# Data Centers Become the June Construction Bright Spot > Census reported a weaker June construction tape, while ABC analysis said data-center construction rose 7% in the month and 46% from a year earlier. - Content type: NewsArticle - Section: News - Published: 2026-08-08T18:42:00.000Z - Publisher: Arkolith Newsroom - Canonical HTML: https://arkolith.com/news/news-data-center-construction-bright-spot - Plain Markdown: https://arkolith.com/news/news-data-center-construction-bright-spot.md - Topics: data centers, construction spending, AI infrastructure, Census, ABC ## Article U.S. construction spending fell in June, but the data-center line kept moving the other way. The split matters because it shows how much of the nonresidential construction story now depends on AI and cloud infrastructure, not a broad commercial-building recovery. The [Census June construction spending release](https://www.census.gov/construction/c30/current/index.html) put total construction spending at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2.1665 trillion in June, down 0.1% from May and 3.2% from a year earlier. Private construction was also down 0.1% on the month. Private nonresidential construction was the exception, rising 0.1% to a $745.3 billion annual rate. ## The data-center exception The exception is narrower than the headline category. A [BD+C summary of the ABC analysis](https://www.bdcnetwork.com/market-data/article/55395220/data-center-sector-drives-us-nonresidential-construction-spending-growth-in-june) said private nonresidential construction spending excluding data centers fell 0.6% in June and was down 7.9% from a year earlier. The same analysis said data-center construction rose 7% in June and 46% year over year. That makes the June report a composition test. If the data-center subseries is stripped out, the private nonresidential read looks weaker. With it included, the category still eked out a monthly gain even as total construction and residential construction fell. ![Logo-free utility equipment beside a data center construction fence](/article-images/news-data-center-construction-bright-spot-1.webp) ## What the series does and does not measure The useful boundary is what counts as construction. The [Our World in Data data-center construction series](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/monthly-spending-data-center-us) describes the indicator as spending on physical data-center buildings in the United States, including on-site materials, labor and contractor costs. It excludes land purchases, maintenance and IT hardware such as servers and storage, and covers privately owned construction only. That scope keeps the number from becoming an all-in AI investment figure. The OWID series, which is based on Census and Bureau of Labor Statistics inputs with processing by OWID, showed monthly data-center construction spending rising from about $3.02 billion in June 2025 to about $3.69 billion in May 2026 in constant 2021 dollars. The latest OWID update was July 20, so it is useful for the trend, while the June Census and ABC figures carry the current monthly read. ## Why it matters now The market question is no longer whether data centers are growing. It is whether that growth is masking softness elsewhere in commercial construction and creating a concentrated exposure chain across power equipment, cooling, land, utilities and builders. Recent company coverage has already put that chain on the tape. Caterpillar's data-center power demand showed up in [industrial equipment earnings](/news/news-caterpillar-data-center-power-demand), and investors tracking the broader buildout can compare the construction signal with [AI data-center stock ownership](/blog/track-ai-data-center-stocks-13f). The June construction report adds a macro layer: data centers are not just another tenant category, they are changing the nonresidential construction mix. The uncertainty is the duration. A 46% year-over-year increase says momentum is still strong, but it does not prove that every planned campus will clear power, permitting, financing or customer-demand constraints. It also does not prove that data-center construction can offset a prolonged decline in other private nonresidential categories. The verified claim is narrow: Census reported lower total June construction spending and a small gain in private nonresidential spending, while ABC's analysis of Census data said data-center construction rose 7% in June and 46% from a year earlier. That is a construction-spending signal, not an investment recommendation. *This article is informational only and is not investment advice.* ## Citation and verification - Cite the canonical HTML article: https://arkolith.com/news/news-data-center-construction-bright-spot - Follow the links in the article to verify claims against the named primary or trustworthy sources. - Publication and update times above are the newsroom's recorded timestamps.