Build the Building
Data Center Construction & Engineering
Supply Constraint
5/10How hard it is to add capacity in this layer. Suppliers, lead times, capital intensity, geographic concentration.
Demand Pull
7/10How much of this layer's revenue is AI-driven today and how fast that mix is growing.
General labor available but specialized DC construction expertise concentrated.
Layer Dependencies
Construction depends on power (L20-L23) being secured first. Contractors need specialized electrical subs (L17) and cooling systems (L19). Design-build firms like Fluor and AECOM handle the entire data center construction process.
Deep Dive
The physical construction of a data center is increasingly the easy part. Modern hyperscale data centers use modular, prefabricated designs that can be assembled in 12-18 months. The real constraints are upstream: power (L14-L15) and land (L13). But the EPC (Engineering, Procurement, Construction) firms in this layer capture significant value because they manage the integration of all building systems.
Fluor and Jacobs handle the largest data center builds — billion-dollar campus developments for hyperscalers. AECOM and CBRE's project management division compete on the same mega-projects. MasTec and Primoris handle the heavy civil infrastructure: earthwork, foundations, underground utilities.
The structural observation about this layer: it's labor-constrained, not capital-constrained. There are only so many skilled construction crews who know how to build a hyperscale data center. The same teams that build a Meta campus in Indiana are the teams Google wants for their Ohio campus. This creates a labor bottleneck that increases construction costs and extends timelines — feeding back into the Power Grid Reckoning trend, where grid interconnection and building construction compete for the same limited workforce in the same geographies.
L16 is also where the geographic diversification of the AI buildout becomes visible. The US Southeast (Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia), Midwest (Indiana, Ohio), and international markets (Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Japan) are emerging as alternatives to the saturated Northern Virginia corridor. EPC firms with multi-geography capabilities have an advantage.
Skilled construction labor is the constraint, not capital. The same specialized crews are in demand across multiple hyperscaler campus builds simultaneously.
Companies in This Layer
Major EPC contractor. Site selection, civil works, building construction for hyperscale data centers.
Engineering and construction services. Data center design and project management.
World's largest commercial real estate services. Data center site selection, project management, transactions.
Infrastructure consulting and construction. Data center campus master planning.
Global real estate services firm ($26.1B rev). Data center site selection, project management advisory, and facility management — advisory layer, not a builder.
Infrastructure contractor. Growing data center construction capability.
Specialty contractor building data center physical infrastructure. Executing Stargate engineering services. $7.6B revenue, $11.9B backlog, data centers under 10% of revenue but fastest-growing segment.