K-Heavy Industries Taking Advantage of the Data Center Boom

Entering AI power-infrastructure business one after another

Korea’s traditional heavy industries are jumping into the data-center market amidst the artificial intelligence (AI) data-center boom. The shipbuilding, oil refining, construction machinery, and steel industries are joining the data-center market, which has till now been considered a feast only for semiconductor companies. With the spread of generative AI sparking a data-center construction boom centered in North America, various related industries, including power, cooling, engines, and steel, have started to discover this new source of revenue.

According to industry sources, HD Construction Machinery plans to develop engines for data centers by next year to meet the growing demand for emergency generators driven by the increasing numbers of data centers. The company is targeting the market for ultra-large engines for AI data centers by leveraging industrial-engine technology previously used for emergency generators. Accordingly, it is constructing a new engine factory in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, in addition to its current engine plant in Incheon.
Korea’s shipbuilding industry is currently securing substantial orders thanks to the data-center boom. As it can take years for U.S. big-tech companies to connect data centers to the power grid, power-generation facilities based on ship engines have emerged as a realistic alternative. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries announced that it has secured its first order for engines for U.S. data centers, while Hanwha Engine and STX Engine are also considering entering the business to meet growing demand. It is also becoming increasingly evident that the shipbuilding industry is expanding its scope beyond simple ship manufacturing into the power-generation and electrical infrastructure sectors.
The oil-refining industry is also riding the AI wave. It is targeting the ‘liquid immersion cooling’ market, which is currently the hottest keyword in the data center industry. Oil refiners are accelerating the competition to develop cooling oil fluids for data centers by leveraging their existing lubricant technologies.
The steel industry also has high expectations. AI data centers are much heavier than ordinary buildings, and their power facilities are constructed with multi-layered structures, requiring a large volume of large section steel (H-beams) and high-grade structural steel. Hyundai Steel has signed a strategic framework agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and is supplying eco-friendly steel materials, such as carbon-reducing steel and H-beams, to major data centers in the Asia-Pacific region.

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