GE Vernova gas turbine prices have increased 300% over three years as AI data centers drive surging demand for dispatchable power.
The race to power artificial intelligence is increasingly a race to secure megawatts, with GE Vernova positioned at a critical chokepoint. The company, spun off from General Electric in April 2024, has seen gas turbine prices climb roughly 300% over the past three years—a figure expected to continue rising as hyperscalers rush to secure on-site generation for AI data centers.
Many AI campuses cannot accommodate the multi-year wait times required for grid interconnection, prompting them to develop their own power generation capacity. GE Vernova operates the world's largest gas turbine manufacturing facility, a 400-acre complex in Greenville, South Carolina. Each turbine unit stands approximately 30 feet tall and can supply power to more than 500,000 homes. To meet surging demand, the company added 200 employees last year and plans to hire roughly 300 more, including engineers, industrial designers, and factory workers.
Major cloud providers are mobilizing orders accordingly. Microsoft has ordered seven turbines for a 2.7 gigawatt data center in Texas, while Meta, Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic have also placed orders. This activity aligns with the publicly disclosed Project Kilby, a 2.67 gigawatt power purchase agreement spanning 20 years between Microsoft and Chevron in the West Texas Permian Basin. First power is slated for 2028, with GE Vernova supplying the turbines.
The financial momentum is substantial. In the first quarter of 2026, GE Vernova booked $18.3 billion in orders, a 71% organic increase, on revenue of $9.30 billion. The Electrification segment alone captured $2.4 billion in data center equipment orders in a single quarter—exceeding the entire 2025 annual total.
Pricing power has emerged as the defining signal. CEO Scott Strazik told analysts that "we expect our orders in 2026 to be priced 10 to 20 points higher than our Q4 2025 orders on a dollar per kW basis." The Gas Power segment's combined backlog and slot reservation agreements grew from 83 to 100 gigawatts sequentially, with management targeting at least 110 gigawatts by year-end 2026.
Management raised full-year guidance to revenue of $44.5 billion to $45.5 billion, adjusted EBITDA margin of 12% to 14%, and free cash flow of $6.5 billion to $7.5 billion. The 2028 plan targets $56 billion in revenue with a 20% adjusted EBITDA margin. Bernstein recently initiated coverage at Outperform with a $1,206 price target, while consensus analyst estimates sit at $1,211.72.
GE Vernova trades at $1,036.24, with shares up 58.65% year-to-date and 107.6% over the past year. The company's market capitalization stands near $298 billion at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of roughly 40. MetLife and PineBridge's 2026 equity outlook characterizes data center equipment growth as "essentially locked in for the next four to five years," with projections of roughly 25% annual growth driven by transmission and electrical infrastructure constraints. The U.S. Energy Information Administration's high-demand scenario forecasts data center server electricity use rising to 818 billion kilowatt-hours in 2050—more than 16 times 2020 levels.
Execution risks remain despite significant tailwinds. GE Vernova's Wind segment faces persistent pressure, with first-quarter revenue down 23% and management expecting approximately $400 million in EBITDA losses this year. Investors should also monitor tariff exposure, manufacturing capacity expansion, and valuation risk following the stock's substantial appreciation. A roughly 12% pullback from May highs underscores that even supercycle beneficiaries can experience sharp corrections.