automated and that production teammates earn group incentives tied to output. Nucor has not described how AI decisions are split between NBT and the divisions, though NBT's Oct 2026 architect posting refers to working with mill-embedded engineers.
- Deployment model
- Nucor runs information technology centrally through Nucor Business Technology (NBT), a division that the 2025 Form 10-K makes responsible for the company's IT needs and cybersecurity, and whose president, Sushma Walker, reports to the EVP of Strategy. Jeffery Roberts's Business Technology Integration team covers software engineering, enterprise data analytics, AI and emerging technologies and set up an AI Center of Excellence, and an NBT AI and Emerging Tech team builds applications on enterprise AI platforms. Nucor buys its main AI applications from C3 AI, which says they run on the C3 Agentic AI Platform across multiple facilities, while NBT job postings from Oct 2026 describe in-house AI-native software, roles in Dallas and Irving, Texas, architects who partner with mill-embedded engineers, and a new solution engineering team for one product group. The mills and product groups run as decentralized divisions, and two of Nucor's described AI uses sit in mills, the Memphis SBQ mill and Nucor Steel-Arkansas.
- Model providers
- Nucor has named no AI model provider, AI assistant or coding tool. C3 AI said in Sep 2023 that C3 Generative AI was being deployed to improve safety during steel manufacturing at Nucor, and in Sep 2025 that it had closed a C3 Generative AI agreement with Nucor; neither release names the large language model underneath. Nucor Business Technology job postings from Oct 2026 ask candidates for prompt engineering, API-based LLM integration, AI orchestration, retrieval-augmented generation, agent frameworks, MCP servers, LLMOps and evaluation-driven development, and for experience with AI-assisted and agentic development tools, without naming a model vendor.
- Data and infrastructure
- Nucor has not said which cloud or data center runs any AI model, including the C3 AI applications. NBT's Oct 2026 software architect posting asks for cloud architecture experience with Azure preferred and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure also considered; the Solution Engineering Team Lead posting prefers Azure experience; the Senior Solution Engineer posting accepts Azure, AWS or GCP; and the Applied AI Engineer posting gives Azure as its example cloud and asks for exposure to plant historians, manufacturing execution systems and event streams. NBT is modernizing Nucor's manufacturing execution systems alongside its ERP landscape and the data and integration fabric that ties the mills to the enterprise, and NBT postings prefer experience with ERP platforms such as Oracle E-Business Suite. Nucor's 2025 Form 10-K says Nucor runs IT systems from production equipment to administration and uses third-party providers for certain IT services.
Platforms and internal tools
C3 AI Supply Chain Suite on the C3 Agentic AI PlatformBy Dec 2023
C3 AI Demand Forecasting, C3 AI Inventory Optimization and C3 AI Production Schedule Optimization, among other C3 AI applications, support day-to-day planning, inventory and scheduling decisions at Nucor, according to C3 AI's Sep 2024 and Sep 2025 results releases; C3 AI said in Dec 2023 that it was already optimizing production schedules across several Nucor mills. Nucor is extending C3 AI to more plants and to agentic AI, according to C3 AI.
- Users
- Multiple Nucor facilities (C3 AI, Sep 2025)
AI Center of ExcellenceBy Sep 2026
Nucor's AI Center of Excellence was recently set up by Jeffery Roberts's Business Technology Integration team to accelerate AI adoption and education across Nucor, according to the AWMI event page for Roberts's Sep 17, 2026 keynote. Nucor has not published the AI Center of Excellence's size, tools or results.
Manufacturing execution systems modernizationIn progress (Oct 2026)
Nucor Business Technology is modernizing Nucor's manufacturing execution systems alongside its ERP landscape, and its Oct 2026 software architect posting says AI, including retrieval-augmented generation and agentic systems, is to be designed into the products NBT builds for the mills.
