GE Vernova backlog hits $197bn as data centers drive turbine demand

GE Vernova's order backlog has reached $197 billion, up 96 percent year on year, as data center operators scramble to secure gas turbine capacity. The company disclosed the figure in its Q3 earnings call.

The backlog splits into two parts. Equipment backlog stands at $104 billion, up 92 percent. Services backlog stands at $93 billion, up 14 percent. The gap between those growth rates tells the story: customers are buying new machines faster than they are expanding service contracts.

CEO Scott Strazik said the company now serves around 100 gas power customers across 25 countries. Data center operators account for 20 percent of them. "Data centers require large electricity loads, driving the increasing need for more efficient high-voltage equipment," Strazik said.

How much capacity is under contract?

The numbers are large. GE Vernova has signed 52GW of new gas turbine agreements so far this year. Strazik expects at least 130GW under contract by the end of 2025. That compares with 47GW at the start of 2024 — an increase of 83GW in roughly two years.

Demand has outrun supply, and prices now reflect it. Q3 gas equipment orders priced more than 20 percent above Q4 2025 levels. Full-year 2026 gas pricing per kilowatt runs almost 50 percent above 2025. Revenue followed the same curve: Q3 revenue came in 18 percent higher than a year earlier.

The order book now stretches into the 2030s. Industry reports had already flagged a turbine supply shortage, with manufacturers facing delivery backlogs reaching into the next decade. GE Vernova's results confirm that squeeze is tightening, not easing.

What does this change for data center builders?

It means waiting longer and paying more. Any operator planning gas-fired capacity for an AI or cloud campus now faces a queue measured in years and a price per kilowatt that has risen by half within a single budget cycle. Early contracts lock in both slots and rates; late arrivals pay the premium. Buyers who signed before 2025 sit on materially cheaper capacity.

The company is also expanding beyond turbines. It announced its first deployment deal for its medium-voltage UPS with an undisclosed hyperscaler. It also won a hyperscaler award for a 6MW outdoor solid-state transformer. Both products target the power electronics layer that data centers need close to the load.

The $9bn Trench acquisition

GE Vernova will acquire Trench, a manufacturer of high-voltage grid components, for a reported $9 billion. The deal is expected to close in late 2027. Trench sits upstream in the same value chain: the grid equipment that connects large power plants, and increasingly large data centers, to transmission networks.

The company is also applying AI internally. "We have investments in automation and AI with strong use cases that will expand margins over the medium term," Strazik said. That points to operational leverage rather than a new product line — using software to widen margins on an already swollen order book.

GE Vernova is young as a corporate entity. It was formed in 2024 from the merger and subsequent spin-off of General Electric's energy businesses. Its product range covers wind turbines and natural gas generators. The Q3 results show where the growth sits: gas is carrying the order book, and data centers are carrying gas.