Data Center Frame Construction Slashed from One Year to Two Months... Hyundai E&C Implements Precast Method

Hyundai Engineering & Construction Signs Main Contract for Pohang AI Data Center Project

All Structural Components to Use Precast Concrete Methods for Faster Construction

Hyundai Engineering & Construction announced on September 21 that it has signed the main contract for the construction of the Pohang AI Data Center and has commenced the installation of precast concrete (PC) components.

The project was commissioned by AI Factory Pohang PFV and involves building an AI-dedicated data center with a power reception capacity of 40 MW at Gwangmyeong General Industrial Complex in Ocheon-eup, Nam-gu, Pohang City. Power reception capacity refers to the maximum amount of electricity that can be supplied from an external grid; 40 MW is equivalent to the simultaneous power usage of more than 130,000 households, based on the average electricity consumption in Nam-gu, Pohang. Of this, about 32 MW will be used solely for IT operations such as servers and network equipment within the data center.

Unlike general-purpose computing-focused data centers, this is a high-performance, GPU-based data center specialized in the real-time analysis and processing of massive datasets for AI workloads. The project broke ground in June and aims to be operational in the second half of 2027, with a construction period set at 16.5 months. The project operator plans to establish this AI data center as an expandable infrastructure capable of accommodating next-generation GPUs.

Rendering of the Pohang AI Data Center constructed by Hyundai Engineering & Construction. Provided by Hyundai Engineering & Construction

Hyundai Engineering & Construction has decided to leverage its extensive experience building the largest number of data centers in Korea by consolidating its technological capabilities for this project. To support NVIDIA’s latest AI chip, the Vera Rubin-based GPU servers, the company has created an ultra-high-density environment with a power density about ten times that of typical cloud data centers. For the first time in Korea, a water-cooling system has been introduced to cool the high-heat AI servers, whereas traditionally, air-cooling systems are used. The Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), an energy efficiency metric, has been set at 1.25, with particular attention paid to minimizing energy loss.

The application of the PC construction method to meet the short construction period is also noteworthy. While there have been previous cases in Korea where some elements such as beams and columns of commercial data centers were made with PC components, the company explained that this is the first time all concrete structures—including slabs, walls, and staircases—will be fully prefabricated and applied. With this method, the frame construction, which would normally take about a year using conventional on-site pouring, has been reduced to just two months.

To further shorten the overall schedule, Hyundai Engineering & Construction adopted a preconstruction service (PCS) to review optimal business structures and methods before groundbreaking, along with a fast-track approach that pursues design, approvals, and construction preparation in parallel. As a result, the company began construction after just about a month of participating in the project.

A Hyundai Engineering & Construction official stated, "With the spread of generative AI and super-large AI models, competitiveness in the data center market is shifting beyond scale to a race for Time-to-Market (TTM)," adding, "By successfully completing the Pohang AI Data Center within the project period, we intend to demonstrate differentiated competitiveness not only in construction capabilities but also in business performance, schedule, and quality."

Since the construction of the Korea Financial Telecommunications & Clearings Institute’s Bundang Center in 2004, Hyundai Engineering & Construction has built 19 data centers, including KT’s Mokdong IDC, the Yongin Pacific Sunny Data Center, and Naver’s ‘Gak Sejong’ Data Center—the most among Korean construction companies. It is also the only Korean firm to have built data centers for global big tech companies.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.