US data center construction starts reached a record $25.2 billion in January 2026, with 20 individual projects breaking ground including two valued at $10 billion each. The monthly figure exceeded full-quarter totals from most prior years, reflecting the extraordinary pace of hyperscale infrastructure deployment driven by AI compute demand. Construction Connect data tracking January 2026 represented a single-month record for the sector.

Global data center construction spending is projected to surpass $500 billion in cumulative value across active projects tracked in 2026. The construction boom spans colocation expansion, hyperscale builds, and enterprise facilities, with hyperscale representing the dominant share of new square footage. Cushman & Wakefield characterized the 2026 market as shifting toward "managed growth" as power constraints, grid capacity limits, and permitting timelines increasingly govern the pace of deployment rather than capital availability.

The Americas market led global data center construction activity through 2025 and early 2026. Virginia, the largest single US data center market by existing capacity, has begun encountering power constraints that are pushing new development to secondary markets including North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Markets with available utility capacity and water resources are gaining investment at the expense of saturated primary markets.

Average construction cost per megawatt of critical IT load has risen approximately 18 percent between 2023 and 2026, reflecting higher steel, concrete, electrical switchgear, and cooling equipment costs alongside labor market tightness in markets experiencing rapid expansion.

Source: Construction Connect -- https://news.constructconnect.com/march-2026-data-center-report