Earlier this summer, GE Vernova and Siemens Energy announced their plans to drastically increase capacity in light of an ongoing surge in gas turbine orders fueled mainly by data center construction and artificial intelligence (AI). Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) just followed suit with an announcement that it is doubling production capacity for gas turbines within the next two years. Like its competitors, the company CEO said this was being driven by the need for so much power to serve the AI and data center markets.

The company was already planning to raise production output by 30%. But it realized that wouldn’t be enough. 100% is the new target, though how this is to be achieved wasn’t laid out in detail. What is known is that streamlining of the entire supply chain and implementation of manufacturing protocols would help MHI to become leaner and more efficient.

However, some conservatism towards market expectations remains. GT OEMS got carried away at the turn of the millennium by a spike in orders. When the bubble burst, they were caught with oversupply. Ito expressed some concern about the potential for cyclical demand and some uncertainty about future orders from data centers. That said, he predicts orders will remain strong for gas turbines for at least the next decade.