In this business, we are constantly inundated with industry statistics (from electrical injury/accident incident totals to skilled labor shortage projections to economic forecasts in the many market sectors we cover) — so many that it’s easy to gloss over them. However, there’s one stat I’ve been seeing over and over again that has made me stop and think more than once: “A ChatGPT query needs nearly 10 times as much electricity to process as a Google search.” That’s according to Goldman Sachs Research. When you actually try and process everything that surrounds this tenfold notion, it quickly becomes overwhelming. An in-depth piece by EC&M’s sister publication Data Center Frontier does an excellent job of explaining how AI’s transformative impact on data centers is driving unprecedented industry growth, innovation, and global expansion. This is definitely worth a read.
An article on Goldman Sach’s website reveals that data centers have displayed a remarkably stable appetite for power for years — even as their workloads mounted. “Now, as the pace of efficiency gains in electricity use slows and the AI revolution gathers steam, Goldman Sachs Research estimates that data center power demand will grow 160% by 2030.” Another stunning stat. Although the data center market has been booming for years, something about this moment seems a little different.
In mid-January, J.P. Morgan forecast spending on data centers could boost U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) by 20 basis points in 2025-26 as technology companies race to benefit from the artificial intelligence boom. In the same report, the firm estimated that spending on data centers likely contributed 0.1%-0.3% to GDP growth in 2024 — a figure that’s inevitably poised to increase.
According to a piece from Allied Business Intelligence, by the end of 2025, there will be 6,111 public data centers worldwide — 5,544 colocation sites and 567 hyperscale sites. Asia-Pacific has the highest concentration of data center locations with Europe and North America following. ABI Research anticipates 8,378 data centers will be in operation by 2030.
Dissecting nonresidential construction spending trends in the United States, Associated Builders and Contractors (AGC) released a press release in early February that revealed national nonresidential construction spending decreased 0.2% in December 2024 and was down on a monthly basis in nine of 16 subcategories. A few exceptions stood out, however. “What little private sector nonresidential momentum exists remains concentrated in just two segments,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “Data centers, which are part of the office category, and manufacturing accounted for 94% of the increase in total nonresidential construction spending from December 2023 to December 2024. Activity in these segments, and perhaps only these segments, will remain elevated regardless of upward pressure on construction costs.”
In its “2025 North American Engineering and Construction Industry Overview,” FMI Corporation (a leading provider of consulting and investment banking services to the built environment) identifies data centers as a high-growth market — with private investment up 60% through the third quarter of 2024 compared to 2023. In contrast, non-data center private office construction spending declined by nearly 15%. The report goes on to note that new data center inventory grew by more than 20% in 2024, driven by surging demand for AI and cloud computing. “Top U.S. markets — Northern Virginia, Dallas-Fort Worth, Silicon Valley, Chicago, Phoenix and Atlanta — are leading this expansion. Prominent recent announcements include Microsoft’s planned $40 billion investment in U.S. data center facilities in 2025 and Atlas Development’s $17 billion data center campus south of Atlanta. This rapid growth is raising concerns in urban areas over land and resource allocation, such as Atlanta’s ban on new data centers in some areas.” The report projects that hyperscale data centers are projected to grow at compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the teens through 2030. “With this growth, significant challenges such as power shortages and extended lead times for electrical infrastructure will continue to disrupt ongoing and planned projects.”
After sifting through so many statistics, what does this mean in simple terms? Given the proliferation of AI in so many facets of everyday life, one thing’s for sure. Big data is going to need a bigger footprint as the digital age evolves. That’s why we’ve dedicated a good portion of this February issue to everything data center related. Flip through the print or digital editions to uncover what leading subject matter experts expect to transpire in the data center space.
