Data center construction

It’s no secret that data center construction was the beating heart of the building industry in 2025. 

In January 2025, a collection of tech giants committed up to $500 billion to build data centers across the U.S. Throughout the year, the so-called Stargate initiative kept pace on its project planning pipeline, announcing buildouts in Texas, New Mexico, Ohio and the Midwest.

For builders, these multibillion-dollar builds have been a bright spot in an otherwise languishing construction industry. Large public builders have touted data centers as a focus for their construction units, per their earnings calls. These projects also propelled construction planning numbers higher to end the 2025, and many builders believe that data centers will continue to be one of the biggest trends of 2026. 

Indeed, the projected numbers for the AI infrastructure buildout are staggering. Credit ratings agency Moody’s now projects $3 trillion in global spending by 2030 to keep pace with rapid data center expansion and AI capacity demand.

Alongside projected business demand for data center construction, however, contractors also believe AI will fundamentally change their businesses, according to a survey from Dodge Construction Network. Investors think so, too: AI-based technologies, along with robotics, nabbed $2.22 billion in built environment funding through the end Q3 2025, according to a report from Nymbl Ventures. Those dollars and demand for data center projects continue to roll in, even as fears of a possible AI bubble persist. 

So what exactly does the deluge of data center projects, and the push for AI adoption, mean for construction at the end of the day? 

Is this simply another building boom, where contractors will literally lay foundations — for a price, of course — and walk away once those facilities are built? Or does it represent an opportunity for the construction industry to fully embrace technology in the ongoing AI arms race?

Experts say the answer is affirmative for both.

While some builders will leverage the boom into lucrative construction contracts to manage the work, other firms can get in on the infrastructure, the power plants, the roads and a plethora of other tangential buildouts needed to support the work, industry experts told Construction Dive. 

At the same time, the AI technology fueling the boom presents opportunities for builders to catch up to other industries and leverage technology to their advantage.

A double-edged game changer

The impact of AI on construction is “twofold,” said Macrina Wilkins, senior research analyst at Associated General Contractors of America. The technology is improving project and building opportunities in data center construction, while also turbocharging the way contractors run their businesses. 

“You have it reshaping how contractors are estimating, how they’re doing their scheduling, how they're managing projects,” Wilkins said. “But it’s also driving demand for data centers, construction, substations, electrical infrastructure.” 

Indeed, the AGC’s 2026 Outlook Survey reported that data centers and power facilities represent the lion’s share of project opportunities in 2026 Outside of those areas, builders have “dampened” expectations for the construction industry amid economic uncertainty.

Picks and shovels

The scope and scale of the AI buildout present opportunities for firms beyond just those with the skill, size and expertise to handle multibillion-dollar projects. Other contractors can get in on the action as well, according to Ryan Kunisch, vice president of global product for tech giant Oracle, one of the global firms at the center of the AI data center push. 

“You have a small set of large owners who are really driving the demand, whether it’s the utility companies or the data center owners themselves,” Kunisch said. “But really, the bottom of that pyramid [is a] huge opportunity for the trades, even for, as I mentioned, the logistics to accomplish some of these massive projects.” 

Just look at Watsonville, California-based Granite Construction. While the firm hasn’t presented itself as a data center builder, it has highlighted its picks and shovels strategy of creating roads and other infrastructure for data center buildouts in its earnings calls.

“As the U.S. works to expand grid capacity to support energy-intensive AI workloads, a significant share of related work is occurring around the data center rather than within the building footprint, creating opportunities for smaller civil, utility, and specialty firms to participate,” Wilkins said via email.

Bubble fears

Despite these projections and perceived opportunities, fears remain, namely bubble fears over the so-called AI trade that roiled the stock market at the end of 2025. 

Take the skittishness investors showed over chip giant Nvidia’s Q3 earnings: The AI darling posted a near-perfect quarter, disproving “pretty much all of the bear cases out there,” according to CNBC. Still, the stock gave back its initial gains as bubble fears continued to nibble around the edges of the boom.

Indeed, should the projected demand for AI infrastructure not play out as anticipated, with the amount of cash and debt financing fueling the trend, the collapse of data center buildouts could be disastrous.

“If there are companies out there who have become overly reliant on data centers and it's become a very significant portion of their portfolio, I think a major pullback in investment, in valuations on AI and data centers could obviously have a very significant impact on their business,” said Will Senner, senior VP of preconstruction for Skanska USA Building and the leader of its data solution team. “Hopefully, [they’d] be in position to be able to pivot to other market sectors and other project types.” 

