US Data-Center Construction at a ~$96.5B SAAR

The U.S. Census Bureau's Monthly Construction Spending release dated 2 November 2026 shows private data-center construction put in place at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $96.462 billion in September 2026 (preliminary), up from a revised $88.815 billion in August (+8.6% month over month) and $50.700 billion in September 2025 (+90.3% year over year). Conventional general office construction was $45.964 billion, about 8.2% below a year earlier. Census files data centers inside the private office category; the series measures value put in place for structures (buildings, power and cooling that are part of the project), not servers or IT equipment. Headline total construction spending ran at $2,186.1 billion SAAR in September, 1.9% below August, with private residential down 5.5% while private nonresidential rose 1.1%. Construction Dive (3 Nov), citing Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of the same release, said data-center spending jumped 8.6% month over month and that, excluding data centers and power, nonresidential would be weaker; the Associated General Contractors of America said data-center construction soared about 90% over the past year. RealtyWire independently printed the same detailed-table levels. September figures are preliminary and subject to revision.