To meet the needs of the ongoing expansion in the gas industry, common requirements such as high reliability, efficiency, and dynamic performance must be satisfied while still keeping costs competitive. This article reports on an industrial research and development (R&D) project to find the best compromise between performance and production cost targets for a special direct-drive turbomachinery application. The development and testing of a 640-kW 10,000-r/min motor prototype characterized by a slotless stator and a Halbach-magnetized, magnetically levitated permanentmagnet (PM) rotor is discussed, including the technology selection, the design optimization processes, the machine manufacturing, and testing results.