GoKawiilAn exclusive look inside GE Vernova 's largest gas turbine plant in Greenville, South Carolina, offers fresh evidence that the artificial intelligence boom is going strong.
Inside, engineers are working alongside factory workers to speed up production of this complex machine. The company hired 200 workers last year, and 300 more are expected to start working at this factory by the end of the year.
Fueling the growth is AI.
Hyperscalers — companies like Amazon , Google , Microsoft and Oracle — are lining up to buy the company's gas turbines. With AI data centers requiring a considerable amount of energy and bottlenecks in the grid emerging, these companies are increasingly relying on standalone energy sources, like gas turbines.
"Right now, when you need power at scale and you need firm power, the industrial gas turbine is one of the leading solutions for that," Pablo Koziner, chief commercial and operations officer at GE Vernova, told CNBC.
The AI opportunity is prompting leaders from OpenAI and other companies to gain a deeper understanding of industrial design and power generation.
Executives from nearly every major hyperscaler have walked the floor of the factory, according to a person familiar with the visits, who asked not to be named because the details are not public.