Ten Construction Trends

Data Centers, Office Buildings, & More

A few notes:

1. Figures in this post are not adjusted for inflation.

2. Interest rates explain a lot—but far from all—of these trends.

3. This is only about private-sector construction activity.

Manufacturing to the moon

Manufacturing construction took off in the middle of 2024 and has long since escaped the Earth’s gravity; over $1 in every $5 of nonresidential construction spending currently goes toward manufacturing.

The increase is almost entirely due to massive (truly massive) investments in chip plants, a result of (also massive) federal incentives.

Data center construction past the moon

Construction spending on data centers is up 1,825% since the start of 2014 and shows no signs of slowing down. That’s such a rapid increase I had to add a little arrow to the end of the line graph. My friends and family are sick of me saying, “I should have been a data center developer.”

Warehouse investment back to Earth