Oracle’s Kunisch acknowledged the froth surrounding the sector’s projected growth as well, though believes AI is here to stay, as providers including Oracle find ways to make it useful for customers.

“The proof will be in the pudding, so to speak,” Kunisch said. “Meaning that as we start to document the return on investment, look at efficiencies, find areas to avoid the use of AI or even dial back the overarching panacea of promise and get to some real metrics, I think you’ll start to see stabilization in all of this.”

Innovation station

Outside of fueling demand for data centers and surrounding infrastructure, AI can help builders streamline how they run their businesses.

“We’re seeing lots of innovation, lots of people working to overcome challenges like labor shortages, or challenges like remote versus near urban environments,” said Chris Gorthy, the leader of Redwood City, California-based DPR’s Advanced Technology core market group. That push, along with the demand for the facilities themselves, has been driven, in part, by an “insatiable need for data in every aspect of our lives,” Gorthy added. 

There are downstream openings for smaller contractors as well. 

“I think one of the really exciting, but also potentially challenging, components of this AI transformation is the ability to enable everyday users in the business to develop their own solutions,” Skanska USA Building’s Senner said. “A lot of these tools are becoming more and more low code or no code, meaning you don’t have to be a data scientist to quickly create your own AI tool or AI agent.”

Senner points to Skanska’s Citizen Developer Program, which trains users in the company on how to create and use their own AI tools following proper data guidelines.

However, builders without a robust and accurate data infrastructure or vetting system could run into problems.

That said, as Skanska and other large contractors, including Turner Construction, adopt these AI tools, smaller builders should also benefit, just as BIM, project management and VDC platforms have trickled down construction’s tech stack in recent years. 

In fact, AGC is working to help smaller contractors take advantage of AI, pitching education and outreach to builders in lower revenue brackets.

“If we’re not moving together as an industry, then we’re not moving forward,” said Sarah Gallegos, senior director of the building division and construction innovation at AGC. “We can't leave the small- to mid-size contractors behind.”

Small contractors, Gallegos said, are using AI less as a shiny tool and more as a force multiplier. Examples include speeding up estimating, leveling the playing field in marketing and proposals and streamlining administrative work.

Overall, AI adoption will continue to be slow and steady, said Chris Love, AGC’s vice president of association and industry innovation. It will even happen incidentally, as large contech providers such as Procore, which are used by builders of all shapes and sizes, add AI to their product offerings.

“There are always going to be people that are more on the bleeding edge, but I think as more of the traditional companies see that and see the success they’re having, and worry about being left behind, I think we’ll continue to see adoption,” Love said.

A single constraint may decide whether New York successfully captures the next wave of data center investment, according to a New York Build 2026 panel session.

The panel, comprised of designers and engineers in the construction industry, tackled one of construction’s hottest topics: the blistering build out of data centers across the country and how that trend is unfolding in New York. Speakers described a market full of money and momentum, especially as demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure skyrockets.

In New York, however, that demand is colliding with an aging electrical grid and a debate about how, or even if, the state should accommodate these types of facilities. That tension is leading to new types of data center developments.

“The opportunity is there because the investment is there, the desire is there,” said Kelly Bacon, vice president and data center market lead at Dallas-based AECOM. “We’re at a point in time where if you don’t make these upgrades you’re going to miss out on one of the largest infrastructure booms we’ve seen in our lifetimes.”

Strict environmental rules and public skepticism around data centers suggest New York will not anytime soon look like Northern Virginia’s Data Center Alley, the world’s largest concentration of such facilities. The city probably wouldn’t win many hyperscale projects in the short term anyway.

“In New York City, we’re not going to have a 72-megawatt [data center],” said Amy Schaap, VDC engineer at New York City-based Turner Construction. “Show me where?”

For construction industry executives, however, that may not matter, she said.

The right kind of data center

There are more data center opportunities besides the massive multibillion-dollar builds from Amazon, Meta, Google and other tech giants.

Instead, the city should target denser, more specialized facilities close to end users, speakers suggested. That includes builds such as smaller AI facilities, edge data centers, retrofits and colocation sites, where multiple tenants operate within shared infrastructure. Smaller builds open opportunities for firms that don’t have the budgets of the largest tech giants.

