Elon Musk’s xAI has confirmed the purchase of 5 additional 380 MW gas turbines from South Korea’s Doosan Enerbility. That’s enough electricity to power roughly 1.4 million homes.
Back in October, Doosan sold an initial two turbines. This is a big step for South Korea, which has previously been reliant on other countries for importing gas turbines. Now, they are exporting their own.
These additional 5 turbines will power significant AI growth in the upcoming year. This is considered one of the largest power infrastructure investments by an AI company ever.
This is a big deal, considering the U.S. is a leader in the global gas turbine market. As we’ve been seeing, American manufacturers are no longer able to keep up with demand, with wait times stretching years. The data center industry is a major driver.
For example, Siemens Energy North America alone saw 14 GW worth of turbine orders last fiscal year, with 65% of that coming from data centers.
If the U.S. wants to maintain leadership in the global AI race, we need to be able to power our servers. Importing turbines can address some of the gap, but other domestic solutions are needed.
