AI boom drives demand for used aircraft engines and gas turbines

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence has created a fresh, global scramble for used gas turbines and retired aircraft engines that firms are converting into electricity generators. The surge is driven by soaring power demand in data centres and multi-year waits for new equipment.

Published on 9 November 2026, industry figures show delivery lead times for new gas turbines in the United States now average six years. As a result, companies are hunting worldwide for second‑hand units, restarting old plants and adapting jet engines into on-site generators to secure capacity faster.

Analysts at Wood Mackenzie estimate that global orders for gas turbines exceed 100 gigawatts while annual manufacturing output sits between 60 and 70 gigawatts. Some new orders are already scheduled for delivery in 2030 and 2031, reflecting a supply bottleneck that has stretched years into the future.

Costs, examples and corporate demand

The shortage has pushed up prices: new gas turbines cost roughly $2–2.5 million per megawatt of installed capacity, while used units are trading at about $1.5–1.7 million per megawatt. Illustrating the scale, two used turbines with a combined 29 megawatts were recently sold for $12.5 million; equivalent new machines would cost around $35 million and face about a five‑year delivery lag.

US infrastructure developer Kruso has ordered 13 aircraft‑engine‑based turbines totalling 650 megawatts to power its data centres. Investment bank Jefferies estimates that demand from American data centres alone reaches nearly 17 gigawatts this year and could more than triple by 2028.

The rise in electricity demand tied to AI model development has opened a multibillion‑dollar market: turbine manufacturers, energy companies and dealers in used industrial equipment are all seeing growing orders as operators race to meet urgent power needs.

Photo: press material from the event