Nucor UniversityOct 2024
Nucor University (NU) is Nucor's learning program; through NU, teammates have a LinkedIn Learning account with thousands of self-paced courses on topics that include AI, according to Nucor's 2025 Sustainability Report.
Vendors and partners
C3 AIC3 AI fiscal 2023 (by Apr 2023)
AI applications and platform for demand forecasting, inventory, production scheduling and generative AI · C3 AI reported new or expanded Nucor agreements in Sep 2023, Dec 2023, May 2024, Feb 2025 and Sep 2025, the last a multi-year partnership for an enterprise-wide AI program; Nucor's 10-K and annual report do not name C3 AI.
AMI AutomationPresented May 2025
SmartKnB machine learning platform for electric arc furnace control at Nucor Steel-Arkansas · AMI Automation's work at Nucor Steel-Arkansas was described in a paper presented at AISTech 2025 with a Nucor Steel-Arkansas co-author.
Delta Bravo AI2022
AI predictions for steel mixtures and cut points · Delta Bravo AI's work with Nucor was described in an SME Advanced Manufacturing article in Jan 2023; Nucor has not said whether the work continues.
Microsoft AzureNamed Oct 2026
Preferred cloud named in Nucor Business Technology job postings · Nucor has not confirmed that any AI model or C3 AI application runs on Azure; NBT's Oct 2026 software architect posting lists Azure as preferred and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure as also considered.
LinkedIn Learning
Self-paced courses for teammates, AI among the topics · LinkedIn Learning is offered through Nucor University, according to Nucor's 2025 Sustainability Report.
Leadership
AI, data and platform leaders
Executives
AI org map
Central IT division with an AI Center of Excellence and an AI team; operating decisions sit with decentralized divisions
Nucor Business Technology (NBT), led by President Sushma Walker, is responsible for Nucor's information technology and cybersecurity; its president reports to the EVP of Strategy, K. Rex Query, who reports to President and COO Steve Laxton and, above him, Chair and CEO Leon Topalian, according to the 2025 Form 10-K and 2025 Annual Report. Jeffery Roberts's Business Technology Integration team, which by its name sits within NBT, covers AI and set up the AI Center of Excellence, and Gaurav Malhotra manages an AI and Emerging Technology department that works on Nucor's C3 AI applications. Nucor's mills and product groups run as decentralized divisions, with about 200 teammates in the Charlotte head office.
Nucor has published no count of technologists, data scientists or AI engineers. Nucor's AI work sits mainly in Nucor Business Technology (NBT), the division responsible for the company's IT and cybersecurity and led by President Sushma Walker, where Jeffery Roberts's Business Technology Integration team covers software engineering, enterprise data analytics, AI and emerging technologies and runs the AI Center of Excellence, and where Gaurav Malhotra manages an AI and Emerging Technology department. NBT job postings from Oct 2026 show roles in Dallas and Irving, Texas, an AI and Emerging Tech team building applications on enterprise AI platforms, and a new solution engineering team for the Bar and Engineered Bar Mill Group; the mill teams behind AI scheduling in Memphis and furnace machine learning at Nucor Steel-Arkansas have not been described.
