U.S. Q3 Data Center Kickoffs Drive Billions in Project Spending

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Written by Danny Levin, Deputy Editor for IIR News Intelligence (Sugar Land, Texas)

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Summary

Although there are some headwinds facing longer-term development of U.S. data centers, Industrial Info Resources is tracking more than $204 billion worth of U.S. data center construction starts in the third quarter.

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U.S. Data Center Buildout

According to Industrial Info Resources data, there is $204 billion worth of U.S. data center construction starts planned for the third quarter. About one-third of the investment has a high probability (81% or more) of beginning construction as scheduled.

The Industrial Info Resources Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Industrial Manufacturing Project Database offer key details on these projects--including key contacts, investment values and necessary equipment--in a list of detailed project reports.

The investment comes as Big Tech firms have announced massive capital outlays for data centers, although there are some headwinds facing longer-term construction--such as supply-chain issues and rising opposition to planned construction. The latter is due to factors such as rising electricity bills and water consumption, among others.

IIR "does not expect all proposed U.S. data centers over the 2026-2030 period to begin construction as planned," David Pickering, Industrial Info Resources' vice president of research for the Industrial Manufacturing Industry, said in May. "Projects will drop out. Projects will be delayed, typically due to supply-chain bottlenecks. But new projects are sure to be added. Watch this space."

For more information, see May 6, 2026, article - Actual, Planned Capital Investments in U.S. Data Centers Soar and June 8, 2026, article - New York Lawmakers Pass One-Year Permitting Ban for New Data Centers.

States with Greatest Planned Data Center Investment

The GMI database shows Texas, Virginia and Missouri are the states with the greatest dollar value of planned data center construction that could begin from July through September.

But there's a different breakdown for projects with a high probability of moving forward as planned, with 42 projects accounting for $74 billion: Texas leads in both project count (nine) and investment ($12.4 billion), while New Mexico, Nevada and Louisiana are some of the other top states.

In Texas, Google expects construction of the last two buildings of a four-building data center campus--co-located with a power-generation site--will kick off this summer and wrap up by 2028. Dubbed the Meitner Energy Center, near Pampa in Gray County, about 60 miles northeast of Amarillo, the four buildings will require up to 840 megawatts (MW) of power. Readers can view project reports for buildings 3 and 4.

For more information, see June 5, 2026, article - Google, Intersect Power Highlight Meitner Energy Center in Texas.

Also expected to see additional construction this summer is what would be Meta Platforms Incorporated's largest data center: the 2-gigawatt (GW), nine-building Project Hyperion artificial intelligence (AI) campus in Richland Parish, Louisiana. One new building (DC3) is on track to kick off in July, while DC4 has a medium probability (70-80%) of beginning construction the same month. View the project reports here.

For more information on the data center and necessary power infrastructure, see August 27, 2025, article - Louisiana Greenlights Massive Power Projects for Meta Data Center.

Virginia hosts more data centers than any other state, and Amazon is one of the many tech giants and data center developers planning to begin more construction there this summer.

This includes the grassroot building at its Woodford (Mattameade Tech) Data Center Campus and the potential start of Building 2. The planned 11-building, 4.5 million-square-foot campus is designed for up to 770 MW of compute power, to provide expanded capacity for the Amazon Web Services cloud computing platform in the region. Construction of the initial building could wrap up by the end of 2027.

The Industrial Info Resources GMI Project Database offers a full list of detailed reports for data center construction projects with a high probability of kicking off in the third quarter.

Key Takeaways

• $204 billion: Total value of the U.S. data center construction that could begin in the third quarter.
• $74 billion: Value of projects that have a high probability of moving forward as planned.
• Texas, Virginia and Louisiana: three top states that will see data center construction this summer, with projects from Google, Meta and Amazon.

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About Industrial Info Resources
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, Industrial Info Resources is tracking over 250,000 current and future projects worth $30.2 trillion (USD).