Utilities, developers and companies building AI data centres are scouring the world for second-hand gas turbines, reviving mothballed machines and converting retired jet engines, Reuters reported on 9 November, as lead times for new equipment stretch into the next decade. In the United States, delivery of a new gas turbine now takes six years on average, Wood Mackenzie senior analyst Aurora Tenorio told Reuters.
New turbines cost about $2 million to $2.5 million per megawatt, according to Aurora Energy Research; well-maintained used units about $1.5 million to $1.7 million, and refurbished units about $1.3 million, according to Origin Partners. By our arithmetic, a refurbished unit at $1.3 million costs up to 48% less than a new one at $2.5 million.
Business Pill · Grid Cost Allocation
An evergreen Business Engineer explainer on grid cost allocation: who pays when new power lines and capacity are built for large loads such as data centres. It explains the general idea only and does not discuss turbines or any company in this piece.
The key insight: By our arithmetic, a refurbished gas turbine at about $1.3 million per megawatt costs up to 48% less than a new one at $2.5 million, on prices Reuters reported on 9 November; new units take six years on average to reach US buyers, Wood Mackenzie told Reuters.
Zach Machuca, managing partner at Origin Partners, which buys power equipment for data centre developers, gave Reuters the used and refurbished prices. The gap can be wider for smaller units: Dan Poole, general manager at ReflowX, which connects buyers with turbine owners, said two 14.5-megawatt turbines made by Solar Turbines, a Caterpillar unit, recently sold for $12.5 million, or around $430,000 per megawatt.
New ones would cost about $35 million and take five years to deliver, Poole said, without disclosing the buyer. “That secondary market is very, very hot right now”, said Ana Amicarella, CEO of equipment services provider EthosEnergy. “We also have seen an escalation on the prices of what people are demanding”.
Gas turbine prices per megawatt as reported by Reuters, November 2026: new (Aurora Energy Research), used and refurbished (Origin Partners), and one reported sale of two used Solar Turbines units (ReflowX). The up-to-48% gap is FourWeekMBA’s arithmetic.
Why the Wait Is So Long
Worldwide gas turbine orders top 100 gigawatts, according to Wood Mackenzie, against estimated global production capacity of 60 to 70 gigawatts, Reuters reports. Jefferies analysts estimate that US data centres alone account for nearly 17 gigawatts of demand this year, a figure that can more than triple by 2028; they expect manufacturing capacity to rise to around 87 gigawatts in 2028, against 129 gigawatts of expected demand.
That leaves a 42-gigawatt shortfall in 2028 on the Jefferies figures, by our arithmetic. “Delivery conversations (are) firmly focused on the 2030 to 2031 window”, Tenorio said of the US market. Siemens Energy, GE Vernova and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries all say the AI boom has pushed orders beyond their production capacity, according to Reuters.
Jet Engines and Gas Engines
Crusoe in April ordered 13 aeroderivative gas turbines from US-based ProEnergy, based on GE Aerospace jet engines, with a joint capacity of 650 megawatts for its AI data centre projects in the US, Reuters reports. ProEnergy and Crusoe did not respond to Reuters’ requests for more information.
Developers sometimes deploy more than 100 small turbines at a single site and mix models and brands, said Scott Schreeg of US supplier SVI Bremco. Finland’s Wartsila has booked around 3 gigawatts of orders since spring last year from US data centres for power units running on gas engines instead of turbines, said Anders Lindberg, president of its energy business: “What’s driving the market? Lead times, lead times, lead times”.
The Limits
Noor Qureshi, an associate at Enverus Intelligence Research, told Reuters the second-hand market is “unlikely to offset a meaningful share of the delays”, since “the market is already constrained, with limited excess supply”. Tenorio said overhauled turbines can have unclear maintenance histories, limited life left and weak long-term servicing. Converted jet engines raise questions about how fit they are for continuous work as power generators, Reuters reports.
The pressure reaches beyond data centres. The Tennessee Valley Authority said prices for all equipment, new, used or refurbished, have “increased significantly” over the past two years. Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, said: “Co-ops that need new capacity are turning to every viable option”.
Connecting the Coverage
Anthropic agreed to pay $3.4 billion for 1.7GW of pre-ordered gas-fired generators, the Financial Times reported on 8 November, as we covered in Anthropic Buys 1.7GW of Pre-Ordered Gas Generators for $3.4B; that works out to $2.0 million per megawatt by our arithmetic, though the two sets of figures may not cover the same equipment. GE Vernova’s filing showed customers ordered 57 aeroderivative turbines in the third quarter, up from 9 a year earlier, as we covered in GE Vernova Filing: Buyers Ordered 57 Jet Turbines, Up From 9.
As we read the Reuters figures, the second-hand market prices time as much as equipment: buyers pay $1.5 million to $1.7 million per megawatt for well-maintained used units because a new one, per Wood Mackenzie, takes six years to arrive in the US.
As we read the Jefferies numbers Reuters cites, expected 2028 turbine demand of 129 gigawatts is about 1.5 times the 87 gigawatts of manufacturing capacity Jefferies expects that year, by our arithmetic.
As we read the limits Reuters lists, Enverus and Wood Mackenzie point to the same constraint from two sides: limited excess supply in the used market, and unclear maintenance histories in the units that are available.
Anders Lindberg, president of Wartsila’s energy business, to Reuters, 9 November 2026
“What’s driving the market? Lead times, lead times, lead times”
Three Implications
FOR DATA CENTRE DEVELOPERS Used and refurbished units sell for about $1.3 million to $1.7 million per megawatt against $2 million to $2.5 million new, per the figures Reuters reported, but with maintenance and servicing questions Wood Mackenzie raised.
FOR UTILITIES AND CO-OPS The Tennessee Valley Authority said equipment prices have increased significantly over two years, and NRECA’s CEO said co-ops are turning to every viable option.
FOR MANUFACTURERS Siemens Energy, GE Vernova and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries say AI-driven orders exceed their production capacity, according to Reuters.
The framework argues: “The structural bottleneck isn’t computing, it’s electrons.”
As we read it, the used-turbine market Reuters describes is one place that bottleneck now shows up as a price: up to 48% less per megawatt for refurbished units, by our arithmetic, in exchange for years saved. The framework predates this report and does not discuss turbines or any company named here.
What Is Not Established
There are no reliable estimates of how much the second-hand market adds to global turbine supply, worth about $25 billion a year, according to Reuters. The used and refurbished prices are quotes from one buyer’s firm and the Solar Turbines sale is a single transaction whose buyer was not disclosed. The 48% and 42-gigawatt figures are our arithmetic on the numbers Reuters reported.
This Week In The AI Supercycle
The Great Convergence of Capital, Power, and Geopolitics
This week’s issue: for two years the AI build-out was priced as a supply story, and last week as a credit story. This week it was priced as a permission story, and the answer arrived as a cost, not a ban.
New gas turbines cost about $2 million to $2.5 million per megawatt and take six years to reach US buyers on average, Reuters reports, while refurbished units sell for about $1.3 million. By our arithmetic that is up to 48% less. EthosEnergy’s CEO calls the second-hand market very hot; Enverus says it is unlikely to offset a meaningful share of the delays.
A note on sourcing. The Reuters article was read in full via its MarketScreener syndication; all prices, capacity figures and quotes are as reported by Reuters. The 48%, 42-gigawatt and $2.0 million-per-megawatt figures are our arithmetic.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