Reporting lines
Chair and CEO
Leon Topalian
President and Chief Operating Officer
Strategy
K. Rex Query, EVP
Nucor Business Technology
Sushma Walker, President
Responsible for Nucor's IT needs and cybersecurity (2025 Form 10-K)
Cybersecurity
Led by a Cybersecurity Director with more than 20 years in the field, not named by Nucor
Business Technology Integration and AI Center of Excellence
Jeffery Roberts, Director
Software engineering, enterprise data analytics, AI and emerging technologies; the line to NBT is inferred from the team's name, not published
AI and Emerging Technology
Gaurav Malhotra, Department Manager
Works on Nucor's C3 AI demand forecasting and inventory applications; the line to Roberts's team is inferred from the AWMI description of that team's remit, not published
Bar and Engineered Bar Mill Group
Randy Spicer, EVP
A new NBT solution engineering team starts here with digital ordering and commercial tools (Oct 2026); the line to the COO is inferred, not published
Steel mills and product groups
Division general managers make most day-to-day operating decisions; the Memphis SBQ mill runs AI scheduling and Nucor Steel-Arkansas runs furnace machine learning; the line to the COO is inferred from the segment review in the 2025 Form 10-K
Business Services
Benjamin Pickett, EVP
Supervises the annual cybersecurity risk assessment with other executives; reporting line not published
Nucor's 2025 Form 10-K gives the reporting line from the President of Nucor Business Technology through the EVP of Strategy to the President and COO and the Chair and CEO, and Nucor's 2025 Annual Report names Sushma Walker as President of Nucor Business Technology. Nucor's leadership page lists only the executive team and board, with no one holding a technology, data or AI title. Jeffery Roberts's place inside NBT is inferred from his team's name, and Gaurav Malhotra's place under Roberts from the AWMI description of Roberts's team.
Where the AI workforce sits
Nucor Business Technology, including Business Technology Integration, AI and Emerging Technology and the AI Center of Excellence
Nucor has not published how many technologists, data scientists or AI engineers it employs.
Not disclosedMill-embedded engineers and division teams
NBT's Oct 2026 architect posting refers to mill-embedded engineers, and mill teams in Memphis and at Nucor Steel-Arkansas run AI in production; Nucor gives no AI headcount for the divisions.
Not disclosed
Named people
Use cases
Nucor has four AI use cases in production on the public record as of Nov 2026, one of them last described in 2023: C3 AI demand forecasting and inventory optimization across multiple facilities (C3 AI, Sep 2025), AI production scheduling at the Memphis SBQ mill and, per C3 AI, across several Nucor mills, machine learning for furnace control at Nucor Steel-Arkansas (May 2025), and Delta Bravo AI predictions for steel mixtures (Jan 2023). A C3 generative AI safety use case is at pilot stage, and AI built into Nucor Business Technology's own software appears only in Oct 2026 job postings. Nucor reports no business-level return for any of them and no firm-level return from AI.
| Use case | Area | Status | ROI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demand forecasting and inventory optimization (C3 AI) C3 AI Demand Forecasting and C3 AI Inventory Optimization help Nucor predict and balance demand for materials and size inventory across multiple facilities, according to C3 AI's Sep 2024 and Sep 2025 results releases; Gaurav Malhotra of Nucor said in Aug 2026 that the aim is to right-size working capital and feed Nucor's integrated supply chain. | Supply chain and planning | In production | |
| AI production scheduling Nucor's special bar quality mill in Memphis, Tennessee uses AI to schedule a complex steelmaking process; EVP John Hollatz said on the Jul 23, 2024 earnings call that AI cut the man-hours spent on scheduling by about 80% and also brought yield, working capital and efficiency gains, without giving figures. C3 AI said in Dec 2023 that its software was optimizing production schedules across several Nucor mills; Nucor has not said whether Memphis uses C3 AI. | Steel mills | In production | |
| Machine learning for electric arc furnace control at Nucor Steel-Arkansas AMI Automation's SmartKnB platform, which combines data acquisition, process logic and machine learning models, helps control direct reduced iron feed rates, chemical energy and power inputs in the electric arc furnace at Nucor Steel-Arkansas; a paper presented at AISTech on May 6, 2025 with a Nucor Steel-Arkansas co-author said it improved furnace performance and refractory life, without figures. | Steel mills | In production | |
