Data‑centre build market

Data centers are turning into one of the construction industry’s biggest growth markets as cloud and artificial intelligence companies race to add power-hungry server space. (cbre.com) A data center is a warehouse for computing equipment, and the new artificial intelligence version packs in denser chips that need more electricity, more cooling and more specialized electrical gear than older facilities. CBRE said global vacancy fell to 6.6% in the first quarter of 2025 and new construction timelines were stretching to 2027 and beyond as cloud and artificial intelligence tenants preleased capacity early. (cbre.com) In North America, CBRE said primary-market vacancy fell to 2.8% in the first half of 2024, with 3,871.8 megawatts under construction and nearly 80% of that pipeline already preleased. Average asking rates for wholesale space rose to $174.06 per kilowatt a month as power shortages and equipment lead times slowed completions. (cbre.com) By the second half of 2025, the squeeze had tightened further. CBRE said vacancy in primary North American markets hit a record-low 1.4% at year-end 2025 as artificial intelligence demand shifted from training systems to wider “inference” use in search and customer-service applications. (cbre.com) That demand is flowing straight into builders, engineers and construction managers. Turner Construction said data centers accounted for $12.6 billion of its backlog in the first half of 2025, and Construction Dive reported the sector made up about 37% of Turner’s year-end 2025 backlog after the company posted a record $29.2 billion in revenue. (turnerconstruction.com) (constructiondive.com) DPR Construction has a similar exposure. The company says mission-critical work, the category that includes data centers, generated 31% of its 2024 revenue, and it says it has completed 2,716 mission-critical projects since 1990. (dpr.com) Jacobs has been in data-center design for more than 30 years and is now tying that business to artificial intelligence tools of its own. In May 2025, Jacobs said it would work with NVIDIA’s digital-twin blueprint to simulate power, cooling and network systems for next-generation data centers before they are built. (jacobs.com 1) (jacobs.com 2) The bottleneck is no longer just concrete and steel. CBRE said limited power availability is the prime inhibitor of global data-center growth, pushing developers into newer hubs such as Richmond, Santiago and Mumbai while extending construction schedules in established markets. (cbre.com) Utilities are bracing for the load. S&P Global, citing 451 Research, reported U.S. data-center grid demand would rise to 61.8 gigawatts in 2025 from a year earlier and reach 134.4 gigawatts by 2030, with hyperscale, leased and crypto-mining facilities all contributing to the increase. (spglobal.com) So the construction story is not just about bigger buildings. It is about who can secure transformers, switchgear, water, land and utility approvals fast enough to turn artificial intelligence demand into operating capacity. (cbre.com)