Hyundai Heavy Industries lands $675.6M deal to supply 1GW of gas engines for US data center

South Korean industrial giant Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has signed a major agreement with US energy infrastructure firm Corban Energy to supply 1GW of natural-gas power generation capacity for a data center project in the United States. The deal, valued at approximately 956 billion won ($675.6 million), marks HHI's largest entry into the data center power market to date.

Under the terms of the agreement, HHI will deliver its 9.6MW HiMSEN engines to Corban Energy, a New Jersey-based energy infrastructure and natural gas company. The engines will be deployed to power a data center being developed by an undisclosed technology company in the US. HHI describes the HiMSEN medium-sized engines as purpose-built for power generation, with a strong emphasis on efficiency and reliability.

The transaction represents a significant milestone for HHI in the fast-growing data center sector, where demand for behind-the-meter power solutions is surging amid the AI infrastructure boom. It follows an earlier 684MW agreement signed in April with Aperion Energy Group, a Texas-based energy solutions developer focused on the data center market, which was valued at an estimated $423.7 million.

“Repeated inquiries from customers about collaboration in the data center power generation engine market show that the technology and reliability of our HiMSEN engines are being recognized,” an HD Hyundai official said. “We will seek out a wide range of business opportunities to strengthen our position in the power generation equipment market.”

Industry observers note that the deal underscores a broader trend of power generation equipment suppliers capitalizing on the urgent need for reliable, rapidly deployable energy capacity at hyperscale data center sites. With grid interconnection delays and power constraints becoming critical bottlenecks for data center development, natural gas engines are increasingly being adopted as an interim or supplemental power source.

For Corban Energy, the partnership with HHI is expected to form the basis for a more extensive collaboration in the US market. The company, headquartered in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, specializes in energy infrastructure and natural gas delivery, positioning it as a key intermediary between power generation technology and data center developers.

While this is HHI's second US data center deal, the wider Hyundai group has a long-standing presence in the sector. In November, the company alongside Samsung announced roughly $400 billion in domestic investments aimed at advancing AI development in South Korea. In February, Hyundai said it planned to invest 10 trillion won ($7.5 billion) in South Korea's Saemangeum development zone, where it intends to build an integrated AI data center campus.

The latest agreement signals HHI's growing ambitions to become a major supplier of power generation equipment for data centers not only in Asia but also in North America, where energy demand from AI workloads continues to reshape the electricity landscape.