By Sophie Lindqvist

Venture Global plans to become the world's largest liquefied natural gas exporter by volume by the end of next year, and it now wants to sell something else alongside the gas: 5 gigawatts of power for hyperscaler data centers by 2031, doubling to 10 gigawatts by 2034. That is the decision cofounder and CEO Mike Sabel laid out Tuesday, alongside third-quarter earnings of $2.55 billion in net income — up from $429 million a year earlier.

The 10-gigawatt figure is a target, not a signed portfolio of customers. Sabel himself framed the data center plan as a market test. "We have a huge footprint. It's a potential mega scale of infrastructure that we hope the customers will find attractive," he told Fortune. "That's when we're in the market testing to see. I think they will."

What does the CP2 timeline change?

Venture Global shipped its first cargoes only four years ago. In July 2027, the company will begin starting up its third major facility, CP2 LNG, in southern Louisiana — well ahead of schedule, according to Sabel. The claim of beating rivals rests on volume: if it holds, VG would surpass Cheniere Energy and even QatarEnergy by the end of next year, even assuming Qatar's facilities are fully repaired from the ongoing Iran war.

CP2 sits adjacent to Calcasieu Pass LNG in southwestern Louisiana. The company's other hub, Plaquemines LNG, operates in the southeastern part of the state. Together, the three campuses anchor a buildout that VG says will exceed 100 million metric tons of annual LNG export capacity by 2030 — a striking figure, given that the entire United States had roughly 100 million tons of capacity at the start of 2025.

How does an LNG company serve data centers?

The pitch is unusual but mechanically simple. VG says its export campuses already run their own power and water systems, independent of public utilities. "We believe we have built the largest electric industrial grid in the world, and it's on an island," Sabel said. "We can just expand what we already have, and we can build data center infrastructure and provide exactly what the market needs, which is total island mode. We're off the water utility, and we're off the grid, so we don't impact consumers at all."

To deliver, VG is expanding contracts with GE Vernova for gas-fired turbines and Baker Hughes for transformer equipment. "We've engineered and designed the grid, commissioned the grid, operated the grid, and now we can expand it," Sabel said. He described each of the two existing campuses as a potential "turnkey AI utility" (a bundled offer of land, power, and cooling that a cloud operator can occupy without building its own energy supply).

The company also argues it holds a scarce advantage: turbines are among the hardest equipment to procure in the current cycle. "We own incredibly scarce equipment now, expanding our frame agreement with GE. This is very unique," Sabel said. Owning the equipment is not the same as securing hyperscaler commitments, and none were announced Tuesday.

Does Louisiana help?

Geography works in VG's favor. Some states, including neighboring Texas, face potential data center pauses after the midterm elections. Louisiana kept data center-friendly leadership in Republican hands. SpaceX already plans a new Starbase campus about 70 miles from Calcasieu Pass — a signal, though not a contract, that the region can attract large industrial tenants.

What is behind the growth numbers?

Venture Global's speed has a specific business logic. The company designed smaller, replicable facilities and signed customers on cheaper long-term contracts than rivals. By bringing each gas liquefaction train (an individual processing unit within a plant) online one at a time, VG sold cargoes on spot markets at higher margins before full facilities were completed and the long-term contracts took effect.

Plaquemines illustrates the model and its frictions. The facility shipped cargoes throughout the Iran war, helping offset the loss of Qatar's supplies, but its commercial contracts only started at the end of October, once phase one was fully completed and commissioned. Some customers have criticized the approach, arguing the contracts could have started sooner, and the disputes have ended up in court. VG counters that it did more than any competitor to supply Europe and Asia during the war by bringing Plaquemines on early.

The market has already priced in much of the story: VG's stock had risen 73% this year before Tuesday's earnings. The company debuted at No. 328 on the Fortune 500 this year. What remains unproven is the second act — whether hyperscalers will commit to gigawatt-scale deals on an industrial island in Louisiana, and whether the 2030 volume target survives contact with construction schedules that the industry, including VG's own court record, shows are rarely friction-free.