INNIO’s order backlog jumps as AI data centers build their own power plants

The Jenbacher and Waukesha engine maker says AI power demand and grid bottlenecks drove its equipment backlog to $8.0 billion AI data centers have a power problem, and some of them have stopped waiting on the grid to fix it. INNIO N.V. (Nasdaq: INIO), the company behind the Jenbacher and Waukesha gas engine brands, says its equipment order backlog climbed to $6.6 billion after the second quarter of 2026. That figure stood at $3.3 billion a year earlier. By the end of the third quarter, it had reached $8.0 billion. The buyers driving that growth are not traditional utilities. They are large AI data centers in the US that want electricity on site, on their own schedule, without waiting in line for a grid connection. Gas engines for the AI age Data centers are the main reason. Orders linked to them made up around 60% of INNIO’s equipment revenue in the third quarter of 2026. One customer stands out. An unnamed US data-center developer has placed orders totaling approximately 1.72 GW. That came in two pieces: a 1.1 GW order in July 2026, followed by a 620 MW follow-on in September 2026. INNIO also secured a separate 450 MW order from a US energy company. That equipment is meant for dat...