“There’s going to be a little more of a shift back to owning your own premises,” said Rob LoBuono, principal at San Francisco-based Gensler. “I think there’s going to be a shift toward owning your own AI model, and that’s going to be a much smaller building.”

Although the city’s “vertical” data center concept still faces some challenges, the growth of edge data centers, or these small-scale facilities, being built in the city is a trend to watch, said Bacon.

“Really intrigued by the growth of edge data centers, and there’s a lot of discussion about vertical data centers in New York City proper,” said Bacon. “It’s still early days, but we’re starting to see paths towards that.”

Traditional large-scale data center projects also exist outside of the city, especially in areas with land and legacy infrastructure, said Bacon.

“There’s quite an opportunity in Western New York. There’s a lot of existing infrastructure that can repurpose in cities like Albany and Buffalo,” said Bacon. However, she noted, “there are complications. There are strong regulatory and environmental compliance issues that we have to deal with.”

Powering the boom

Nevertheless, for the data center construction boom to truly extend to New York, developers will need to solve the power issue first.

For example, the largest industrial customer in New York currently uses roughly 270 megawatts of power, said Ned Allis, senior vice president at GFT, a Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania-based engineering and infrastructure firm. A hyperscale data center, on the other hand, can demand about 1,400 megawatts at a single site.

That kind of load arrives at a moment when New York already has started to reshape its electric system to meet long-term climate goals. That means data center development will be as much about power as it is a real estate play, according to panelists.

“Well, unfortunately, I’m not seeing as many solutions as I’m seeing problems these days,” said Schaap. “Data centers are obviously very, very resource intensive. They take a lot of water, they take a lot of power, and so the community impact of that is intense.”

For that reason, Schaap pointed to liquid cooling and a more targeted system design to mitigate these needs. She also mentioned the renewed interest in small modular nuclear reactors. Bacon added demand for substations and related power infrastructure can run as hot as the market for the data center campuses themselves.

“We’re seeing the demand for battery and energy sources, systems and substations, as high, if not higher, than the data centers,” said Bacon.

Speed to build

To keep up, LoBuono identified prefabrication construction as more important than ever to New York’s data center ambitions.

“We have to preengineer, preplan, prefabricate quite a bit of our systems. In the building itself, we’re seeing a lot of prefabrication,” said LoBuono. “We’re actually seeing that as the only way right now to achieve the market speed that’s being driven in this economy for data centers.”

That speed-to-market is top of mind for designers and contractors. That’s important because ordinary failures can carry costly consequences on a data center project, said Dan Silva, senior consulting engineer at Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, a Waltham, Massachusetts-based engineering firm . A leak or air infiltration problem, for example, can jeopardize performance of the building in ways that an office or residential project rarely confront.

“For data centers, particularly building enclosure related things, it’s important to understand the risk,” said Silva. “If you get a roof leak that shuts down the data center that has massive implications. That means we really have to make sure we’re designing and installing high performing building enclosure systems.”

The push for prefab on these builds also helps alleviate pressures around workforce shortages, said Schaap. More modular strategies, she said, let firms concentrate work where labor and expertise already exist.

“We’re building a lot of data centers, frankly, in the middle of nowhere. There’s nothing, there’s no community,” said Schaap. “But if we can locate the actual construction and the expertise where the people are, we’re able to develop workforce more, and we can do it safer and quicker, and maybe in a place where the construction costs are not quite as they are in certain markets.”

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By Nucor

The rapid adoption of digital transformation, cloud computing and a massive rise in AI usage have significantly boosted the demand for data processing and storage. In 2024, the global data center market was valued at USD $347.60 billion and is expected to reach USD $652.01 billion by 2030 (Grand View Research, 2025).

Data centers remotely store, process or distribute large amounts of data through a network of computer servers. As the need for digital storage expands, so does the need for data center construction, and developers are racing to expand digital infrastructure.

During this surge of development, data center builders should focus on key strategic goals including speed, supply, sustainability and security — also known as the "Four S’s." The fifth S that holds everything together is steel, sustainably produced via electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking, which is uniquely positioned to meet all of these objectives.

Learn three reasons to build data centers with sustainable, American-made steel here.

1. Speed: Designing Efficiency for Data Center Innovation

Speed to market is crucial in data center construction. As AI innovation accelerates with ongoing breakthroughs, data center developers can no longer rely on two- to three-year construction timelines to meet current and future demand.

To meet the constant need for faster turnaround times, operators are implementing rapid deployment building solutions, such as pre-engineered metal buildings (PEMB) and modular white space infrastructure to allow for future upgrades.

