Three U.S. manufacturers in the construction equipment industry are also major players in powering the AI data center boom.
Caterpillar, Cummins and Rehlko (formerly Kohler) are not only mainstays in the U.S. construction machinery market, but their generators are in high demand from tech companies battling for AI supremacy, according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets.
Caterpillar Engine Business Surpasses Its Equipment Sales
Cat G3516 natural gas generator with fast responseCaterpillar
Recently, the company and the Boyd Cat dealership won contracts to help power the massive 2,250-acre Monarch Compute Campus in Mason County, West Virginia. Owned by Nscale, the campus will provide 1.35 gigawatts for Microsoft. (1GW equals 1 billion watts, enough to power about 876,000 households, according to ClimateSmart.)
With a potential of upward of 8 GW, Monarch is set to become “one of the largest dedicated AI compute installations in the world,” according to Nscale.
Caterpillar is supplying G3516 natural gas generators with fast response for the project, with a goal of achieving 2 GWs of power generation by the first half of 2028.
“This collaboration reflects Caterpillar and our dealers’ continued focus on supporting customers that require primary, continuous-duty power at scale through our broad energy solutions portfolio,” says Melissa Busen, Caterpillar senior vice president of electric power. “Projects like Monarch demonstrate how Caterpillar’s natural gas generation platforms are being deployed as core infrastructure for data centers and other power intensive applications where reliability, speed of deployment and lifecycle performance are critical.”
Cummins Specializing in Backup Power
Cummins' GSK95 generatorCummins
Its first-quarter financial report noted “record performance” in its Power Systems segment, in part due to “continued strong demand for data center backup power,” according to CEO Jennifer Rumsey.
Revenues in North America increased 19% and increased 18% internationally, thanks to data center markets domestically and in China and Asia Pacific. It is supplying generator sets and digital master control systems for what will be one of the largest data centers in Asia, for the South Korean tech giant Naver.
Cummins raised its full-year revenue forecast from 8% to 11%, as demand for data center power generation continues to beat expectations.
Along with generator sets, Cummins is developing battery energy storage systems and microgrid power systems for remote areas that use diesel and natural-gas generator sets, photovoltaic solar, battery storage, fuel cells and transfer switches.
Rehlko Expanding in Wisconsin
Along with generators, Rehlko produces the eFRAME enclosure for them. Rehlko
On June 1, the company announced it is adding a new facility at its campus in Kenosha, Wisconsin, for assembling power systems for data centers. The expansion will focus on the company's eFRAME enclosures for backup generators of up to 4 megawatts.
The expansion follows news that Rehlko secured 1.8 GW of new purchase agreements in 60 days for its diesel-powered backup generators for data centers in North America.
"These additional commitments, secured in a relatively short period of time, underscore both the scale of hyperscale investment underway, and the trust customers place in Rehlko to execute at that scale," said Brian Melka, Rehlko president and CEO. "Our customers are building large, complex platforms under tight timelines, and they are seeking proven solutions that can be deployed quickly, operate reliably and support long-term growth."
