‘Largest US subsea cable factory’ breaks ground

Construction work on LS Cable & System’s manufacturing facility for high-voltage direct current (HVDC) subsea cables in Virginia, the U.S., has started.

LS Cable & System announced that its U.S. subsidiary, LS GreenLink, had held a groundbreaking ceremony for what the company says will be the largest factory of this kind in the United States.

According to the company, this investment, worth a total of €681 million, is significant as it is the first case of large-scale local investment by a Korean firm since the second term of the Trump administration.

The factory will be built on a brownfield site in Chesapeake that spans some 396,700 square meters, with the facility itself occupying 70,000 square meters. LS GreenLink’s subsea cable facility is expected to create more than 330 full-time jobs.

The construction is scheduled to be completed in the third quarter of 2027, and mass production is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2028. The expansion of the facility is also planned in the future, depending on global demand, according to the company.

“We have already secured 18 months’ worth of volume for export to Europe. The U.S.’s AI data center power demand in 2024 is expected to reach 32 GW, half of Korea’s annual power demand (62 GW), and by 2030, it is expected to more than triple to 120 GW, which will rapidly increase demand for cables as well,” said Kim Ki-soo, CEO of LS GreenLink.

“This investment is the largest single private investment in Chesapeake’s history, and it will serve as an opportunity for Chesapeake to leap forward as a key hub in the global energy supply chain,” added Rick West, Mayor of Chesapeake.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Juan Pablo Segura, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), Chesapeake Mayor Richard West, and other officials and industry leaders attended the groundbreaking, which took place on the first day of Oceantic Network’s 2025 International Partnering Forum (IPF).

“Today’s groundbreaking for LS GreenLink’s Chesapeake cable facility marks a pivotal moment for Virginia and America’s national offshore wind supply chain. This $700 million investment is a testament to the global industry’s commitment to the U.S. market, creating hundreds of long-term American jobs and manufacturing American-made energy components for the pipeline of domestic and international offshore wind projects,” said Liz Burdock, president and CEO of Oceantic Network.

“Thanks to the leadership of Dominion Energy, support from Governor Youngkin and other elected officials, and cornerstone supply chain investments like this, Virginia is rapidly emerging as a premier offshore wind hub in the U.S.”