| AI predictions for steel mixtures (Delta Bravo AI) Nucor worked with Delta Bravo AI on AI that predicts how each element and product mixture will perform and recommends where to cut steel mixtures, so that raw and recycled materials can be blended to the required quality, according to an SME Advanced Manufacturing article from Jan 2023 that describes the work as starting in 2022 and quotes a Nucor metallurgist; Nucor has not updated the use case since. | Steel mills | In production | |
| Generative AI for health and safety procedures (C3 AI) C3 AI said in Sep 2023 that C3 Generative AI was being deployed to improve safety during steel manufacturing at Nucor, and in Dec 2023 that Nucor had started a generative AI use case to support proper health and safety procedures; C3 AI said in Sep 2025 that it had closed a C3 Generative AI agreement with Nucor. Nucor has not described the tool or who uses it. | Safety | Pilot | |
| AI-assisted software development Nucor Business Technology expects its solution engineers to use AI-assisted development tools and asks the lead of a new engineering team to drive their adoption; Nucor has not named the tools. | Nucor Business Technology | Announced | |
| AI in manufacturing execution systems Nucor Business Technology is hiring an architect to design retrieval-augmented generation, agentic systems and evaluation-driven delivery into the modernization of Nucor's manufacturing execution systems and the data and integration fabric that ties the mills to the enterprise. | Steel mills | Announced |
Adoption
Nucor has published no count of employees who use AI tools. C3 AI says its demand forecasting, inventory optimization and production schedule optimization applications support day-to-day planning, inventory and scheduling decisions across multiple Nucor facilities (Sep 2025), and C3 AI reported a generative AI safety use case at Nucor from 2023. Nucor University, launched in Oct 2024, gives teammates a LinkedIn Learning account whose self-paced topics include AI (2025 Sustainability Report), and the AI Center of Excellence set up by Jeffery Roberts's Business Technology Integration team works to accelerate AI adoption and education across Nucor (AWMI, Sep 2026). Nucor Business Technology job postings from Oct 2026 show AI moving into how the IT division builds software, and an Applied AI Engineer posting asks for enablement and training sessions for division, commercial and corporate teams.
By the numbers
Rollout, first pilot to today
2021
Jeffery Roberts joined Nucor after more than a decade at Capgemini; Roberts now leads the Business Technology Integration team that covers AI.
2022
Nucor worked with Delta Bravo AI on AI predictions for steel mixtures and cut points, according to an SME Advanced Manufacturing article published in Jan 2023.
May 2023
C3 AI listed Nucor among the new customers of its fiscal year ended Apr 30, 2023.
Sep 2023
C3 AI said C3 Generative AI was being deployed to improve safety during steel manufacturing at Nucor.
Dec 2023
C3 AI said it was optimizing production schedules across several Nucor mills and that Nucor had started AI forecasting and a generative AI use case for health and safety procedures.
Jul 2024
On Nucor's Q2 2024 earnings call, Leon Topalian said Nucor was embracing AI and automation, and John Hollatz said the Memphis SBQ mill used AI for production scheduling.
Sep 2024
C3 AI said its demand forecasting, inventory optimization and production schedule optimization applications were supporting daily decisions across multiple Nucor facilities.
Oct 2024
Nucor launched Nucor University, through which teammates have LinkedIn Learning courses on topics that include AI.
May 2025
A Nucor Steel-Arkansas author and AMI Automation presented machine learning for electric arc furnace control at Nucor Steel-Arkansas at AISTech 2025.
Sep 2025
C3 AI said Nucor had expanded into a multi-year partnership to build an enterprise-wide AI program across steel mills, steel products and raw materials, extending C3 AI to more plants and to agentic AI.
Sep 2026
The AWMI event page for Jeffery Roberts's Sep 17, 2026 keynote said his team had recently set up Nucor's AI Center of Excellence to accelerate AI adoption and education.
Oct 2026
Nucor Business Technology posted roles to make AI-native development the way it builds software, including AI in modernized manufacturing execution systems, AI-assisted development in a new solution engineering team, and an Applied AI Engineer for its AI and Emerging Tech team.
Economics & controls
Spend and ROI
Technology and AI spending
Nucor discloses no technology budget and no AI spending in its 2025 Form 10-K or 2026 proxy statement, and has not disclosed the value of its multi-year C3 AI partnership. Nucor's 2025 Sustainability Report says Nucor has increased its investments in technology and personnel to address cybersecurity risk in recent years, without giving an amount.
