Data Centers

The buildout of AI and cloud data centers is now large enough to show up in the government’s own statistics rather than only in company announcements. Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft have guided to roughly $720 to 745 billion of capital spending for 2026, most of it chips and servers; construction put in place on U.S. data center buildings reached a $75 billion annual rate in July 2026, up 57 percent in a year.

The data center construction boom will likely finish as the largest cumulative capex boom in U.S. history, but it is currently facing headwinds. Capacity auctions run by PJM, the largest U.S. grid operator, have come up short of the region’s reliability requirement in three consecutive auctions and cleared at the price cap each time, pointing to higher electricity bills and strain on the grid, and recent polls show the majority of Americans say they would oppose a data center in their own community.

This section will help us understand the wide gap in scale between data center projects that have been announced versus budgeted, started and built; put the spending against the largest capital programs in American history; follow the power demand into the grid; and track the political response.

Measuring the Data Center Construction Boom: Real Estate, Infrastructure, and IT Components

Why $700 billion of capex, $84 billion of starts and $75 billion of construction are all true at once: construction put in place vs. hyperscaler capex 2020 to 2026, the cost distribution of a 1 GW AI campus, server imports by country, and the U.S. share of hyperscaler assets

U.S. Data Center Capital Spending Boom 2025–2030

Hyperscaler spending measured against the railroads, the Interstate Highway System, Apollo and the telecom buildout in today’s dollars, and how the four largest companies are paying for it as free cash flow thins and borrowing rises

Data Center Power Demand vs. U.S. Grid Capacity

Data centers used 4.7 percent of U.S. electricity in 2024 and are projected to use about 12 percent by 2030: what the forecasts say, why the stress is regional, and what PJM’s capacity auctions are already pricing in

Key Data Sources & Research

U.S. Census Bureau
www.census.gov - Construction Spending (value put in place, data center category); international trade data by harmonized code

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
eta.lbl.gov - United States Data Center Energy Usage Report, 2025 Update

U.S. Energy Information Administration
www.eia.gov - Short-Term Energy Outlook; Electric Power Monthly

PJM Interconnection
www.pjm.com - Base Residual Auction results

International Energy Agency
www.iea.org - Electricity Mid-Year Update 2026

Company filings
Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft 10-K filings and quarterly earnings materials (capital expenditure, guidance, assets by geography)

Cushman & Wakefield
www.cushmanwakefield.com - Data Center Development Cost Guide 2026

Annenberg Public Policy Center
www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org - Survey of opposition to local data centers, June to July 2026