GE Vernova and Baker Hughes sign Venture Global deal worth up to $17.2 billion as wind gets a new boss
Cable-industry outsider Hakan Ozmen takes over GE Vernova's loss-making wind unit on January 1. The same week, GE Vernova and Baker Hughes signed Venture Global frame agreements worth about $17.2 billion if every order proceeds; the firm part held with GE Vernova is eight reserved islands, 5.76 GW.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
A cable executive inherits the drag
GE Vernova−0.59% — GE Vernova, down 0.59 percent today has handed its wind business to a man from cables and grid software. Hakan Ozmen, who ran Prysmian's North American arm and its global transmission and subsea projects before leading the grid-modernization platform Gridspertise, joins on November 1 as Wind CEO designate and takes over on January 1, 2027 1. He succeeds Vic Abate, who steps down after 37 years with GE 2.
The unit he inherits is the group's drag: second-quarter wind revenue fell 10% and wind orders fell 40%, widening losses even as company revenue rose 22% and total backlog hit $176 billion 3. Chief executive Scott Strazik's summary was blunt: "substantial work remains," above all on onshore wind services profitability 1.
One umbrella contract, two suppliers
The same week, the gas side booked the AI trade. A frame agreement is an umbrella contract, prices and delivery windows fixed now for orders placed later, and on October 9 Venture Global's LNG subsidiary signed one with GE Vernova and Baker Hughes jointly: up to 16 power islands of 720 MW each, deliveries running through 2034 4. If every order goes ahead, that power agreement plus a separate transformer contract with GE Grid Solutions totals about $17.2 billion, with the split between suppliers undisclosed 45.
The binding part is thinner. Venture Global expects its first power island purchase order by the end of 2026, and a reservation agreement already covers eight of the remaining 15 islands, 5.76 GW of combined-cycle capacity, with GE Vernova, purchase orders anticipated from early 2027 45. Beyond the reservation fees nobody is obliged to buy or supply anything, and the right to reserve factory capacity expires in stages from October 2027 to October 2029 4.
Venture Global's reserved 5.76 GW is a sliver of GE Vernova's 116 GW gas book
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Slot reservations, unconverted (June 2026) | 63 GW |
| Firm equipment backlog (June 2026) | 53 GW |
| Reserved with GE Vernova (Oct 2026) | 5.76 GW |
For scale, the Power segment brought in $21 billion over the trailing four quarters; $17.2 billion spread across eight years of deliveries is roughly $2.2 billion a year, about a tenth of Power's sales 5. The gas book stood at 116 GW of backlog and slot reservations in June, 53 GW firm equipment and 63 GW paid options, with at least 125 GW expected under contract by December 6.
Two questions on October 28
The bullish case got airtime the same week. Strazik counts the close-out of Vineyard Wind and continued Dogger Bank execution, the company's two big offshore wind projects, and calls wind's foundation "much firmer" 1. Venture Global chief Mike Sabel says he is "creating a vertically integrated AI utility": up to 10 GW of computing by end-2034, on power generated at its own sites behind the meter and off the public grid, atop the 4.5 GW it already has ordered, in construction or operating 7.
Third-quarter results land on October 28, with the stock about 20% below its record high 5. The backlog they measure closed on September 30, nine days before the signing, so listen for whether the reserved slots count toward the 125 GW target 5. On wind, the profitability test now belongs to Ozmen, and early 2027 is when the options start becoming orders 4.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
