The Korean shipbuilding giant has just signed a KRW956bn ($676m) agreement with US energy infrastructure developer Corban Energy Group to supply 1,000 MW of generating capacity for American AI data centres.   The equipment will be based around HD Hyundai’s 9.6 MW HiMSEN medium-speed engines, technology developed primarily for ship propulsion and onboard power generation.   The record order followed a KRW627.1bn US data-centre engine contract secured in April, meaning HD Hyundai has booked around KRW1.6trn of American data-centre power equipment in just four months.

Data-centre developers have been searching for alternatives to conventional gas turbines, where lengthy lead times have emerged as a major constraint. Medium-speed engines can be deployed comparatively quickly and grouped together to provide hundreds of megawatts of dependable power.   Korea’s yards increasingly see AI as a much broader opportunity than selling engines ashore.   Samsung Heavy Industries and HD Hyundai are both pursuing floating data centres, where servers are housed on offshore platforms or vessels, reducing dependence on expensive land while allowing seawater to contribute to cooling. Samsung Heavy has secured approval in principle for floating data-centre concepts from classification societies and is working with AI server specialist Supermicro and ABB. It has also signed a design and production agreement with US data-centre developer Mousterian.   HD Hyundai has established its own dedicated organisation and teamed up with Schneider Electric to develop integrated power and cooling infrastructure. Hanwha Ocean is also reviewing opportunities, completing Korea’s big-three push into the sector.

The attraction is obvious. Up to $3trn is expected to be invested in AI data-centre infrastructure by 2030, according to Moody’s, while future floating facilities could range from 50 MW to 500 MW and eventually link directly to offshore wind farms or floating small modular reactors.

There is another side to the AI boom. Splash reported in June that engine availability was already becoming a constraint at some shipyards, echoing conditions during the 2007 ordering frenzy.  The tightest market is for dual-fuel low-speed main engines, but pressure has also emerged for auxiliary diesels, generator sets and turbochargers — equipment where marine demand increasingly overlaps with the requirements of data centres.   Wärtsilä has announced production capacity expansions equivalent to 65% of its 2025 capacity, citing demand from both marine and energy customers.      Rolls-Royce is more than doubling US production capacity for mtu Series 4000 generator sets compared with 2024 levels as data-centre demand surges, while Accelleron delivered a record 8,000 TPX44 turbochargers for data-centre and critical      infrastructure applications last year, more than three times the previous year’s output.

Adam Kent, managing director of Maritime Strategies International, told Splash that engine availability was already affecting yard output, although primarily by pushing deliveries further out rather than preventing orders entirely. “We’ve certainly heard that the availability of engines is having an impact on some yards,” Kent said.   Arrow research head BurakCetinok was more cautious, arguing there was no widespread shortage materially disrupting overall shipbuilding output, although newer and reactivated yards were more exposed because they were effectively “joining the back of the queue”.

SSY research chief Roar Adland also suggested market incentives should eventually unlock additional licensed engine production in China.