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Samsung Heavy Industries and Japan's Morimura signed an MOU on Nov. 9 to develop large solid oxide fuel cells for ships and floating data centers, with 2028 as the target; no size or customer is given.
Chips & Power DeskEdited by Ege Erten
2 min readAI-assisted
The Nov. 9 signing at Samsung Heavy's Pangyo R&D Center, where the two companies agreed to develop SOFC systems for ships and floating data centers.
Image: Samsung Heavy Industries
Source · Press image from the Samsung Heavy Industries newsroom, used for news reporting.
Samsung Heavy Industries signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Nov. 9 with Japan's Morimura SOFC Technology to develop large-capacity solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) for ships and floating data centers, with commercialization targeted in 2028, BusinessKorea reported.
Morimura would supply cells and stacks and Samsung Heavy would lead system integration, with commercialization targeted for 2028, according to BusinessKorea and Seoul Economic Daily.
Illustration (AI-generated)
The signing took place at Samsung Heavy's Pangyo R&D Center. Under the agreement, Samsung Heavy will lead engineering, system integration and commercialization of the large-capacity products, while Morimura will supply the cells and stacks, the core components. Seoul Economic Daily describes the work as joint research and development through 2028.
The deal is a development pact, not an order. Neither outlet reports a capacity figure, a price, a prototype size or a customer. For data-center planners, the relevant fact is narrow: a shipbuilder wants to sell fuel-cell power for floating data centers, a product it is still seeking orders for.
An SOFC produces electricity from a chemical reaction between oxygen and a fuel such as hydrogen or liquefied natural gas (LNG), using a ceramic solid electrolyte. A system layers cells into stacks and adds fuel supply equipment and heat management. Samsung Heavy says the technology offers higher generation efficiency than internal combustion engines and lower carbon emissions, and that it suits ships because it can run on existing LNG.
Samsung Heavy said it will target the market for next-generation unmanned autonomous electric ships, and Seoul Economic Daily adds that fuel-cell power would allow remote diagnosis and maintenance from shore. The company said its scope is not limited to the sea: it plans to extend SOFC to onshore and offshore power sources, including the floating data centers it is pursuing orders for.
Fuel cells already supply data centers on land. As Voltgrid reported, NTT Data and Bloom Energy announced a 900 MW fuel-cell agreement for data centers, and AEP Ohio's fuel cells for AWS total about 98 MW. Those deals rest on an established fuel-cell vendor. Samsung Heavy's route is different: it would pair a Japanese cell supplier with a shipyard's integration skills, aimed at a hull that carries its own power plant.
The timeline matters. A 2028 commercialization target means no fuel-cell power from this partnership reaches a data center before then, and the MOU does not say how large a unit would be. Any comparison with Bloom's per-site megawatts would be premature.
No definitive agreement, investment amount, unit capacity, fuel choice for data-center use or customer was disclosed in the reports Voltgrid read. Samsung Heavy did not say which floating data-center orders it is pursuing. BusinessKorea frames 2028 as the goal for commercialization and Seoul Economic Daily as the end of joint R&D, so the date is a target rather than a delivery commitment. Durability and maintainability of large-capacity systems at sea remain to be shown.
