The group is connecting shipbuilding, power and energy businesses to become a core infrastructure player in the AI era
Floating data centers could open a new growth axis for shipbuilding, engines and power systems
Chung Ki-sun, chairman of HD Hyundai, delivered a keynote speech at the “Future Tech Forum: Shipbuilding” during the APEC CEO Summit on Oct. 27 last year.
[Insight Korea = Sim Min-hyeon]
HD Hyundai Chairman Chung Ki-sun is accelerating the group’s transformation around artificial intelligence. His plan is to organically connect shipbuilding, power and energy businesses and turn the group into a core infrastructure company for the AI era. Attention is also turning to the possibility that HD Hyundai could eventually expand into floating data centers.
Chung Speeds Up HD Hyundai’s AI Transformation
According to industry officials on May 8, HD Hyundai has recently been applying AI technology across its shipbuilding, power equipment and energy businesses, strengthening the groupwide digital transformation. The move is seen as an effort to move beyond a traditional manufacturing-centered structure and become a key infrastructure provider for the AI era.
Mr. Chung has long focused on building an AI- and data-driven management system. At the 2026 World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos in January, he reportedly discussed cooperation with global energy and advanced technology companies and reviewed the group’s AI-centered industrial transformation strategy. In particular, he presented data-driven operational innovation and expanded application of industrial AI as core priorities, while focusing on stronger cooperation with global Big Tech companies.
During the Davos forum, Mr. Chung met with Alex Karp, founder and chief executive of Palantir Technologies, a leading enterprise AI company, to discuss expanding their strategic partnership. HD Hyundai plans to widen its AI collaboration with Palantir beyond shipbuilding into key group affiliates in power equipment, robotics and marine services, accelerating digital transformation across the group.
The expanded cooperation is expected to include power infrastructure data analysis at HD Hyundai Electric, smart factory automation at HD Hyundai Robotics, and advanced ship maintenance and navigation data capabilities at HD Hyundai Marine Solution. Some observers view the effort as more than simple efficiency improvement, seeing it as an attempt to transform the entire group into an AI-based industrial platform.
HD Hyundai will also jointly establish a Center of Excellence, or CoE, with Palantir. Through this, the group plans to systematically internalize advanced data analysis and AI capabilities among employees and expand AI-based decision-making systems across production, design, operations and maintenance.
In shipbuilding, development of AI-based autonomous navigation and digital twin technologies is gaining speed. Last month, HD Hyundai won a research project from the U.S. Office of Naval Research, or ONR, and began developing technologies to improve AI-based naval vessel performance and shipbuilding productivity. It was the first time a Korean shipbuilder had won a research project from the U.S. Navy’s ONR. The development has strengthened assessments that HD Hyundai is moving beyond traditional manufacturing competitiveness in shipbuilding and accelerating the creation of an AI-based smart shipyard.
Power and energy are also emerging as beneficiary sectors in the AI era. As the spread of AI data centers drives a surge in electricity demand, HD Hyundai Electric’s ultra-high-voltage transformer and power distribution equipment businesses are continuing to grow. Demand for data center power infrastructure is rising rapidly, especially in North America, helping sustain order growth.
Floating Data Centers as a New Growth Axis
HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering is also expanding its engine business in response to rising power demand from data centers. In North America, data center operators are increasingly building their own power generation facilities, making land-based power generation engines an alternative to gas turbines, which are expensive and have long delivery times.
HD Hyundai Heavy Industries recently signed a contract with Aperion Energy Group, or AEG, in the United States to supply power generation facilities based on its HiMSEN marine engines. The contract is worth about 627.1 billion won, the largest power generation engine contract HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has won. Some observers say that rising demand for distributed power sources driven by AI data center expansion could become a new growth axis for HD Hyundai’s engine business.
If the floating data center market begins to grow in earnest, HD Hyundai’s role could expand further. A floating data center refers to the concept of building data centers on offshore floating structures or marine platforms. It is considered a next-generation AI infrastructure field that requires both shipbuilding and offshore plant technologies as well as power infrastructure capabilities.
Global companies are looking to move data centers offshore because of concerns that existing land-based facilities alone will not be able to meet the rapidly growing demand for AI infrastructure.
Korea had about 190 data centers as of last year, and the number is expected to rise to more than 300 by 2030. But building large data centers on land requires massive land acquisition and construction costs. Noise and heat problems have also continued to raise the possibility of opposition from local residents.
Floating data centers, by contrast, can reduce the burden of securing land and are expected to lower construction costs because their structures are relatively simple. Construction costs could be reduced by about 30 to 40 percent compared with existing facilities. A key advantage is the ability to use cold seawater in the cooling system. Land-based data centers currently use about 40 percent of their total electricity consumption for cooling. Applying seawater cooling technology could significantly improve energy efficiency.
“From the standpoint of technology and engineering capabilities, we have sufficient capacity to accommodate floating data centers,” an official at HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering said. “Compared with other companies, we already have a foundation to supply power for operating them through powerships based on HiMSEN engines.”
-This article was translated by ChatGPT. (이 기사는 챗GPT가 번역했습니다.)
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