Despite the ongoing national debate on the value and/or danger of data centers, the building of such facilities themselves is proving a good thing for the nation’s construction industry.
According to a new survey, nearly 20% of the members of the Associated Builders and Contractors have been involved in some form of work building a center. Those figures, says ABC in a press release, represent the “highest proportion on record.”
“Data centers continue to keep contractors busy, even as activity softens in other segments,” remarked ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu in a statement.
While the backlog gap between contractors with and without data center work has narrowed in the past month, that gap, notes ABC, “appears to reflect more contractors securing work in the data center segment, rather than a broader structural trend.”
According to the site Industrial Info Resources, data center building plans across North America currently exceed $5 trillion in project value. “Those figures measure buildings, electrical and mechanical systems, site power, and project-owned on-site generation.”
Amazon is currently leading the field in the number of new data centers nationally at 27, with an estimated dollar value of $25 billion, followed by Google Incorporated with 18 projects at a dollar worth of $24.6 billion. Third place is held by Meta Platforms Incorporated with 13 projects and an investment value of just over $15 billion.
The data center boom, reports the Wall Street Journal, has become a “bonanza for the workers building them,” with many workers additionally enjoying such trappings as “perks, bonuses, and in many cases, pay boosts.”
Although what is estimated as a $10 trillion boom shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon, with around 4,000 centers currently in the planning stage, project timelines are continuing to expand primarily due to a shortage of needed building materials.
The demand, reported CNN Business last month, “has vastly outstripped the industry’s ability to supply it.”
Even so, the range and scope of the work remains unprecedented, some “50% bigger than the next-biggest spending boom from the 19th century railroad expansion.”
September 24, 2026
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