Reported ROI
Nucor has reported no financial return from its own use of AI as of Nov 2026. John Hollatz said in Jul 2024 that AI cut the man-hours spent on production scheduling at the Memphis SBQ mill by about 80%, with yield and working capital benefits he did not quantify. C3 AI says Nucor's program focuses on throughput and working-capital efficiency, and C3 AI's manufacturing page credits the work with multimillion-dollar savings, but neither Nucor nor C3 AI has published a figure. Nucor's 2025 Form 10-K credits its highly automated operations with high productivity and better safety outcomes, but Nucor does not attribute that productivity to AI.
AI as a revenue market
Nucor's AI-related revenue story is about selling steel. Nucor bought Southwest Data Products in Apr 2024 to serve the data center market and launched Nucor Data Systems the same year, and its 2025 Sustainability Report says demand for its data center products grew with the expansion of AI and cloud computing. Leon Topalian said on the Oct 27, 2026 earnings call that Nucor can make or supply roughly 95% of the steel required inside and outside a data center and that data centers make up about 15% of Nucor's backlog, and EVP Randy Spicer said "we're in the middle of what we call the AI Super Bowl," referring to hyperscalers' data center spending. These statements describe sales to AI infrastructure builders, not a return on Nucor's own AI use.
Headcount and pay
Nucor employs about 33,000 teammates, most of them not union-represented. Nucor pays production teammates group incentives that rise with output and has historically put 10% of earnings before federal taxes into a profit-sharing plan for most teammates below officer level (2025 Form 10-K). Nucor has made no public statement on how AI will affect its headcount.
Governance and risk
Board oversight
Nucor's Audit Committee oversees risks from cybersecurity threats and receives the most significant risks found in the annual cybersecurity risk assessment, and the board hears regular presentations from the Cybersecurity Director (2025 Form 10-K). Nucor's 2026 proxy statement, filed Mar 27, 2026, and 2025 Form 10-K describe no board oversight specific to AI.
Who manages technology risk
Nucor Business Technology runs Nucor's cybersecurity program, which follows the NIST Cybersecurity Framework; its Cybersecurity Director reports to NBT President Sushma Walker. A management Risk Committee, including the EVP of Business Services, the General Counsel, the NBT president and the Cybersecurity Director, oversees the response to cybersecurity incidents (2025 Form 10-K).
May 2025 cybersecurity incident
Nucor disclosed on May 14, 2025 that an unauthorized third party had accessed certain of its information technology systems, and that Nucor took potentially affected systems offline and temporarily halted certain production operations at various locations. Nucor's Jun 20, 2025 update said the threat actor had taken limited data, that the affected operations had been restored, and that the incident was not material. Nucor's 2025 Form 10-K says no cybersecurity threats, including past incidents, have materially affected the company.
Employee rules and training
Nucor's Standards of Business Conduct and Ethics, effective Jul 1, 2026, cover the use of Nucor's electronic technology and refer to a separate computer use policy but do not mention artificial intelligence. Nucor's 2025 Sustainability Report says 100% of teammates receive cybersecurity training.
Engineering guardrails
Nucor Business Technology's Oct 2026 architect posting gives the role responsibility for the patterns, standards and guardrails NBT builds against and for evaluation-driven delivery of AI features, and NBT's solution engineering postings require compliance with enterprise security and data protection standards, with the team-lead posting adding governance standards. NBT's Oct 21, 2026 Applied AI Engineer posting asks the role to work with operational technology, IT, cybersecurity and business experts to meet Nucor guardrails for reliability, safety and compliance.
Recent signals
Oct 27, 2026
On Nucor's Q3 2026 earnings call, Leon Topalian said Nucor can make or supply roughly 95% of the steel a data center needs and that data centers are about 15% of its backlog, and EVP Randy Spicer called the hyperscalers' data center build-out the AI Super Bowl; no executive described AI use inside Nucor.
