Doosan Enerbility wins first U.S. steam-turbine order for data center
Doosan Enerbility, Korea’s only domestic designer and maker of power-generation turbines, said it has won a 370-megawatt steam-turbine and generator package for a U.S. data-center customer, with two units of each equipment. It marks the first time the company has supplied steam turbines to the United States, a milestone it says reinforces confidence in its technology in the North American market and could help it win larger combined-cycle projects in the future.
The company has seen a rapid rise in gas-turbine orders since 2019, totaling 23 units to date (11 in Korea and 12 in the United States). Last year and this year together accounted for 18 of those orders. This month Doosan Enerbility signed a large single contract for seven gas turbines with a major U.S. tech company—the biggest such contract the firm has secured in a single deal to date.
The steam-turbine order is reported to be for the same U.S. customer that signed the seven-turbine deal. While the customer has not been publicly disclosed, industry sources have pointed to xAI, an AI startup founded by Elon Musk, as a likely recipient.
Market observers note a bright outlook for turbine-based power in data centers. Global data-center electricity use is expected to rise fourfold by 2030. Gas turbines are attractive for data centers in part because they can move from order to plant in roughly three years, a shorter timeline than many alternatives for large-scale power generation.
Competition in the global turbine market remains intense. The “Big Three” suppliers—Siemens of Germany, General Electric of the United States, and Mitsubishi of Japan—are reported to have three to four years of backlogs. Doosan Enerbility has laid out an expansion plan to lift its annual production from eight units to 12 by 2029, with longer-term targets of 45 units by 2030 and 105 units by 2038.
On the financial front, market tracker FnGuide projects improving profitability for Doosan Enerbility. It forecasts operating profit rising from 762.7 billion won last year to 1.1088 trillion won this year and 1.5486 trillion won next year.
For the United States, the development matters beyond Korea because it signals potential diversification in the supply chain for critical power equipment used by rapidly expanding AI and cloud data centers. A U.S. market that relies on a mix of domestic and international suppliers could benefit from sooner delivery of turbine-based power solutions and potentially more competitive pricing as competition increases.
Doosan Enerbility’s push into North American steam-turbine supply underscores Korea’s growing role in global energy hardware for AI and data-center infrastructure. As data centers proliferate in the U.S., the ability to source reliable, on-site generation equipment from a Korean manufacturer may influence procurement strategies, partnership opportunities, and the pace of data-center deployments.