In August the United States spent money on building data centers at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $84.95 billion, according to the Census Bureau's monthly construction report, published on Thursday. That was 7.5 per cent more than in July and 73 per cent more than in August last year.
The more telling number is the one next to it. Spending on new plants for computer, electronic and electrical manufacturing, the Census category that holds semiconductor fabs, was $52.3 billion. In June 2024 it was $126.4 billion. Data centers passed it in April, and in August they were 62 per cent bigger.
Two years ago, the story of American construction was factories. After the chips and clean-energy laws of 2022, spending on manufacturing construction more than doubled between early 2022 and its peak. The Census figures now show that wave receding and a different one, built for computing rather than making things, rising past it.
The factory peak
Total private spending on manufacturing construction peaked at $249.1 billion, at an annual rate, in September 2024. In August it was $168.2 billion, a fall of 32 per cent from the peak and 20 per cent from a year earlier. Most of the decline is in the computer and electronics category, which has given up three-fifths of its peak value. Spending on chemical plants and transportation equipment factories has held up better.
August did bring a small turn. Manufacturing construction, public and private together, rose 0.2 per cent on the month, the first monthly increase since January, according to Associated Builders and Contractors, the contractors' trade group.
Falling spending on a plant does not mean it has been abandoned. Construction spending measures work put in place each month, so a fab that is nearly finished generates less spending than one at the peak of its build. Some of the fall will reflect projects nearing completion. The Census data do not say how much.
The data center rise
Data centers are measured as a subcategory of office construction, and they have taken it over. In August they were $85 billion of the $134 billion private office total. General office buildings accounted for $46 billion.
The pace has accelerated through 2026. Spending was $58.1 billion in March. Since then, ABC calculated, it has grown at an annualised rate of 149 per cent.
"Frankly, it's becoming difficult to contextualize the size and speed of this boom," said Anirban Basu, ABC's chief economist.
What is left without it
Data centers made up 11 per cent of private nonresidential construction in August, against 6 per cent a year earlier. Even with them, private nonresidential spending was 1 per cent lower than a year earlier. Excluding data centers, it was $688 billion in August, about 6 per cent less than a year before, by our calculation from the Census series. Lodging, commercial and health care building were all lower than a year earlier.
The other large category growing quickly is the one data centers need. Private spending on electric power construction was $141.2 billion, up 11 per cent from August 2025.
Overall, construction spending rose 0.9 per cent in August to an annual rate of $2.203 trillion. Census attaches a margin of plus or minus 1 per cent to that, so it cannot say with confidence that total spending rose at all. Over the year, total construction was 1.7 per cent lower. Residential construction was down 4.8 per cent.
Basu expects the pattern to persist. "Despite this broad improvement, momentum will likely remain confined to the data center and power categories in the months to come," he said, adding that materials and labour costs had started rising again in the second half of the year and that higher Treasury yields would push up borrowing costs.
All of these figures are in current dollars, not adjusted for prices. Some of the rise in data center spending will be higher costs for the same work.
There is also a policy risk to the newer boom. Advanced chips imported for use in American data centers are exempt from the 25 per cent tariff imposed in January. The technology industry is lobbying to keep that exemption as the administration weighs a second phase.
All construction figures are from the US Census Bureau's Construction Spending release for August 2026 (1 October 2026), including Table 1 of the release and the detailed time series of private construction put in place, seasonally adjusted annual rates, downloaded from census.gov. The August figures are preliminary and July's are revised; Census reports total construction as up 0.9 per cent (plus or minus 1.0 per cent) on the month, a change not statistically different from zero. Peaks, the comparison between data centers and computer, electronic and electrical manufacturing, the date at which one overtook the other, shares of private nonresidential construction and the change in spending excluding data centers are this publication's calculations from the Census series, which for data centers begins in January 2014. The 149 per cent annualised rate and the quotations from Anirban Basu are from Associated Builders and Contractors' analysis of 1 October 2026, as published by Construction Executive. Figures are in current dollars and are not adjusted for changes in construction costs. Accurate to 9pm ET on 3 October 2026.
Topics technologydata centersconstructionmanufacturingsemiconductorsai infrastructureinvestment
