United States (US) Data Center Construction Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends And Forecast (2025 - 2030)

United States (US) Data Center Construction Market Trends and Insights

Cloud, AI and Big-data Workload Boom

Artificial-intelligence clusters now draw up to 10 times more energy per rack than legacy enterprise applications, pushing facility power densities above 40 kW per rack and making direct liquid cooling a design necessity.^{[1]Oracle,"Oracle designing data center to be powered by trio of small modular reactors," oracle.com} Next-generation campuses such as Meta’s USD 10 billion Louisiana site integrate direct-to-rack cooling and bespoke network fabrics to sustain large AI models Rack-level heat loads are raising the planned average facility size from 40 MW to nearly 60 MW by 2028, forcing contractors to secure dedicated high-voltage feeds and invest in advanced mechanical skills. New AI-ready halls are commanding premium pricing, whereas older air-cooled sites risk obsolescence. Contractors able to deliver high-density, liquid-cooled environments gain a strategic edge in the United States data center construction market.

Hyperscale Self-Build Pipelines Above 10 GW

Cloud majors are funding multibillion-dollar campuses to control design, schedule, and on-site power. Amazon’s USD 20 billion Pennsylvania program includes a co-located nuclear facility, underlining the vertical-integration push. Google’s USD 10 billion Arkansas campus similarly blends renewable generation with AI-centric hall layouts. Direct engagement with tier-1 contractors bypasses traditional colocation structures, creating a parallel delivery ecosystem squarely focused on hyperscale needs. The pipeline already exceeds 10 GW in announced capacity, locking in multi-year backlogs for firms that possess hyperscale credentials. Colocation operators must now differentiate through edge deployments and value-added services.

Edge and 5G Densification of Metro Clusters

5G rollouts and IoT adoption are spawning 1-10 MW edge nodes that sit closer to end users, cutting latency for real-time analytics. Modular designs and adaptive-reuse strategies enable rapid deployment inside urban footprints. Vapor IO’s Las Vegas buildout highlights how AI at the edge broadens the construction opportunity set. Because project scale shrinks even as project count multiplies, success depends on distributed project-management tools and standardized prefabrication kits. Edge growth adds diversity to the United States data center construction market, complementing megascale campuses.

Federal and State Tax-Incentive Packages

Incentive competition among states has intensified, with Texas offering 10-15-year abatements on USD 200 million builds and Massachusetts approving 20-year sales-tax relief for USD 50 million sites.^{[2]NAIOP, "An Overview of State Data Center-related Tax Incentives," naiop.org} Renewable-energy credits under the Inflation Reduction Act further cut operating costs for green-power designs. These benefits are now central to site-selection models, frequently tipping decisions toward incentive-rich regions. Heightened community scrutiny of water use and grid impact, however, can curtail overly generous packages, making political-risk analysis a required discipline for builders

Power-Grid Interconnection Delays (3-6 Years)

Northern Virginia, the world’s largest data-center hub, now faces waits of up to seven years for grid hookups as transmission queues swell TD Securities. Developers are redirecting pipelines to Ohio and the broader Midwest, where utilities can still provision large-block capacity GHC. Microgrid solutions and on-site generation, including small-modular reactors proposed by Last Energy, are emerging as work-arounds Last Energy. Construction firms are partnering with energy developers to deliver power-plus-facility packages that shorten delivery schedules. Projects able to secure dedicated generation race ahead in the United States data center construction market.

Transformer and Switch-Gear Supply-Chain Choke Points

Lead times for high-capacity transformers now extend beyond 115 weeks, with prices up 60-80% since 2020.^{[3]Cyruse,"Navigating Supply Chain Challenges: The New Reality for Data Center Buyers," cyrusone.com}Steel tariffs have lifted structural costs by 11.2%, pushing overall construction inflation into double digits AIMMS. Contractors are stockpiling critical gear and expanding prefabrication yards to lock in component availability. Equipment shortages elevate the importance of long-term vendor relationships and vertically integrated logistics. Smaller firms without procurement leverage risk exclusion from large hyperscale bids.

Geography Analysis

Northern Virginia maintains the largest installed base with over 9.6 GW of operational capacity, but transmission queues and community pushback are slowing fresh approvals. Developers now face multi-year delays that can erode a project’s internal rate of return. The Midwest answers this constraint with abundant wind resources, competitive land pricing, and a cooperative regulatory stance. Ohio leads the surge as AWS and Google line up over USD 11 billion in combined commitments, aided by microgrid-ready sites and streamlined permitting.

