South Korea's Gaon Cable now supplies both the external power cables that feed U.S. AI data centers from the grid and the internal bus duct systems that distribute electricity to servers once it arrives — a full-stack power infrastructure position the company formally completed on June 3, when its U.S. subsidiary LSCUS announced a first-ever contract to supply AI data center power grid cables through a U.S. infrastructure partner. The announcement arrived three weeks after Gaon disclosed a 4 trillion won ($2.7 billion) five-year bus duct supply agreement with Meta Platforms, the largest single contract in the history of Korea's cable and power equipment industry, bringing the total value of LSCUS's contracted bus duct business with major U.S. technology companies to approximately 5 trillion won ($3.3 billion).
For data center operators and infrastructure investors tracking the AI data center supply chain, the development signals a new entrant in a market segment that is becoming one of the most consequential bottlenecks in AI deployment: the physical infrastructure required to move electricity from the grid to GPU racks. According to Deloitte, U.S. AI data center power demand is projected to grow more than thirtyfold by 2035, reaching 123 gigawatts — up from 4 gigawatts in 2024 — and recent hyperscale campuses built around Nvidia GPU clusters can require hundreds of megawatts to more than 1 gigawatt of dedicated power each.
Gaon Cable CEO Jeong Hyeon said the company expects record annual results in 2026, citing expanding AI data center and renewable energy power grid markets. Gaon currently supplies approximately 100 billion won ($66 million) in cables annually for U.S. solar farm grid projects. The addition of AI data center grid cable work is expected to lift its total U.S. cable exports to approximately 200 billion won ($132 million) this year.
How Bus Duct Systems Distribute Power Inside AI Data Centers
To understand why Gaon's position matters, it helps to trace what happens to electricity between the utility grid and an Nvidia GPU.
Power arrives at an AI data center campus as medium-voltage alternating current. At the facility boundary, a transformer steps the voltage down to a level suitable for distribution within the building. From there, the current moves through the data center's internal distribution infrastructure — and for large hyperscale facilities, that infrastructure is increasingly built around overhead bus duct systems rather than traditional cable bundles.
A bus duct is a factory-assembled, modular enclosure — typically installed along data center ceilings — in which copper conductors are housed inside a sealed metal casing. Unlike conventional cable runs, which must be hardwired at fixed points, bus duct systems use plug-in tap-off boxes spaced at regular intervals along the ceiling-mounted run. Each tap-off box creates a branch circuit that powers nearby server racks, and new boxes can be added or repositioned without interrupting the rest of the system. This plug-and-play reconfigurability is central to the design's appeal in hyperscale AI facilities: as GPU rack densities rise — with next-generation racks projected to exceed 500 kilowatts each — operators need to redistribute power across the floor without costly rewiring shutdowns.
The overhead installation also eliminates a structural problem common to floor-based cable systems. Traditional underfloor power runs can obstruct the raised-floor airflow that cooling systems rely on to prevent hot spots. Overhead bus ducts carry current above the server rows, leaving the cooling airpath unobstructed — a thermal management advantage that grows in importance as rack power densities increase.
The result is a power distribution layer that is denser, more reconfigurable, and thermally cleaner than cable alternatives — which is why bus ducts have become the preferred distribution method for hyperscale AI campuses. Inside a 1-gigawatt data center, electricity passes through multiple voltage stepdown stages and conversion steps before reaching GPU chips, with efficiency losses at each stage. Bus ducts serve the intermediate AC distribution layer between the main transformer and the individual rack-level power conversion systems, minimizing resistance and voltage loss across that span.
AI Data Center Supply Chain: From Grid Cable to GPU Rack
The new grid cable contract adds a distinct upstream layer to LSCUS's existing business. Grid cables carry medium-voltage alternating current from the utility transmission network to the data center campus boundary — a step that precedes the bus duct layer entirely. By supplying both the incoming grid cable and the internal bus duct system, Gaon is positioning itself as a single vendor for a complete power delivery sequence that previously required separate sourcing.