Oct 24, 2026
Nucor Business Technology posted a team-lead role for a new solution engineering team for the Bar and Engineered Bar Mill Group, preferring experience with AI agents and MCP servers and asking the lead to drive adoption of AI-assisted development tools.
Oct 24, 2026
Nucor Business Technology posted a senior solution engineer role for the same Bar and Engineered Bar team, requiring experience with prompt engineering and API-based LLM integration.
Oct 21, 2026
Nucor Business Technology posted a Dallas Applied AI Engineer role in its AI and Emerging Tech team, to build AI applications on enterprise AI platforms such as C3.ai or Palantir Foundry for scrap, furnace, casting, rolling, finishing, logistics and commercial work.
Oct 20, 2026
Nucor Business Technology posted a Dallas software architect role to make AI-native development the way it builds, with retrieval-augmented generation and agentic systems in modernized manufacturing execution systems and Azure as the preferred cloud.
Sep 17, 2026
AWMI billed Jeffery Roberts, Nucor's Director of Business Technology Integration, as keynote speaker on AI and the steel industry at its California Chapter dinner; the event page said his team had recently set up Nucor's AI Center of Excellence.
Aug 5, 2026
A Forbes column on AI in the steel industry quoted Gaurav Malhotra, Nucor's Department Manager for AI and Emerging Technology, on using C3 AI for demand forecasting and inventory optimization to right-size working capital.
Aug 2026
Nucor's 2025 Sustainability Report presented AI as a driver of demand for data center and power grid steel and listed AI among the LinkedIn Learning topics open to teammates.
Jul 28, 2026
On Nucor's Q2 2026 earnings call, Leon Topalian said Nucor would reinvest in its operating divisions and use AI and automation to create safer and higher-return outcomes, without naming projects.
Apr 28, 2026
On Nucor's Q1 2026 earnings call, Leon Topalian's only mention of AI came while arguing that the U.S. must re-embrace nuclear power as data centers push up power demand, and an executive said Nucor can supply 95% of the steel needed to build a data center.
Mar 1, 2026
Jack Sullivan became Nucor's Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and EVP, succeeding Steve Laxton, who stayed on as President and COO.
Feb 25, 2026
Nucor's 2025 Form 10-K described Nucor Business Technology as the division responsible for IT and cybersecurity, reporting through the EVP of Strategy, and did not mention artificial intelligence.
Jan 1, 2026
Steve Laxton became Nucor's President and Chief Operating Officer; the EVP of Strategy, to whom Nucor Business Technology reports, reports to Laxton.
Quick answers
- How does Nucor deploy AI?
- Nucor runs AI mostly in planning and mill operations: C3 AI says its demand forecasting, inventory optimization and production scheduling applications are live across multiple Nucor facilities (Sep 2025), and Nucor has described AI scheduling at its Memphis SBQ mill and machine learning for furnace control at Nucor Steel-Arkansas. Jeffery Roberts's Business Technology Integration team set up an AI Center of Excellence, and Nucor Business Technology, which has an AI and Emerging Tech team, was hiring in Oct 2026 for AI-native software development, with Azure the preferred cloud.
- What does Nucor use AI for?
- Nucor has four AI use cases in production on the public record as of Nov 2026, one of them last described in 2023: C3 AI demand forecasting and inventory optimization across multiple facilities (C3 AI, Sep 2025), AI production scheduling at the Memphis SBQ mill and, per C3 AI, across several Nucor mills, machine learning for furnace control at Nucor Steel-Arkansas (May 2025), and Delta Bravo AI predictions for steel mixtures (Jan 2023). A C3 generative AI safety use case is at pilot stage, and AI built into Nucor Business Technology's own software appears only in Oct 2026 job postings. Nucor reports no business-level return for any of them and no firm-level return from AI.
