Build-out, Construction & Engineering

Goldman Sachs strategist Laura Cyr said in a Monday note that the US data center growth outlook through 2027 remains largely unchanged despite rising political and community opposition. Cyr raised Goldman's year-end 2026 US data center capacity forecast by 5 gigawatts to 64 gigawatts, while cutting its year-end 2027 forecast by 5 gigawatts to 90 gigawatts. She now expects US data center power demand to grow 38%, or 12 gigawatts, in 2026 and 38%, or 17 gigawatts, in 2027, on a December versus December basis. Cyr pointed to Governor Abbott's directive to halt new Texas data center permits pending ERCOT and Texas Water Development Board audits, and an NBC News poll showing 64% of voters would be less likely to support a candidate who backs a local data center versus 11% who would be more likely. Separately, BofA Global Research estimated that up to 75% of a data center's total water consumption happens off-site, that GPU-based server electricity demand is growing roughly 30% per year, and that every incremental megawatt of new data center capacity embeds roughly 60 to 75 tons of metals, primarily copper.

Quanta Services raised its full-year 2026 free cash flow outlook to $2-$2.5 billion, alongside operating cash flow expectations of $2.9-$3.4 billion, after a strong first half. In the second quarter, Quanta generated operating cash flow of $1.10 billion and free cash flow of $886 million, bringing first-half free cash flow to $1.07 billion, sharply higher than $288 million in the comparable 2025 period. Management attributed the second-quarter strength partly to favorable working-capital dynamics, particularly from large-load and renewable projects, while days sales outstanding improved to 57 days. The outlook is underpinned by a record $53.4 billion backlog, expanding project activity and rising investment in electric grids, power generation, data centers and other mission-critical infrastructure. Quanta still expects roughly $900 million of net capital expenditures in 2026, and cash generation could fluctuate with project timing, working-capital requirements, acquisitions, weather, permitting, supply-chain issues, inflation and project execution. Quanta competes with MasTec and EMCOR Group across power, electrical and mission-critical infrastructure markets; MasTec reported negative $59 million of free cash flow in the second quarter, while EMCOR posted record remaining performance obligations of $17.14 billion.

TeraWulf said Monday it executed an amended and restated electric service agreement with Kentucky Power, an American Electric Power company, raising contracted power capacity at its Muskie Data Campus in eastern Kentucky from 500 megawatts to 1 gigawatt. The amendment moves planned delivery of Muskie's second 500 MW phase forward from 2030 to 2029, while the first 500 MW phase remains targeted to begin ramping in 2028. TeraWulf acquired Muskie in May 2026 for phased development as an AI and high-performance computing campus, and Kentucky Power is developing a 765-kV / 345-kV substation connected to the regional transmission network to serve the site. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Paul Prager said securing the next 500 MW and moving its planned delivery into 2029 gives the company greater flexibility to meet prospective customers' deployment needs. The company added that it continues to evaluate the campus's potential to support up to 2 GW over time, subject to additional utility planning, infrastructure, and agreements.

CIBC raised its price target on Enerflex to CA$30 from CA$27.50 after updating its model for a 450 MW behind-the-meter power generation award tied to a North American data center developer, while keeping a Neutral rating on the stock. The firm had already lifted its target to CA$30 in July 2026, and it cited strong Engineered Systems bookings and a modest EBITDA beat in the second quarter as positives supporting execution on the core business. CIBC noted that earlier weakness in the shares followed a lack of secured data center power generation bookings, which it believes pushed potential catalysts into later quarters. On the updated assumptions, Simply Wall St's fair value for Enerflex rose to CA$46.94 from CA$44.50, with revenue growth now 6.72% versus 3.39% previously, net profit margin at 8.64% versus 9.01%, a future P/E of 18.29x versus 17.87x, and a discount rate of 6.83% versus 6.68%.

