Electrical energy pylons and energy traces.Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg
The surging demand for electrical energy to gas the AI growth has boosted shares of Sanil Electrical, a little-known producer {of electrical} transformers in South Korea, by about 110% because the Liberation Day selloff in April. The inventory surge has made Park Dong-suk, the corporate’s founder and CEO, South Korea’s latest billionaire.
Park, 64, who owns 55% of Sanil Electrical (along with his spouse, Kang Eun-sook), is price an estimated $1.2 billion as of Friday’s inventory market shut.
Based mostly in Ansan, a suburb of Seoul, Sanil Electrical manufactures transformers, the important tools that adjustments voltage and makes electrical energy protected to make use of. The corporate reported that income rose 56% year-over-year to 334 billion received ($240 million) in 2024, whereas web earnings greater than doubled from the earlier yr to 84 billion received.
Sanil Electrical mentioned in a quarterly submitting in Might that it expects electrical energy demand to proceed to develop, as “info and communication expertise turns into extra superior as a result of unfold of electrical autos that use electrical energy as an power supply, AI that requires large-scale computing energy for information studying, the Web of Issues that connects quite a few digital units, and the exponential improve in demand for information facilities as a result of development of all info being digitalized.” Citing information from Enterprise Analysis Insights, Sanil Electrical mentioned within the submitting the worldwide transformer market is predicted to develop to $48 billion in 2031 from $26 billion in 2021.
Transformers and energy transmission traces are seen in an influence distribution yard in Des Plaines, Illinois.Tim Boyle/Getty Photos
Greater than 60% of its income got here from the U.S. In January, GE Vernova ordered greater than $11.4 million price of transformers from the corporate. “In the important thing U.S. market, investments in grid modernization are prone to proceed, as the federal government is introducing numerous insurance policies that ought to enhance large-scale energy demand,” Mirae Asset Securities Analysis analyst Yunju Cho mentioned in a analysis be aware in March.
Cho added within the be aware that Sanil Electrical is broadening its buyer base within the U.S., securing contracts with firms similar to California utility firm PG&E and North Carolina-based energy company Duke Power, along with current prospects GE Vernova and TMEIC (previously referred to as Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electrical Industrial Methods). “One of many agency’s key strengths is its capability to flexibly meet the varied technical necessities of enormous utilities firms (providing transformers in over 200 distinct design configurations),” she wrote. “We consider this functionality positions the corporate for sustained order development, pushed by each new buyer acquisitions and expanded orders from current prospects.”
A few of the largest firms on the earth have been aggressively increasing their information heart footprints to energy AI merchandise. On Monday, Meta’s billionaire CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned that his firm is on observe to be the primary with a “supercluster” of knowledge facilities that homes greater than a gigawatt of capability, citing semiconductor analysis and consulting agency SemiAnalysis.
And Elon Musk, the richest man on the earth, mentioned in September that his AI firm xAI accomplished the constructing of an enormous information heart facility in Memphis that homes 100,000 Nvidia H100 chips. “The unreal intelligence compute coming on-line seems to be rising by an element of 10 each six months… Then, it was very simple to foretell that the subsequent scarcity will probably be voltage step-down transformers,” Musk mentioned final yr at a convention. “You’ve obtained to feed the ability to those issues. Should you’ve obtained 100-300 kilovolts popping out of a utility and it’s obtained to step down all the way in which to 6 volts, that’s a variety of stepping down.”
Park based Sanil Electrical in 1994 after working at Korean electrical tools producer Yuil Electrical. He earned a grasp’s diploma in electrical engineering at Korea College in Seoul and a bachelor’s diploma from Tech College of Korea in Siheung, simply outdoors Seoul. He took his firm public in July final yr, elevating 266 billion received.
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