Data center construction spending hits record $85 billion annual pace

Private data center construction spending is up over 73%, from $49.05 billion to $84.95 billion, year over year (YoY), according to the Census Bureau’s detailed construction spending tables for August. Spending is at a record annual pace, and growth is the fastest since April 2025’s +88.2%. Data center buildouts are now about 63% of all private office construction. The report, released last week, uses Census definitions that exclude any value of “racks or servers in data centers” from its construction spending numbers. It also does not speculate on any cause of the spending increase.

The Census data covers the Value of Construction Put in Place, measured monthly, to calculate what a full year would total at that month’s pace. Data center construction is defined as “[including] buildings that contain the hardware needed for storing, processing, and transmitting digital information,” a subcategory of private office. …