HanmiGlobal (053690), Korea's first dedicated construction project management (PM) firm, has selected artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and small modular reactors (SMRs) as its future growth engines, marking its 30th anniversary. As the spread of generative AI simultaneously increases demand for data center construction and power infrastructure investment, the company is moving to seize the nuclear power and SMR market while accelerating its transition into an "AI-based comprehensive project platform company."
According to HanmiGlobal on Monday, the company has set a goal of achieving 1.3 trillion won in revenue and 170 billion won in operating profit by 2030, and rising to become a global top-five PM firm. To this end, it is cultivating data centers and nuclear power/SMRs as its two growth pillars and accelerating the construction of a digital platform that integrates AI across the entire project process, including planning, design, cost, scheduling and operation.
The market HanmiGlobal is focusing on is the AI infrastructure sector. This is because the more intense the generative AI competition becomes, the more it accelerates competition not only for data center construction demand but also for securing the power infrastructure to support it. The industry views that the core of AI competition will ultimately come down to data centers and the ability to secure power.
HanmiGlobal has already accumulated relevant capabilities by carrying out projects at leading domestic high-tech facilities, including Samsung Electronics' (005930) Pyeongtaek campus and Naver's data center "Gak Chuncheon." Recently, it has also begun developing a digital PM platform incorporating AI technology. The concept is to apply AI and data analytics technology to design, scheduling, cost and risk management processes to boost project productivity.
Viewing the explosive increase in data traffic and the expansion of power infrastructure to support it as future growth engines, the company expanded its business scope into data centers and nuclear power plants early on. Following the accumulation of data center PM track records at the highest domestic level, including Naver's data center, it won a PM technical support contract for the Cernavoda nuclear plant facility improvement project in Romania last year, and this year secured a project management support contract for the Shin-Hanul units 3 and 4 project.
In particular, this year the company established a dedicated SMR organization, launching a full-fledged push into the next-generation nuclear power market. It is also reviewing a business model that would cover the entire nuclear power life cycle, from project planning to investment, financing, construction and operation, by establishing a dedicated SMR corporation in the United States in the future.
SMRs are considered one of the biggest beneficiary industries of the AI era. This is because, as data center power demand surges, securing stable carbon-free power has emerged as a global challenge. The recent expansion of nuclear power and SMR investment by U.S. Big Tech companies is not unrelated to this trend. HanmiGlobal's strategy is to combine its data center construction experience and nuclear power PM capabilities to seize the "data center-power-nuclear" value chain, the core infrastructure of the AI era.
This move is seen as an extension of the proactive investment strategy HanmiGlobal has demonstrated over the past 30 years. Launched in 1996 as Korea's first dedicated PM firm, HanmiGlobal opened up the PM market in earnest with the Seoul World Cup Stadium project in 1998. Through becoming the first in the industry to list on the KOSPI in 2009 and changing its name to HanmiGlobal in 2011, it also transformed its constitution into that of a global company.
Since then, it has carried out era-defining projects such as Lotte World Tower, Busan LCT, Yeouido Parc.1, Samsung Electronics' Pyeongtaek campus and Naver's data center Gak, expanding its business scope from skyscrapers to high-tech facilities. Following its proactive entry into the Chinese market in 2003 and the Middle East market in 2007, it is now preparing for another transformation by making data centers, nuclear power and SMRs its future growth pillars.
HanmiGlobal, which had revenue of 6.4 billion won at its founding, recorded revenue of 448.8 billion won last year, growing into a leading domestic PM firm. Its assets grew from 1 billion won to 446.6 billion won, and its number of employees expanded from 120 to about 2,200. The number of projects it has carried out to date exceeds 3,300.
The construction industry assesses that the success or failure of HanmiGlobal's next 30 years will depend on whether it can transition from simple PM services to an "AI-based comprehensive project platform company" encompassing development, investment, construction and operation. Lee Hyun-soo, professor emeritus of architecture at Seoul National University and co-chair of the Construction Industry Vision Forum, said, "HanmiGlobal has served as a compass pointing to the future direction of Korea's PM industry." He added, "Its evolution into a total solution provider that encompasses development, investment, construction and operation beyond PM and CM could become a case showing the next direction for Korea's PM industry."