Texas anchors the southern corridor with nearly 8 GW of installed data-center load. Deregulated power markets and plentiful natural gas allow creative generation pairings, including Last Energy’s planned microreactor fleet dedicated to campus loads. Dallas–Fort Worth alone may require another 43 GW of capacity by 2030, pressuring both land values and labor availability. Meanwhile, Phoenix and Atlanta attract projects with renewable-energy credits and pro-development zoning, carving out shares of the United States data center construction market that were once the exclusive domain of coastal metros.

Segment Analysis

By Tier Type: Rising Demand for Fault-Tolerant Facilities

Tier 3 remains the backbone of the United States data center construction market, accounting for 57.4% of 2024 revenue. Enterprises value concurrent maintainability that protects operations during routine service windows. The United States data center construction market size for Tier 4 builds, however, is projected to grow at an 8.5% CAGR through 2030 as hyperscalers demand 99.995% availability and redundant power paths. This premium segment attracts contractors with specialized expertise in fully duplicated electrical and mechanical systems. New design standards now fold liquid cooling and high-density racks into tier definitions once focused mainly on power and redundancy. Dedicated on-site generation, including small modular reactors, is becoming common in Tier 4 greenfields, tightening the link between energy and facility engineering.

Tier 1 and Tier 2 sites fill budget-sensitive niches such as development environments and non-critical workloads, but their share is eroding as AI workloads proliferate. Contractors winning Tier 4 contracts frequently deploy prefabricated power rooms and modular chillers to control cost escalation. Mission-critical accreditation and flawless safety records remain key pre-qualifiers. As AI training expands, tier differentiation pivots less on uptime percentages and more on ability to cool 40-100 kW racks at scale.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

By Data Center Type: Colocation Dominance Meets Hyperscaler Acceleration

Colocation operators commanded 55.9% of 2024 spending, capitalizing on enterprises that favor OPEX models and turnkey operations. Yet hyperscaler self-build programs, advancing at a 9.3% CAGR, are reshaping the competitive calculus within the United States data center construction market. Cloud majors want full control over cooling topologies, fiber routing, and campus security, all of which exceed shared-facility offerings. The United States data center construction market size tied to self-build hyperscale campuses will therefore expand faster than any other segment. Contractors secure multi-phase agreements running into the billions, anchoring regional labor pipelines for years.

Edge and enterprise facilities, although smaller, remain critical for latency-sensitive or regulated workloads. They enable operators to position workloads near end users without incurring megacampus costs. Colocation firms respond by rolling out distributed footprints and value-added managed services to offset the scale advantage of self-builders. 

By Electrical Infrastructure: Shift Toward High-Voltage Distribution

Power-backup systems—generators, UPS, and batteries—accounted for 57.1% of 2024 revenue, underscoring their role in protecting workloads. Facilities upgrading to 480 V and higher distribution architectures are fueling the fastest 10.2% CAGR for power-distribution solutions. AI racks drawing 40-100 kW each require efficient high-voltage backbones to limit copper mass and voltage drop. Within the United States data center construction market, projects that integrate high-voltage busways, solid-state breakers, and closed-transition switchgear record measurable energy savings and reduced footprint.

On-site generation further disrupts traditional switchgear lineups by collapsing the distance between source and load. Facilities co-located with nuclear, natural-gas, or renewable assets often adopt medium-voltage interconnects that challenge conventional plant layouts. Electrical contractors versed in utility-scale standards find a growing addressable market as campuses adopt grid-parallel topologies.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

By Mechanical Infrastructure: Liquid Cooling Moves Mainstream

Cooling systems held a 43.2% share of 2024 mechanical spend, but servers and storage components—primarily GPU clusters with integrated liquid loops—are scaling fastest at a 9.7% CAGR. Direct-to-chip and immersion cooling reduce both energy use and white-space demand, freeing real estate for compute expansion. As liquid solutions proliferate, ancillary mechanical components such as leak-detection sensors, dielectric coolants, and liquid-distribution manifolds become standard bill-of-materials items within the United States data center construction market share discourse.

Passive evaporation prototypes from academic labs promise 30-40% energy savings versus legacy chillers, signaling further mechanical disruption. Contractors are re-tooling prefabrication shops to handle liquid-cooling skid assemblies and building teams skilled in pipefitting for warm-water loops. Fire-suppression approaches are also evolving to accommodate non-conductive fluids and higher rack temperatures, indicating broad ripple effects across mechanical sub-systems.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase