Data Center Construction Market - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2021-2031

The Global Data Center Construction Market is projected to expand from USD 247.18 Billion in 2025 to USD 378.71 Billion by 2031, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 7.37%. This sector involves the engineering and structural development of facilities dedicated to housing mission-critical computer systems and their supporting components. Growth is largely propelled by the rapid pace of digital transformation, the broad shift toward cloud architectures, and the substantial computational demands of artificial intelligence. These factors collectively require expedited infrastructure development to handle increasing data volumes and processing loads. Highlighting the sector's financial strength compared to other office construction types, the Associated General Contractors of America noted a 69 percent increase in data center construction spending in 2024 over the previous year.

Nevertheless, the market faces significant challenges arising from limited utility power availability and a scarcity of skilled construction labor. High-density computing environments impose immense energy demands that often exceed the immediate capacity of local grids, resulting in prolonged lead times for power connections. Additionally, a shortage of qualified engineers and trade professionals hinders the complex mechanical and electrical installations required for these facilities. This labor deficit creates operational bottlenecks, potentially delaying the delivery of new capacity to the market.

Market Drivers

The surge in artificial intelligence adoption is fundamentally transforming the Global Data Center Construction Market by necessitating facilities designed for higher power densities and specialized cooling architectures. Because generative AI models demand infrastructure capable of handling massive concurrent processing, developers are compelled to build environments optimized for heavy electrical loads and liquid cooling systems. This technological shift is driving unprecedented capital investment into infrastructure capable of meeting these rigorous specifications. For instance, Meta announced in its First Quarter 2024 Results that it had raised its full-year capital expenditure outlook to between $35 billion and $40 billion, specifically to advance its artificial intelligence roadmap and support related infrastructure buildouts.

Simultaneously, the relentless expansion of hyperscale cloud infrastructure is fueling market growth as providers establish availability zones in new regions to minimize latency and adhere to data sovereignty laws. This expansion leads to a widespread increase in facility development across global markets. The International Energy Agency projected in 2024 that electricity consumption from data centers would double by 2026, requiring a corresponding increase in constructed facility space to manage this load. Highlighting this trend of substantial regional investment, Amazon Web Services committed €7.8 billion to the European Sovereign Cloud in Germany through 2040 in a May 2024 press announcement, emphasizing the robust pipeline for localized cloud services.

Market Challenges

The scarcity of skilled construction labor poses a significant barrier to the growth of the Global Data Center Construction Market. This shortage is particularly acute regarding the specialized trade professionals necessary for the intricate mechanical and electrical systems that characterize modern data centers. Unlike typical commercial projects, these facilities require a high degree of technical expertise to install and maintain complex power and cooling infrastructure. According to the Associated Builders and Contractors, the U.S. construction industry will need to attract approximately 439,000 net new workers in 2025 to meet expected demand, a gap that directly hinders construction firms from maintaining the aggressive schedules demanded by hyperscale operators.

The primary consequences of this workforce deficit are project bottlenecks and extended delivery timelines. When contractors are unable to secure sufficient numbers of qualified engineers and electricians, the critical path of construction is interrupted. This inability to rapidly deploy skilled teams prevents the timely execution of capacity additions, leaving the market unable to fully accommodate the escalating data volumes driven by digital transformation. As a result, the disparity between the demand for processing capabilities and the physical availability of infrastructure continues to widen, thereby constraining the sector's overall expansion.

Market Trends

The integration of on-site renewable energy microgrids is rapidly becoming a standard element of data center construction, driven by the necessity to bypass utility limitations and ensure operational resilience. Developers are increasingly engineering facilities with embedded power generation capabilities, such as wind farms and solar arrays, to mitigate risks related to grid instability and carbon emission mandates. This structural evolution requires the development of extensive energy infrastructure alongside data halls, effectively converting server farms into self-sustaining power hubs. Illustrating the scale of this requirement, Brookfield Renewable Partners announced a global framework agreement with Microsoft in May 2024 to deliver 10.5 gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity, highlighting the massive infrastructure needed to support these energy-independent digital ecosystems.

Concurrently, the adoption of prefabricated and modular construction methods is reshaping delivery strategies to address the persistent skilled labor shortage and the imperative for speed. By manufacturing critical mechanical and structural components in controlled off-site factories, construction firms can ensure standardized quality and execute parallel workflows that significantly shorten project timelines compared to traditional linear methods. This approach facilitates the rapid assembly of complex cooling modules and electrical rooms, minimizing on-site disruption and accelerating the path to revenue. In March 2024, Schneider Electric committed a $140 million investment to expand its U.S. manufacturing operations, a move specifically aimed at meeting the surging demand for these modular data center solutions and custom power products.

Key Players Profiled in the Data Center Construction Market

• Turner Construction Company
• Holder Construction Group, LLC
• DPR Construction
• Hoffman Structures Inc.
• Hensel Phelps
• Gilbane Inc.
• J.E. Dunn Construction Company
• Brasfield & Gorrie, L.L.C
• M. A. Mortenson Company
• AECOM

Report Scope

In this report, the Global Data Center Construction Market has been segmented into the following categories:

Data Center Construction Market, by Infrastructure Type:

• Electrical Infrastructure
• Mechanical Infrastructure
• Networking Infrastructure
• Others

Data Center Construction Market, by Tier Level:

• Tier I
• Tier II
• Tier III
• Tier IV

Data Center Construction Market, by Data Center Size:

• Small Data Centers
• Medium Data Centers
• Large Data Centers
• Hyperscale Data Centers

Data Center Construction Market, by End-User Industry:

• IT & Telecommunications
• BFSI
• Healthcare
• Government & Public Sector
• Others

Data Center Construction Market, by Region:

• North America
• Europe
• Asia-Pacific
• South America
• Middle East & Africa

Competitive Landscape

Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in the Global Data Center Construction Market.

Available Customization

The analyst offers customization according to your specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:

• Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five).

This product will be delivered within 1-3 business days.