Doosan Enerbility Wins Rolls-Royce SMR Work: Q1 Orders Jump 62% Amid Data Center Push

South Korea's Doosan Enerbility secured a role in Europe's first small modular reactor program this week, entering the global SMR supply chain through a new partnership with Rolls-Royce SMR on May 28, 2026 — while its first-quarter earnings confirmed that the company's broader order-book expansion has now reached a scale that analysts say could support a fundamental rerating of its stock.

The partnership places Doosan at the center of two of Europe's highest-profile nuclear projects: three reactors planned at Wylfa in North Wales and a project at the Temelín site in the Czech Republic. Rolls-Royce SMR, which won UK government selection as the preferred technology for its country's first SMR program in June 2025, chose Doosan alongside Czech manufacturer Škoda JS to handle pre-production work on reactor pressure vessels and other key nuclear island components. The work covers early supplier engagement, design finalization, and manufacturing readiness aimed at delivering first power at both sites as quickly as possible.

"These are some of the most important long-lead items in nuclear plant construction," said Ruth Todd, Rolls-Royce SMR's Operations and Supply Chain Director. "Forming strategic relationships now ensures these critical components can be designed for manufacture, reducing project risk and enabling on-time delivery."

The Rolls-Royce SMR is a 470-megawatt pressurized water reactor design, with 90% of the unit built in factory conditions before being transported to site — a modular approach intended to compress construction timelines and reduce the cost overruns that have historically plagued large-scale nuclear projects. A final investment decision for the Wylfa site is expected in 2029.

For Doosan Enerbility, the partnership extends a manufacturing track record that already spans more than 40 years of nuclear component production. The company has supplied 34 main reactor units and 124 steam generators worldwide and became the world's fifth manufacturer to develop proprietary large-scale gas turbine technology in 2019. The Rolls-Royce SMR agreement positions it alongside the NuScale and X-energy partnerships it already holds in the United States, suggesting it is building a multipartner position at the manufacturing layer of the global SMR buildout rather than betting on a single reactor design.

"Our partnership with Rolls-Royce SMR will be a significant chance for Doosan Enerbility to expand its role in the global SMR supply chain," said Kim Jong-doo, CEO of Doosan Enerbility's Nuclear Business Group.

Q1 2026 Earnings Confirm Order Momentum

The Rolls-Royce announcement arrived on the back of a first-quarter earnings report that showed accelerating financial performance. The Enerbility division posted Q1 2026 new orders of approximately ₩2.79 trillion ($1.9 billion), up 61.9% year-over-year, driven by overseas gas turbine contracts and expanding services revenue. The company's consolidated order backlog stood at roughly ₩24 trillion ($16.2 billion) at the end of March — a 46% increase from the same period a year earlier — and HSBC projected in September 2025 that the backlog would triple to approximately ₩48.4 trillion by 2030.

Operating profit on a consolidated basis rose 63.9% year-over-year to ₩233.5 billion ($170 million) in the quarter, with revenue climbing 13.7% to ₩4.26 trillion ($3.1 billion). Analysts interpreting the results have described the Q1 figures as evidence that the group's post-restructuring transition — from a conglomerate heavily concentrated in heavy industry and construction equipment — into high-value energy infrastructure is delivering measurable returns.

Gas Turbines Power AI Data Centers From Texas to Seoul

While nuclear supply chain work dominates the long-cycle revenue outlook, Doosan's near-term order flow has been shaped heavily by AI data centers' urgent demand for gas turbine-based power generation.

On May 27, 2026, the company signed a contract to supply four 370-megawatt steam turbines and four generators to a US big-tech company's data center in Texas, with delivery scheduled sequentially through 2029. The follow-on contract arrived just two months after the company's first North American steam turbine order — also to a US big-tech operator — in March 2026. The four turbines' combined installed capacity of 1,480 megawatts exceeds the output of a typical nuclear reactor.

Steam turbines in these data-center power plants function as part of combined-cycle generation systems: a natural gas turbine produces electricity directly while its waste heat is recovered to drive a steam turbine, raising overall energy efficiency compared to simple gas-fired generation. That efficiency advantage, combined with the ability to provide reliable on-site power without waiting for grid connections, has made combined-cycle systems the preferred approach for hyperscalers building out AI infrastructure at scale.

Doosan's cumulative steam turbine orders reached approximately 2.2 gigawatts by the end of Q1 2026 — roughly 38% of the total orders it secured over all of 2025.

Long-Term Services Mark a Revenue Model Shift

Beyond equipment supply, Doosan's relationship with domestic utility Korea Southern Power (KOSPO) illustrates how the company is building a recurring-revenue base alongside one-time equipment contracts.

On May 26, 2026, Doosan signed a ₩480 billion ($318.6 million) Long-Term Parts Management agreement with KOSPO covering three gas turbines at the Goyang Changneung combined heat and power plant and the Hadong combined cycle plant, both targeting commercial operation in December 2029. The contract covers hot-section parts supply, component refurbishment, consumable materials, and technical support over a service period expected to run 10 or more years from the date each plant enters operation.