- Who leads AI at Nucor?
- AI at Nucor is led by Sushma Walker (Vice President of Nucor and President of Nucor Business Technology); Jeffery Roberts (Director, Business Technology Integration); Gaurav Malhotra (Department Manager, AI and Emerging Technology). Ownership of AI on the org chart: No AI executive named; AI sits with Jeffery Roberts's team in Nucor Business Technology, led by Sushma Walker.
- What AI platform does Nucor use?
- Nucor runs C3 AI's demand forecasting, inventory optimization and production schedule optimization applications on the C3 Agentic AI Platform across multiple facilities, according to C3 AI (Sep 2025); Nucor Business Technology also builds its own software, and Jeffery Roberts's Business Technology Integration team set up an AI Center of Excellence for AI adoption and education (AWMI, Sep 2026).
- Which AI models does Nucor use?
- Nucor names no AI model provider; C3 AI said in Sep 2025 that it had closed a C3 Generative AI agreement with Nucor, and Nucor Business Technology job postings from Oct 2026 ask for retrieval-augmented generation, agent and LLM integration skills, with Azure the preferred cloud and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure also considered.
- How many Nucor employees use AI?
- Nucor has not said how many of its roughly 33,000 teammates use AI tools; C3 AI says its applications support day-to-day planning, inventory and scheduling decisions at multiple Nucor facilities, and Nucor University offers teammates LinkedIn Learning courses on AI (2025 Sustainability Report).
- How far has AI spread at Nucor?
- Nucor sits at Experimenting: what Nucor itself has disclosed is mill-level work, AI scheduling at the Memphis SBQ mill (Jul 2024) and machine learning for electric arc furnace control at Nucor Steel-Arkansas (May 2025), plus an AI Center of Excellence set up by Jeffery Roberts's Business Technology Integration team for AI adoption and education. Nucor has named no sanctioned AI assistant for its roughly 33,000 teammates and has not confirmed AI running in production at scale. The strongest evidence for more, C3 AI's statement in Sep 2025 that its planning applications are live across multiple Nucor facilities, comes from the vendor, and Nucor's own filings never name C3 AI. Nucor would reach Piloting once it confirms a sanctioned tool or platform live for groups of teammates and a handful of use cases in production.
Open questions
- Does Nucor give employees a sanctioned generative AI assistant, which one, and how many of its roughly 33,000 teammates use it?
- Which AI models does Nucor use, including inside C3 Generative AI, and on which cloud or data center do the C3 AI applications and any language models run, given that NBT job postings prefer Azure and also consider Oracle Cloud Infrastructure?
- Which Nucor facilities run C3 AI's applications, is the Memphis SBQ mill's AI scheduling C3 AI Production Schedule Optimization, and what has the program saved, given that C3 AI cites multimillion-dollar savings without a figure?
- When was Nucor's AI Center of Excellence set up, how many people work in it and in the AI and Emerging Technology department, and which AI use cases have they moved into production?
- Are the furnace machine learning at Nucor Steel-Arkansas and the Delta Bravo AI steel mixture predictions still running, have they spread to other mills, and what energy, yield or cost savings have they delivered?
- How many people does Nucor Business Technology employ, and where do Jeffery Roberts's team and Gaurav Malhotra's department sit within it?
- What does Nucor spend on technology and on AI, including its multi-year C3 AI partnership, and has it set any target for AI-credited cost savings or productivity?
- What is Lightspeed, the Nucor effort named in a Gartner Application Innovation & Business Solutions Summit session listing titled "From AI Chaos to Enterprise Scale: How Nucor is Building Order at Lightspeed," and who leads it?
- How will AI-built manufacturing execution systems fit Nucor's decentralized model, in which division general managers make most operating decisions and production pay depends on output?
- Has Nucor adopted an employee AI use policy, given that its code of conduct effective Jul 1, 2026 does not mention AI?