The combined bus duct contracts disclosed so far include a five-year, 4 trillion won ($2.7 billion) framework agreement with Meta Platforms to supply bus ducts for dozens of U.S. AI data centers annually through 2030 — a deal that amounts to roughly half of Gaon's record annual revenue of approximately 7.6 trillion won — and a separate three-year supply contract worth approximately 1.2 trillion won with another major technology company, according to Asian business press reporting. Deliveries under the Meta contract were scheduled to begin in 2026 with approximately 50 billion won ($34 million) in initial supplies.
LSCUS manufactures bus duct systems at its production facility in Tarboro, North Carolina, which the company announced a $50 million expansion for in February 2026, adding two additional Continuous Catenary Vulcanization production lines and increasing total employment at the facility from 250 to 335 jobs. To meet rising demand, Gaon is also evaluating additional bus duct production capacity at its Jeonju plant in South Korea, and LS Cable's Mexico subsidiary — with a 230 billion won ($158 million) investment expansion announced in January 2026 — is expected to serve as a supplemental manufacturing base once it reaches completion later this year.
Meta Platforms Data Center Buildout Anchors Contract Stack
Meta Platforms has publicly committed to building dozens of AI data centers across the United States. The company has secured multi-gigawatt power agreements — including nuclear energy deals with Vistra, TerraPower, and Oklo — to fuel its AI expansion, and its Hyperion facility in Louisiana alone involves a 2-gigawatt power plant. The Gaon bus duct contract, covering supply to dozens of Meta data center sites through 2030, positions LSCUS as a core infrastructure supplier to one of the most aggressive AI infrastructure buildouts in the United States.
The scale of the Meta contract drew particular attention in Korea because a single deal equivalent to roughly half of LS Cable's record-high annual revenue for its entire group had never previously been signed by a Korean cable and power equipment company.
Does Bus Duct Reconfigurability Justify Higher Upfront Cost?
Relative to conventional cable infrastructure, bus duct systems carry higher upfront capital costs. Their long-term economic case rests on lower maintenance costs and the operational savings from reconfiguration without downtime. In a hyperscale AI facility — where new GPU clusters are continuously installed in response to demand — the ability to tap into an existing bus duct run and provision power for a new rack row without a rewiring shutdown can represent significant cost avoidance. The modular, ceiling-mounted architecture also means bus duct systems can scale alongside the facility without requiring structural changes to power distribution pathways.
Data center operators evaluating power distribution upgrades should note that LSCUS's bus duct systems are produced to serve the specific density requirements of AI-class facilities, not legacy enterprise data centers with lower power-per-rack requirements.
Gaon now supplies both the cables that connect utility power to campus boundaries and the bus duct systems that distribute that power inside buildings — a combination that, as the AI data center construction boom continues, gives the company a full-stack presence in one of the supply chain's most constrained segments.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a bus duct system in an AI data center?
A bus duct is a modular, enclosed overhead power distribution system mounted on data center ceilings. Instead of routing cables through floor trays, it carries current through sealed copper conductors and delivers power to server racks via plug-in tap-off boxes at intervals — allowing operators to add or relocate branch circuits without rewiring the main run.
How does data center power distribution work from grid to GPU?
Medium-voltage alternating current arrives at a data center campus from the utility grid, passes through a transformer stepdown, and then moves through the internal distribution layer — overhead bus ducts in hyperscale facilities — before reaching individual racks, where further conversion steps reduce it to the low-voltage direct current that GPU chips require.
What is the value of Gaon Cable's Meta Platforms data center contract?
Gaon Cable's U.S. subsidiary LSCUS signed a five-year framework agreement with Meta Platforms valued at up to 4 trillion won ($2.7 billion) through 2030, covering bus duct supply to dozens of Meta AI data centers in the United States. It is the largest single contract in the history of Korea's cable and power equipment industry.
Does Gaon Cable supply both external grid cables and internal bus ducts?
Yes. As of June 2026, Gaon supplies external power grid cables — which carry medium-voltage current from utility lines to a campus boundary — through its existing U.S. solar grid cable business, which it extended to AI data center projects with a new contract announced June 3. Its U.S. subsidiary LSCUS simultaneously supplies the internal bus duct systems that distribute that power inside the data center buildings.
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