Long-term service agreements matter for Doosan's financial profile because they transform single-transaction equipment sales into multi-year revenue streams. Gas turbine maintenance — particularly the replacement and refurbishment of high-temperature components — had historically been monopolized by Western original equipment manufacturers such as GE Vernova, Siemens Energy, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Doosan's ability to sign full-cycle contracts for turbines it both builds and services represents a structural expansion of its addressable revenue.

How Doosan Became a Global Nuclear Foundry

The company's ability to win SMR manufacturing roles from multiple US and European developers reflects capabilities that are difficult and expensive to replicate. Nuclear-grade reactor pressure vessels, steam generators, and containment components require specialized forgings, materials certifications, welding processes, and quality-assurance regimes that take years to establish and are subject to stringent national nuclear regulatory frameworks.

Doosan Enerbility has supplied components to more than 80 nuclear power plants worldwide and is described by analysts as holding a near-monopoly position in South Korean nuclear steam supply systems. Its US partnerships include an equity investment in NuScale Power totaling $104 million across tranches in 2019 and 2021, and a binding reservation agreement with X-energy signed in December 2025 to manufacture steel components for 16 of the company's Xe-100 small modular reactors, with Doosan committed to building a dedicated SMR fabrication facility in Changwon, South Korea.

An independent patent review by energy analytics firm Thunder Said Energy, published in April 2025, confirmed Doosan's gas turbine technology claims — validating 43% simple-cycle efficiency, over 60% combined-cycle efficiency, and 1,600°C turbine inlet temperatures — placing the Korean manufacturer technically on par with Western peers.

One risk investors are watching is the financial trajectory of NuScale Power. NuScale's Q1 2026 revenue fell sharply to $565,000, down from $13.4 million in the same quarter of 2025, prompting analyst questions about when the company's SMR program will generate the cash flows that would translate into manufacturing orders for Doosan. The Rolls-Royce and X-energy partnerships — both with developers whose projects are proceeding on active site-licensing and engineering tracks — are increasingly viewed as the more near-term portions of Doosan's SMR pipeline.

What Does Doosan Enerbility Do for AI Data Centers?

Combined-cycle gas turbines, including Doosan's 380-megawatt and 370-megawatt steam turbine units, provide on-site generation capacity for AI data centers that cannot secure sufficient grid power through conventional utility connections. Data centers powered by gas turbines convert natural gas into electricity through a two-stage process — first a gas turbine, then a steam turbine using recovered waste heat — achieving efficiency levels that reduce fuel costs compared to single-cycle generation. Doosan's gas turbines completed more than 15,000 hours of demonstration operation at the Gimpo Combined Heat and Power Plant in South Korea before being deployed commercially.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a small modular reactor, and why does Rolls-Royce need a manufacturing partner like Doosan?

A small modular reactor is a nuclear power plant rated below 300 megawatts-electric — smaller than a conventional gigawatt-scale reactor — designed to be built largely in factory conditions and assembled on-site rather than constructed from scratch at the project location. Rolls-Royce SMR's 470-megawatt design requires reactor pressure vessels and other nuclear island components that can only be manufactured by a small number of facilities worldwide with the necessary materials certifications, precision forging capabilities, and nuclear-grade quality systems. Doosan Enerbility is one of the few manufacturers outside Europe and the United States with a demonstrated history of producing these components at scale.

How does Doosan Enerbility supply nuclear power plants across multiple countries?

Doosan manufactures reactor pressure vessels, steam generators, and other primary-loop components at its Changwon, South Korea facility, which holds certifications required by nuclear regulators in multiple jurisdictions. Components are forged, fabricated, inspected, and shipped to construction sites, with delivery timelines that can span several years given the complexity and safety-critical nature of the parts. The company has supplied 34 main reactor units and 124 steam generators to plants in South Korea, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Finland, and other markets.

What gas turbine orders has Doosan Enerbility won from US data centers?

As of May 2026, Doosan had secured contracts with multiple US big-tech companies for gas and steam turbines powering AI data centers. These include the original two 380-megawatt gas turbines confirmed in October 2025 for delivery by end of 2026, a March 2026 steam turbine order for a North American data center, and a May 2026 contract for four 370-megawatt steam turbines for a Texas data center, to be delivered through 2029. Doosan's cumulative gas turbine export count in the United States reached 12 units by April 2026.

How close is Doosan Enerbility to converting its order backlog into earnings?

The company's ₩24 trillion ($16.2 billion) order backlog as of end of Q1 2026 represents contracts that will convert to revenue over multi-year delivery cycles, not a single-quarter figure. Near-term cash flows are driven by gas turbine and steam turbine contracts with delivery timelines in the 2026–2029 range, while nuclear supply contracts — including SMR components — have longer conversion windows tied to when partner developers reach the engineering-to-manufacturing transition. Analysts monitoring NuScale Power's financial position note that delays at a single SMR developer partner can extend the timeline for that portion of Doosan's backlog without affecting the broader pipeline.