Prefabricating and assembling parts off-site can boost project efficiency:

• Hot aisle containment systems (HACs)
• Server racks
• Support structures

This method cuts on-site installation time by over 50%, while also improving quality control and safety at the jobsite.

Nucor’s engineering and design teams can engage data center owners and construction teams early in the planning process to ensure structural compatibility, eliminate bottlenecks and significantly reduce deployment time. Because we operate hundreds of production facilities nationwide, we can minimize transportation lead times and ensure efficient delivery to each data center construction site.

2. Supply: Managing the Chain to Meet Timelines

In a market where minor delays can lead to millions in lost revenue, ensuring supply chain reliability is essential.

Amidst geopolitical tensions, port delays and ongoing global construction material shortages, American-made steel and steel products help keep data center construction on schedule and within budget. In the race for computing capacity, reliable supply and on-time delivery are clear competitive advantages — and sourcing domestically makes this possible.

Nucor’s process:

• We have established a fully integrated domestic steel supply chain from recycled scrap to finished products, ensuring complete traceability from raw materials to finished core and shell steel structures.
• We offer fabricated components for white space elements, including HACs, server racks and essential support infrastructure.
• With over 300 facilities across North America, Nucor’s integrated locations provide supply chain assurance and production commitments to deliver materials to your jobsite on schedule without the complications or additional costs of overseas shipping.

Data center developers can gain confidence in their construction timelines by working with Nucor, a single partner managing each stage while minimizing risks linked to offshore sourcing and reliance on third parties.

See Nucor’s comprehensive data center capabilities.

3. Sustainability: Lowering Carbon Impact for Responsible Growth

Data centers are a necessary aspect of digital growth and innovation, yet they are also among the largest consumers of energy. For this reason, the industry faces mounting pressure to reduce embodied carbon and operate more efficiently, making responsible material selection and construction essential to long-term sustainability.

Decarbonization begins with smarter material choices. EAF-produced steel offers a lower-carbon pathway by using electricity and recycled scrap, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions in comparison to traditional blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) steelmaking methods.

Nucor is committed to decarbonizing steel production at scale. On average, our EAF steel contains 67% less embodied carbon than traditionally produced steel.

The benefits of sustainable steel also extend beyond construction. When core and shell structures and white space data center components come to the end of their useful life, the steel can be fully recycled, ensuring every ton contributes to a more circular, sustainable supply chain.

This is only achievable with an American steel manufacturer that prioritizes sustainability and manages both steel production, fabrication and recycling. This is the future of infrastructure in a circular economy, and we are already making it happen today.

4. Security: Protecting America’s Data Infrastructure

Data is the backbone of national and economic security, so the infrastructure that houses it must be equally reliable and resilient.

Purchasing data center materials and equipment can be complicated, especially since components are often assembled using globally sourced parts. When equipment or materials are sourced overseas, challenges can arise, such as errors in documentation or interpretation that can lead to customs disputes, delayed shipments, denied trade preferences or allegations of misrepresentation.

Sourcing steel and fabricated components within the U.S. helps eliminate the vulnerabilities that accompany global supply chains.

Domestic data center sourcing and production ensures:

• Trade compliance and tariff protection to help mitigate cost volatility and uncertainty of imported materials.
• Regulatory confidence to meet strict U.S. standards for environmental, labor and material traceability.
• Procurement reliability to secure predictable lead times and stable quality assurance.

Long-term security depends on maintenance and adaptability, which can be costly and unpredictable. When manufacturers are abroad or unavailable, repairs and modifications face long lead times, import fees or custom parts. For example, a data center’s cooling or power system failure may delay operations and increase costs due to waiting for proprietary parts or specialists.

Overseas sourcing can also pose risks like substandard materials and cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Choosing a trustworthy U.S. supplier offers better quality control and traceability, along with faster, more secure communication and responsiveness throughout the product life cycle.

Partnering with a domestic end-to-end supplier helps mitigate security risks to ensure compliance, transparency and supply chain certainty from production through installation and future upgrades.

5. American Steel: The Future of Data Centers

Steel remains at the heart of modern data center development, providing essential strength, scalability and efficiency.

From the core and shell to the white space enclosures that protect critical infrastructure, American steel enables the rapid pace and flexibility needed to meet increasing digital demand. With materials produced, fabricated and delivered within the U.S., owners and developers can rely on consistent quality, shorter lead times and reduced exposure to tariffs or trade disruptions.

