Hyundai Engineering Lands First Data Center Contract With $625 Million Gunsan AI Facility

Roughly six months after establishing a dedicated data center unit in March, Hyundai Engineering has secured its first order in the business. The company announced on the 28th that it won a contract worth about USD 625 million to construct a 60-megawatt artificial intelligence data center in Gunsan, Jeonbuk State.

The project, known as the Gunsan SGC AI Data Center, is being developed for client SGC Group and represents the first phase of a larger 300 MW AI data center cluster. Hyundai Engineering said it expects the work to secure priority negotiating rights for a planned 240 MW phase of the cluster.

What Will Be Built, and Who Builds What

The facility will occupy a 115,702-square-meter site in Bieungdo-dong, Gunsan, with groundbreaking scheduled for October. Hyundai Engineering's scope in the first phase covers construction, civil engineering, equipment installation, landscaping and telecommunications work. For the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems at the core of the facility, responsibilities are split. Hyundai Engineering will handle cooling and power supply equipment, including cooling towers, chillers and switchgear, while KT Cloud will take on uninterruptible power supplies, batteries and automated controls.

Designing Around Nvidia's Vera Rubin Chips

The Gunsan center is set to run on Nvidia's next-generation AI chip, Vera Rubin. According to Hyundai Engineering, power density and heat output per rack are expected to rise sharply with the new chips, making the capacity to construct power and cooling infrastructure capable of handling those loads a critical capability. The project will incorporate modular and skid solutions from power and cooling equipment maker Vertiv. Under this approach, power and cooling systems, including liquid cooling, are prefabricated in a factory before being assembled and installed on site. The company said this method helps standardize quality and shorten build times.

Incheon and Gumi Bids Could Lift Orders to USD 1.4 Billion

Hyundai Engineering intends to treat the Gunsan win as a springboard for accelerating its data center expansion. It has already been selected as the preferred bidder for data center projects in Incheon and Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, and is aiming to sign those contracts within the year. If both proceed as planned, the company said its data center orders for this year would total about USD 1.4 billion.

Why an Industrial Builder Thinks It Can Win AI Work

The company pointed to its track record building large-scale power and mechanical systems for industrial facilities, including auto plants, electric vehicle battery factories and shipyards. It also cited construction optimization through building information modeling, high-load structural technology for heavy equipment, modular construction methods and precise temperature and humidity control as strengths it brings to data center projects.

Plans Past the Construction Phase

Beyond building facilities, Hyundai Engineering outlined plans to move into operations and maintenance as well as investment participation across the data center business. It also intends to develop energy procurement models for data centers linked to renewable energy sources such as solar power, small modular reactors and hydrogen.

"In the data center industry, superior infrastructure translates directly into competitive, stable digital services," a Hyundai Engineering official said. "We will use our best technology to build data centers with the stable power supply base and operating environment that the AI era demands." Reporting by Kim Kwang-soo for Seoul Economic Daily.