Key points
- Data center construction spending reaches a record pace
- New home construction spending falls over the same two years
- Data centers account for most private office construction
Private spending on U.S. data center construction more than doubled in two years, reaching a record annualized pace of $85 billion in August. Spending on new houses and apartments moved in the opposite direction, with its annualized rate falling by $29.2 billion over the same period.
The data center figure rose from $36.7 billion in August 2024 and is the highest in the Census Bureau's data center series, which begins in January 2014, according to data released Oct. 1. The figures are seasonally adjusted spending rates, not amounts spent in a single month.
Data centers grow as housing construction falls
The table compares private construction spending in August of each year, expressed as annualized rates in billions of dollars, from the Census Bureau's monthly series.
| Category | Aug. 2024 | Aug. 2025 | Aug. 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data centers | $36.7 | $49.1 | $85.0 |
| New single-family homes | $421.9 | $418.1 | $403.3 |
| New multifamily | $126.4 | $116.5 | $115.8 |
| Total private construction excluding data centers | $1,693.3 | $1,658.3 | $1,570.3 |
Data center spending rose 73% from a year earlier. Over two years, private construction excluding data centers fell 7.3%. The annualized spending rate for new single-family homes dropped by $18.5 billion, while new multifamily construction fell by $10.7 billion. Changes are calculated from unrounded figures.
Data centers now drive office construction
The Census Bureau counts data centers as part of its office category. Private office construction spending rose 29.8% from a year earlier, to $134.1 billion in August. Data centers made up $85.0 billion of that, while spending on general office buildings slipped to $45.8 billion from $50.7 billion a year earlier.
Data centers accounted for 11% of private nonresidential construction spending in August. Two years earlier, the share was 4.6%.
The bigger estimate behind the headlines
Stateline described the data center buildout as the largest financial bet in U.S. history, citing a Brookings paper by Columbia Business School professor Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh. The paper projects $10.3 trillion of investment in data centers and related AI infrastructure from 2025 to 2032. We covered that estimate in September, when a Fed president asked whether AI is becoming too big to fail.
The Census figures are narrower. They measure construction put in place and, by the bureau's definitions, exclude racks and servers in data centers. They also aren't adjusted for inflation. The August numbers are preliminary, and the Census Bureau will revise them with its next release on Nov. 2.
