ConstructConnect — July 2026 Data Center Construction Report

Core Thesis

Independent construction-industry data corroborates the Fed's July 2026 MPR: data-center construction is no longer a niche vertical, it's now a measurable share of the entire US nonresidential building economy — and it's still accelerating.

Key Numbers

• YTD 2026 spending (through May): $58.1B — more than 4x the record set over the same period in 2025.
• May 2026 monthly spending: $7.9B — the eighth-highest month on record.
• 91 projects YTD.
• 12-month moving average: $9.7B/month; 6-month moving average: $12.0B/month — the 6-month average running above the 12-month average signals continued acceleration, not a plateau.
• ~100 more projects in preconstruction, representing >$101B in planned spending (excludes the separate $100B "Project Kestrel").
• Data centers = >20% of all US nonresidential building starts.
• Power infrastructure construction forecast +30.8% in 2026 vs. 2025 — the buildout is dragging grid/power construction up with it.

Geographic Concentration

Virginia, Texas, Louisiana, Illinois, and North Carolina capture ~60% of all new data-center starts spending (trailing 12 months). New England and the Western US combined account for just 6%.

Why It Matters

This is the construction-side confirmation of the same story the Fed MPR tells from the macro-investment side — two independent, primary-adjacent data sources agreeing that data-center construction is now large enough to move national-level statistics, not just regional ones.

Source: July 2026 Data Center Report — Michael Guckes, Chief Economist, ConstructConnect, 2026-06-25. Full-text fetched.