Equally important, EAF steel supports the sustainability goals shaping the future of the circular economy. Produced using recycled scrap, Nucor’s green steel products deliver lower embodied carbon and can be recycled infinitely without any loss in quality.

A trustworthy partner can unite all of this: speed to market, reliable supply, responsive support and a smooth transition from scrap to mill to finished structure. The result is a data center that can be built rapidly and can perform with the same reliability and security as the networks it powers.

Nucor, North America’s largest steel manufacturer and recycler, is positioned to help the industry build data centers faster and more sustainably. Reach out to our data center construction experts for rapid deployment building and design solutions.

Momentum in March 2026 construction planning masks widespread tepidness across most of the industry.

The Dodge Momentum Index, a measure which tracks nonresidential construction projects entering the planning stages, rebounded to rise 1.8% month to month in March, according to Dodge Construction Network. The gain marks the first monthly increase of the year, following two consecutive drops to start 2026.

But without data center buildouts, drafting tables would look far less active.

“Planning momentum in March was powered almost entirely by data center projects, with most other sectors easing back,” said Sarah Martin, associate director of forecasting at Dodge Construction Network. “For some categories, this reflects a natural reset after the outsized growth in late 2025.”

Commercial planning increased 7% over the month, but activity slowed across nearly every sector outside of data centers. Institutional projects, for example, dropped 8.8%, with only education and public buildings posting small gains.

Since March 2025, commercial planning has climbed 28.5% year over year, according to Dodge. Without the data center boom, however, commercial planning would have dropped 12.7% during that period. Institutional planning increased 19.6% compared to data from 2025.

The report suggests elevated macroeconomic risks are likely beginning to feed into planning decisions, said Martin. Though artificial intelligence builds seem shielded thus far, the outlook for other traditional construction sectors, such as office and retail projects, looks weaker.

Nevertheless, the index as a whole sits 25.8% higher than March 2025. That signals a still-healthy pipeline of future construction work from plans that have already been drafted.

A total of 54 projects valued at $100 million or more entered planning in March, according to Dodge. Major commercial projects included:

• 17 individual buildings, each valued at $500 million, for the Amazon data center campus in Hamlet, North Carolina, or $8.5 billion combined.
• 10 individual buildings, each valued at $250 million, in relation to the Microsoft data center DSM50 in Dallas, Iowa, for a $2.5 billion total.

The largest institutional projects to enter planning included:

• The $245 million MCLJ Outpatient Pavilion in San Diego.
• The $183 million Orlando Health Viera phase 1B in Viera West, Florida.
• The $175 million Bachelor Enlisted Quarters renovation project at Camp Pendleton North in San Diego.

Turner Construction reported record financials for 2025 on the back of hyperscaler data center builds and marquee stadium projects.

The privately held company reported $29.2 billion in revenue for 2025, a 40% increase from 2024, according to the company’s annual report released March 3, 2026. New York City-based Turner’s figures bolster its status as the largest contractor in the U.S. by revenue.

Turner also shared that its project backlog grew 34% year over year to $44.3 billion, representing the highest year-end backlog in its history. Data center projects reflected approximately 37% of backlog and continue to expand, a result of sustained investment in artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure.

These results are a continuation of the strong year the company noted midway through 2025. At the halfway point, the firm had more than $39 billion in backlog, a 21% year-over-year increase and a record for the period. 

Data center builds have driven activity across the construction industry in recent years. Turner expects its revenue from data center work to exceed $20 billion in 2030, said Chris McFadden, senior vice president of global communications for the contractor. 

Some of Turner’s projects in the space include a $10 billion project in Lebanon, Indiana, alongside Minneapolis-based Mortenson; and a $6 billion CoreWeave data center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with local builder Wohlsen Construction.

“Our diversified market presence and integrated service platform enable us to scale rapidly in high-growth sectors,” said Tom Reilly, Turner president, in the news release.

The data center and AI focus in the U.S. is also reflected within Turner’s own business. The company has taken steps to make its business tech-forward, including via a two-year deal with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. In addition, Turner has rolled out construction-focused tech solutions, such as change order management firm Clearstory’s software, across its jobsites.

The firm attributed increased productivity and revenue growth to adopting digital and AI technologies, as well as its integrated services platform.

In addition to data center work, the company reported growth across the healthcare, pharmaceutical, sports, aviation and commercial work segments, per the announcement.