- Did the May 2025 cybersecurity incident change how Nucor governs data access for AI tools?
Sources
Nucor
- Nucor leadership: executive team and board
- Nucor sustainability page and report downloads
- Nucor 2025 Sustainability Report (PDF dated Aug 4, 2026)
- Nucor Standards of Business Conduct and Ethics (effective Jul 1, 2026)
- Nucor Business Technology job posting: Software Architect, Dallas (Oct 20, 2026)
- Nucor Business Technology job posting: Applied AI Engineer, Dallas (Oct 21, 2026; now filled)
- Copy of the Applied AI Engineer posting on aijobs.com (Oct 2026)
- Nucor Business Technology job posting: Solution Engineering Team Lead, Dallas (Oct 24, 2026)
- Nucor Business Technology job posting: Senior Solution Engineer, Dallas (Oct 24, 2026)
- Nucor Business Technology job posting: Finance and Accounting Business Analyst (Oct 20, 2026)
Filings and investor materials
- Nucor 2025 Form 10-K (filed Feb 25, 2026)
- Nucor 2025 Annual Report (filed Mar 27, 2026)
- Nucor 2026 proxy statement (Mar 27, 2026)
- Form 8-K: material cybersecurity incident (May 14, 2025)
- Form 8-K/A: cybersecurity incident update (Jun 20, 2025)
- Form 8-K: Steve Laxton named President and COO (Dec 4, 2025)
- Form 8-K: Jack Sullivan named CFO (Feb 20, 2026)
- Q3 2026 earnings release (Oct 26, 2026)
- Q3 2026 earnings call presentation (dated Oct 27, 2026; filed with the Oct 26 release)
- Q1 2026 earnings release (Apr 27, 2026)
- Q3 2026 earnings call transcript, The Motley Fool (Oct 27, 2026)
- Q2 2026 earnings call transcript, Webull (Jul 28, 2026)
- Q1 2026 earnings call transcript, The Motley Fool (Apr 28, 2026)
- Q2 2024 earnings call transcript, MarketBeat (Jul 23, 2024)
Partners
- C3 AI fiscal Q4 2023 results release (May 31, 2023)
- C3 AI fiscal Q1 2024 results release (Sep 6, 2023)
- C3 AI: new C3 Generative AI Suite release (Sep 6, 2023)
- C3 AI fiscal Q2 2024 results release (Dec 6, 2023)
- C3 AI fiscal Q4 2024 results release (May 29, 2024)
- C3 AI fiscal Q1 2025 results release (Sep 4, 2024)
- C3 AI fiscal Q3 2025 results release (Feb 26, 2025)
- C3 AI fiscal Q1 2026 results release (Sep 3, 2025)
- C3 AI manufacturing page, with a Nucor customer video
- AISTech 2025: AMI artificial intelligence developments for EAF optimization at Nucor Steel-Arkansas (May 6, 2025)
News and other
- AWMI: California Chapter industry dinner with Jeffery Roberts, Nucor (Sep 17, 2026)
- Forbes column on AI in the steel industry, reposted on the author's site (Aug 5, 2026)
- Gartner Application Innovation & Business Solutions Summit session listing on Nucor (date not shown)
- AIST press release archive: 2025 MaryEmily Slate Trailblazer Award (Sep 23, 2025)
- SME Advanced Manufacturing: AI enables what's next in manufacturing (Jan 12, 2023)
- Manufacturing Dive: Nucor on AI and automation, Q2 2024 call (Aug 7, 2024)
- Society of Women Engineers, Nucor-sponsored post: Nucor's women in steel, including Sushma Walker (Oct 11, 2024)
Data confidence
- Confirmed
- Stated in a primary or reputable public source.
- Estimated
- Derived or approximated from public reporting.
- Unconfirmed
- Reported, but not yet corroborated.
Nucor profile · Enterprise AI diffusion report by Imagine · facts checked against their sources on Nov 1, 2026
