As you can imagine, data centers continue to dominate any list of mega-projects in the construction pipeline (see table below). The thing that really sticks out about the data center projects that hit the construction pipeline since June is their sheer size. When they first started coming on the scene, the total value of data center construction projects typically was around $1 billion, whereas today, the projects have skyrocketed to $10 billion or more in size.

While data centers are by far most common amongst the large projects in EM’s database of megaprojects valued at over $100 million, EM’s editors found quite a few other interesting projects, and in fact logged 38 other projects valued at $1 billion or more.  You can find many more in the subscription databases offered by Dodge Construction Network (www.construction.com) and ConstructConnect (www.constructconnect.com). For example, Dodge reported that more than 45 projects valued at $100 million or more entered the planning stage in September.

The largest construction projects that we could find that hit the planning stage are both part of Elon Musk’s SpaceX  — the $119-billion Terafab semiconductor facility that broke ground in Grimes County, TX, in August, and the $100-billion Starbase Louisiana project in Vermillion Parish, LA, announced in August. The Terafab chip fab complex is expected to be 110-million-sq-ft in size and Starbase Louisiana is part of Musk’s plan to dramatically increase his rocket ship launch schedule. 

Although most of the headlines in recent months have been about all the local opposition to data centers and how their growth is being fueled by AI, there were no less than 14 data centers with an estimated contract value of $1 billion or more either announced or under construction over the past few months. Cleanview.co has some interesting numbers on just how many data centers are in the pipeline. It says construction is underway on 539 data centers on 255 campuses in the United States. The company says the largest are Meta Hyperion in Richland Parish, LA; Nexus Hubbard in Hill County, TX; and Colossus 2 in Shelby County, TN. It also said that there are 2,388 more data centers in various stages of planning in the US and that 1,394 data centers are currently operating in this country. Cleanview also says on its website that Virginia has the most data centers operating, under construction or planned at 833, followed by Texas with 755 and Ohio with 275.

The table on page 2 includes four data centers valued at more than $10 billion. The demand for electrical products by these facilities is mind-boggling if you use the 20% to 30% percent of total construction spending on a data center project, and when you hear someone say that, “These are the good old days” in the electrical market, you can see why. It would be tough to peg another era in the industry’s history where a certain type of construction project was creating so much demand for electrical products.

Other large projects in the pipeline include the proposed $22-billion Washington Dulles Airport; the $2.5-billion Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Concourse S renovation; the planned $1-billion Miami International Airport Concourse D project; the $351-million Northwestern Memorial Hospital Cancer Center in Chicago, IL; and at least seven other $300-million hospitals in the construction pipeline.