The Economic Impact of U.S. Data Center Construction

Project Overview

The Build Boom Behind the Cloud

Data centers are the physical infrastructure powering cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and the digital economy. Behind every search query, video stream, and AI model is a building with concrete foundations, steel structures, miles of fiber and electrical conduit, and an enormous amount of capital investment in equipment. The industry's construction footprint has grown rapidly as hyperscale operators, colocation providers, and AI-focused developers race to add capacity.

Zenith Economics produced a national report quantifying the full economic impact of data center construction across the United States. Our analysis was the first to systematically capture both the headline construction spending and the deep supply-chain effects that ripple through industries including electrical equipment manufacturing, structural steel, HVAC, networking gear, and skilled trades.

The report found that data center construction supports approximately 571,000 jobs annually in the U.S., generates $155.8 billion in business sales, contributes $80.6 billion to GDP, and produces $17.8 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenue each year.

Methodology

The study used national-level IMPLAN modeling calibrated to the construction value chain. We started with industry data on data center capital expenditure, broken down by:

• Site work and shell construction — concrete, steel, building envelope
• Mechanical and electrical systems — chillers, generators, switchgear, UPS, HVAC
• IT equipment installation — racks, cabling, networking infrastructure
• Professional services — engineering, design, project management, commissioning

Each spending stream was modeled with industry-specific multipliers to capture the indirect effects (suppliers to suppliers) and induced effects (household spending by workers across the supply chain). Tax revenue was estimated using federal effective rates and state/local averages.

Why This Study Matters

Data center construction is concentrated in specific regions — Northern Virginia, central Texas, Phoenix, Iowa, Oregon — but the supply chain extends to nearly every state. Steel from Indiana, switchgear from the Carolinas, generators from Illinois, fiber from Pennsylvania, software from California: every data center build pulls inputs from across the country. By modeling at the national level, the report makes the case that data center investment is a national economic story, not a regional one. This framing matters for federal policy debates around energy infrastructure, permitting reform, and workforce development.

The full report is available as a Zenith Economics publication.

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