Some of Turner’s other flagship projects include:

• Billion-dollar-plus NFL stadium projects for the Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans and Cleveland Browns.
• The $1.7 billion New York State Public Health Laboratory. 
• The $1 billion hospital campus for Regional One Health in Tennessee.
• The $1.7 billion Battery Park City Resiliency Project in New York City.

The contractor also called out its efforts to grow its integrated services divisions. These include offsite manufacturing firm xPL Offsite, which Turner established in May 2025, alongside equipment rental and site services company First Equipment, which launched on Jan. 8, 2026.

Johnny Clemmons is global vice president and industries head at software firm SAP. Opinions are the author’s own.

Artificial intelligence is driving a massive and unprecedented infrastructure expansion to the tune of $40 billion in annual spending on data centers in the U.S. alone. 

The pace of data center construction is accelerating across the world. There’s OpenAI’s $400 billion Stargate initiative, which will add 10 gigawatts of data center capacity with partners Oracle and SoftBank, alongside Amazon’s $100 billion global data center expansion effort. Moody’s projects $3 trillion in global data center spending by 2030.  

As hyperscalers and others invest to meet AI’s growing data capacity appetite, it’s vitally important that they also bring more standardization and modularity to data center design and construction. 

Ultimately, the architectural aesthetics with these projects are secondary to efficiency, security, safety and repeatability. This means that unless a particular project has unique environmental, siting or regulatory requirements, heavily customized designs are unnecessary, even frivolous. 

For general building design, the occupant experience almost always comes first. But for data centers, while the safety and comfort of those who work onsite should be a high priority, so, too, is creating an optimal environment for server racks and their contents. 

As much as stakeholders might feel inclined to treat a data center like most other buildings, with customizations and unique design elements to make the building more appealing and the occupant experience richer, those considerations take a back seat to standardization, predictability, modularity, repeatability and sustainability. 

In fact, data centers may be more repeatable than most other types of building projects. Many of their critical components — power density, cooling strategies, security zones, structural loads and commissioning requirements — tend to follow predictable patterns. Once these patterns are identified — with the help of artificial intelligence, of course — they can be used to inform design and construction strategies from the start.

That, in turn, creates an opportunity to develop a repeatable blueprint or formula that data center developers can readily apply to future projects. 

Excessive customization leads to longer timelines, higher and less predictable costs, quality inconsistencies and elevated risk. Modularization, on the other hand, allows projects to be designed, approved, built and commissioned faster, at a more predictable and often lower cost, with fewer surprises along the way.

Here are the specific advantages modularization brings:  

Speed: Modularization and standardization can significantly speed up projects without compromising quality. The ability to develop one megawatt modules, for example, with standardized HVAC configurations, materials and labor requirements can enable developers to scale different components and then assemble the project as a whole. AI tools can help design and configure the modules themselves. 

Off-site fabrication of modules, as well as continuous commissioning within a project, where stakeholders can identify and address issues as they arise, offer additional time savings. 

Better cost control, if not cost reduction: Modularization brings greater project cost certainty and likely cost reductions, due to fewer customizations and economies in procurement.

Tighter standardization for interior specifications: Within a data center, every tenth of a degree in temperature and every millimeter of space counts. Miscalculations can lead to expensive inefficiencies and even equipment failures. Repeatable, intelligent modeling and design draws from past performance data and design specs to optimize data center interior configuration.

Along these lines, AI can build and manage a reference library of best construction practices specific to data centers. This simplifies the build, particularly for those with less experience.

Predictability in terms of equipment and labor requirements: Repeatable designs allow stakeholders to develop standard requirements for the parts, tools, equipment and skilled labor needed onsite, as well as for how long. Those factors can then be adjusted according to a specific project’s site conditions.

Project tracking and quality control: The modular approach allows contractors and other project stakeholders to monitor construction processes, progress and quality in nearly real time to ensure everything’s being delivered, built and installed to spec and to code. Since it’s predictable and planned out following a template, AI can help in this regard, too, monitoring a project and alerting the right people when discrepancies emerge.

Sustainability tracking and reporting: Intelligent tools can help project stakeholders measure, track and report on carbon footprint, use of recycled materials, and other important sustainability-related metrics to meet regulatory requirements and internal benchmarks/goals.

Put all these elements together and the result is a repeatable set of specs, processes and practices for bringing data centers online faster, at a more predictable,and hopefully lower cost, without compromising performance. This is how our AI future should be built.