Seoul: LS Cable and System Ltd., South Korea's largest cable manufacturer, announced on Tuesday that it has begun construction on a 1 trillion-won (US$681 million) submarine power cable plant in the United States. This marks the first significant facility investment by a South Korean company since President Donald Trump took office in January.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the plant is being constructed in Chesapeake, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2027, with operations commencing in the first quarter of 2028. The company indicated in a press release that this investment is strategically designed to proactively address the U.S. supply chain reorganization strategy while meeting the increasing demand for undersea power cables in the country.
The company further highlighted that in 2024, the electricity demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in the U.S. was projected to be equivalent to half of South Korea's annual power demand of 62 gigawatts (GW). This demand is anticipated to more than triple to 120 GW by 2030.