Amazon is pledging to invest $1 billion into the communities surrounding its AI data centers, a move aimed at easing local opposition to the facilities. Matt Garman, who heads Amazon Web Services, laid out the commitment in a 3,000-word essay, saying the money will go toward things like building out schools in the communities where the company builds data centers. Garman also said Amazon will no longer ask communities to sign non-disclosure agreements, a practice some legislators have discussed banning by law. The discussion comes as state governors tout data centers as job creators, though critics note the facilities are labor-light once construction ends, leaving unions that represent electricians, plumbers, construction builders and HVAC workers supportive of the projects while communities question what remains afterward.

JERA, Japan's major power producer, announced a partnership with Dell Technologies and RHAELM, a UK-based AI infrastructure developer, to develop a Hyperscale AI Data Center project in Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo, valued at approximately 15 billion dollars, with a power capacity of about 400 megawatts. It is positioned as one of the largest single-site AI infrastructure projects in Japan. Meanwhile, Apollo Global Management plans to join as RHAELM's investment and financial partner. A key point of the project is that it will be developed on land adjacent to JERA's Chiba thermal power plant, with JERA providing the site and 400 megawatts of power under a long-term agreement of 15 to 25 years, while RHAELM is responsible for development, construction, management, and financing. Dell will supply rack-scale AI infrastructure. The project is scheduled to come online in phases starting in 2028 and is expected to use the full 400 megawatts of power by 2029. The three companies also aim to create a model that expands to other JERA power plant sites during the 2030s, with the goal of developing total data center capacity at the multi-gigawatt level across Japan.

Jacobs Solutions has been selected by NVIDIA to deploy its Data Center Digital Twin platform at a large U.S. research and development facility, sending the company's shares up 3.3% in the afternoon session. The work is a three-year SaaS agreement built on NVIDIA Omniverse libraries, under which Jacobs will use the digital twin to optimize energy demand, monitor operations, and balance power loads across the AI facility. The stock closed the day at $139.76, up 3.3% from the previous close. Jacobs Solutions is up 3.3% since the beginning of the year, but at $139.77 per share it is still trading 15% below its 52-week high of $164.44 from October 2025.

KGI Securities unveiled its top stock picks for October 2026, recommending accumulation of stocks in the private investment and data center themes, comprising DELTA, GULF, WHA, STECON and CENTEL. The research team believes the market in October is likely to rebound, as the market has already priced in much of the global economic risk, including uncertainty in the Middle East and surging bond yields in major markets worldwide. It expects the SET Index to recover, and sees a high chance the Fed will pause rate hikes temporarily after August core PCE came in below consensus. It also sees a fairly high possibility that the US and Iran will reach some form of ceasefire agreement soon. On domestic factors, the Thai government began rolling out the final phase of consumption stimulus measures today and will shift its focus to stimulating private investment, including PPP-model infrastructure projects and FDIs. As for STECON, it signed new project contracts worth 10 billion baht, equal to 20% of its 2026F target of 50 billion baht, lifting its backlog to 116.4 billion baht, and it expects to win another 70 billion baht in projects, mainly data centers and power plants. Meanwhile, GULF has identified data center demand of more than 2GW of capacity expected to secure Direct PPAs, and the PDP2026 plan is expected to add another 20-30GW of renewable energy capacity and another 20GW of gas-fired capacity. For CENTEL, the research team remains positive after updating information with management, noting that RevPAR booked in Q3/2026F recovered year-on-year by a mid-single-digit rate from -10% in Q2/2026, and is expected to improve further during the high season in Q4/2026F. The recommended portfolio for September fell 2.6%, underperforming the overall market, which declined 2.0%.

The United States Department of Commerce and the Government of the Republic of Korea have selected Related Companies and NextEra Energy Resources, in partnership with Lewis Energy Group, to develop Project Star, a $22.3 billion energy infrastructure campus in Encinal, Texas. The project will create 6.47 GW of natural gas generation to directly support an adjacent 5 GW digital infrastructure campus that Related Digital is developing, and will deliver excess power generation back to the grid. The investment is expected to create an estimated 8,400 jobs during peak construction and approximately 170 permanent jobs once operational, with the adjacent data center campus also creating hundreds of permanent jobs. The energy campus will be owned jointly by the Republic of Korea and the United States under the structure of the joint trade agreement, and will be built and operated by the Related and NextEra Energy Resources joint venture team, with Lewis Energy providing associated infrastructure including gas. The project is expected to be developed in phases, with initial generating resources anticipated to come online as early as 2029, subject to required permitting and approvals.

Wärtsilä, Schneider Electric and Stanley Consultants have launched a coordinated "Generator-to-Chip" approach aimed at helping U.S. data center developers and operators bring scalable power capacity online faster. The approach aligns onsite power generation, electrical infrastructure, automation, engineering and project execution from the outset, connecting the power pathway from generation and electrical distribution through to digital monitoring and the IT load, which the companies say reduces handoffs and improves coordination across critical interfaces. Wärtsilä supplies flexible, modular engine power plants for reliable onsite generation that can start rapidly and scale with data center demand, while Schneider Electric contributes the integrated electrical architecture, automation and digital power management, and Stanley Consultants provides technical and advisory services across the data center lifecycle, including engineering, permitting, design coordination, construction management, commissioning oversight and climate resilience expertise. The companies said the combined solution can accelerate project schedules compared with traditional, sequential delivery models, as lengthy grid interconnection timelines and delays in critical power infrastructure slow projects amid rapidly growing U.S. demand for new data center capacity driven by accelerating investment in AI. Risto Paldanius, Vice President, Americas, at Wärtsilä Energy, said power has become the schedule for many data center projects, and Melton Chang, Executive Vice President, Power Systems at Schneider Electric, said an AI Energy Park starts with the load and coordinates generation, electrical infrastructure, automation and digital technologies as one system.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicted that artificial intelligence could generate approximately one million American jobs through a massive expansion of domestic computing infrastructure, speaking alongside Elon Musk at an America.Gov event on September 29. Huang estimated the United States could build between 10 and 20 gigawatts of new AI infrastructure annually, requiring substantial investment in electricity generation, cooling systems, networking and construction. He said that buildout would probably create about a million jobs in building out these data centers, and argued AI could help reverse decades of American industrial decline by generating fresh demand for blue-collar labor, calling it the first time in 50 years that the United States is reindustrializing. Musk reinforced the assessment, describing significant employment growth around his companies' computing infrastructure projects, with some communities now experiencing more available jobs than workers. Huang's forecast highlights how Nvidia's growth opportunity increasingly extends beyond selling graphics processors, though his million-job estimate refers to infrastructure-related employment rather than net job creation after accounting for potential AI displacement elsewhere.

The US will need to fill 1.7 million skilled trades job openings annually through 2035, according to a new report from the Alliance for America's Skilled Trades, while current training programs produce just 55 workers for every 100 needed. The alliance, founded by BlackRock, Ford, Google and Carhartt, is adding Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Waymo as the labor shortage threatens the buildout of AI infrastructure. Ford CEO Jim Farley said no single company can close the skilled trades gap alone and that training just 55 workers for every 100 needed puts economic growth at risk. The report projects employment of electricians, HVAC technicians and industrial machinery mechanics to grow at twice, three times and five times the rate for all occupations, respectively, with Arizona needing 29,000 electricians, Texas 86,000 auto mechanics and North Carolina 19,000 carpenters by 2034. The essential economy, spanning construction, utilities, agriculture, transportation, oil and gas, and equipment manufacturing, accounts for $12 trillion of gross domestic product, 95 million jobs and 3 million businesses, and a PRT Staffing survey found 17.4% of manufacturing companies report worker shortages, with 3.8 million manufacturing jobs projected to need filling over the next decade.

Economists are warning that the massive artificial intelligence infrastructure spending by America's tech giants is becoming a new source of pressure that makes US inflation harder to control. JPMorgan estimates that AI infrastructure investment, covering data center construction and the purchase of chips and servers, could reach roughly 1 trillion dollars in 2026, more than the US federal government's annual military budget. Meanwhile, Stein van Nieuwenburg, an economist at Columbia University, wrote in a research paper published by the Brookings Institution that cumulative AI infrastructure investment through 2036 could reach 10.3 trillion dollars, roughly equivalent to spending the entire 1.2 trillion dollar US infrastructure law that former President Joe Biden signed in 2021, nearly every year for about a decade. That investment is expected to average more than 3.6% of US gross domestic product annually through 2036, up from about 1.9% this year, according to Goldman Sachs estimates. The data center construction is driving demand for memory chips, building materials, electricity and workers such as construction laborers, plumbers and electricians, pushing up prices for some goods and services amid a tight labor market and still-strong consumer purchasing power. US retail sales rose 1.2% in August and the unemployment rate stood at 4.1%. The top eight stocks in the S&P 500 are all AI-related and together account for 38.8% of the index's total market value. Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said on September 21 that he is watching closely whether AI data center construction is spilling over into other parts of the economy and creating more activity than the system can handle, and that if overall demand runs too hot, the Fed is ready to raise its policy interest rate further. Oren Klachkin, an economist at Nationwide, noted that AI investment is relatively insensitive to changes in interest rates, so it is unlikely to slow down anytime soon.

Land and Houses Securities issued an analysis recommending buying DELTA and STECON shares, setting a strategic target price of 320 baht for DELTA, equivalent to a FY69F P/E of 117x, and 21.2 baht for STECON, equivalent to a FY69F P/E of 19x. For DELTA, it estimates resistance at 279 baht, support at 260 baht, and a stop loss at 250 baht, expecting Q3/69F profit to recover both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year after the raw material shortage in Q2/69 eased. Meanwhile, a product mix shift toward higher-margin AI and data center products and liquid cooling should help gross profit margin recover to around 30%. For STECON, it estimates resistance at 21.1 baht, support at 19.4 baht, and a stop loss at 18.6 baht, expecting Q3/69F net profit to fall quarter-on-quarter from the high base in Q2/69, which included dividend income from GULF, though construction business profit is likely to grow both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year as revenue from projects in hand is recognized faster, especially data center work. A further catalyst is the opportunity to win three new data center projects worth a combined total of about 50 billion baht, which would boost backlog and support revenue in 2027 and 2028, along with opportunities from government infrastructure tenders and the investment cycle under the Power Development Plan.

Pakpoom Srichamni, Chief Executive Officer of Stecon Group Public Company Limited, or STECON, disclosed that the company expects total revenue in 2026 to exceed its target of 35 billion baht, after total revenue in the first half of 2026 already reached 16.787 billion baht, or about 48% of the full-year target. It currently still holds construction work in hand from transportation projects, including the Purple Line electric train and the M6 and M81 motorways, while also tracking opportunities from the M82 project and continuing to bid for new work. The company places importance on data center projects, especially investment by major service providers, or hyperscalers, and is in the process of extending its business from a construction contracting base into the development of and investment in infrastructure, including water, utilities, and energy, in order to increase the share of recurring revenue. Kasikorn Securities stated that STECON currently has work in hand of about 113 billion baht, with management aiming to add approximately 69 billion baht more to its backlog during the remainder of 2026, divided into three data center projects worth a combined 49.8 billion baht, power plant projects worth 16 billion baht, and airport projects worth 3 billion baht. If it wins the work as planned, revenue in 2027 could be 50 billion to 60 billion baht, compared with the research department's current estimate of 37 billion baht, while gross profit margin will be above 7%. Initially, it forecasts normal profit in 2026 at 1.497 billion baht, up 63% year on year, and maintains a Buy recommendation with a fair value of 22.28 baht, selecting the stock as a top pick in the large contractor group.

Samsung Electronics will invest $1 billion in Helix Digital Infrastructure, an AI infrastructure platform backed by KKR, Nvidia and Vistra, as the Korean group expands beyond supplying components into data-center development, according to a Tuesday press release. Samsung Electronics will provide $500 million, while Samsung C&T, Samsung SDS, Samsung SDI, Samsung Life Insurance and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance will fund the balance. The six companies will join KKR, Kuwait Investment Authority, Nvidia and Vistra as founding investors. The investment gives Samsung exposure to several parts of the AI buildout. Helix is designed to develop and operate hyperscale data centers, secure power generation and transmission capacity, and deploy fiber networks, a mandate that connects Samsung's semiconductor, cooling, construction and battery operations with infrastructure projects supporting AI workloads.

Crusoe announced it is the developer of Google's data center campus under construction in Armstrong County outside of Amarillo, Texas. The campus is engineered to provide capacity to power advanced AI and has a direct connection to Serena's adjacent Goodnight 1 wind farm, which at 265.5 MW is operational, and the Goodnight 2 wind farm, also 265.5 MW, which is under construction and was catalyzed by Crusoe's development at the site. When wind generation exceeds campus demand, surplus power is supplied back to the grid, benefiting local ratepayers and reducing curtailment of West Texas wind energy. Construction broke ground in June 2025 and is underway with more than 5,500 skilled laborers on-site daily, and the project will use a closed-loop, non-evaporative liquid cooling system designed to limit its water footprint primarily to domestic uses such as kitchens. The campus is part of Crusoe's growing West Texas portfolio, which includes two campuses under development in Abilene.

Truckstop's spot market load volume is tracking roughly 20% above year-ago levels in September, with flatbed freight posting its strongest year-over-year gains since 2008, according to Sean Dehan, COO and Chief Strategy Officer of Truckstop. Speaking on FreightWaves Today, Dehan said the platform was already up 15% year over year with about two-thirds of September complete, putting the full month on pace for about 20%. Flatbed strength is driven largely by data center construction and broader AI infrastructure investment, pushing volumes past even the COVID-era surge, while van and reefer reflect a capacity story more than a demand story. On costs, Dehan said insurance premiums have risen 10% to 20% annually for four or five successive years and diesel has reached record levels, including a first-ever $10-per-gallon reading in California. He also addressed the legal fallout from the Montgomery and Lupus decisions on brokerage liability, saying broker customers are now demanding more carrier safety data and that Truckstop is developing tools for carriers to proactively share their own safety data.

DarkHorse Technologies Inc. announced strategic relationships with Empirix Partners, Covectis, Perpetual Grid and Barge Design Solutions to support the conversion and development of its power and data center assets in the Tennessee Valley Authority region for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing use. The partners will cover project management, equipment procurement planning, go-to-market strategy, utility coordination and architectural and engineering design for the company's Tennessee and Kentucky assets, with initial scope already underway to define improvements, costs and schedules for individual sites. Empirix leads owner's representation, program management and procurement planning, Covectis handles market positioning and economic modeling, and Perpetual Grid supports power planning and utility coordination, while Barge, an employee-owned architecture and engineering firm founded in 1955 with more than 650 professionals and more than 7.5 gigawatts of data center master-planning experience, provides architectural and engineering design under a master professional services agreement. The announcement follows DarkHorse's September 8, 2026 strategic review, which identified the TVA region as the focus of its AI and high-performance computing development, and the company's approach centers on smaller, distribution-connected sites and work with host communities and their utilities. DarkHorse, formerly Sphere 3D Corp., owns and/or operates approximately 50 MW of operating power capacity across four data center locations in Tennessee and Kentucky, has a proposed new 50 MW data center under development in Kentucky, and holds a development pipeline of approximately 100 MW of additional potential expansion opportunities.

Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, Inc. announced its new Chip-to-Grid Reference Designs, an integrated blueprint for AI factories built with NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 and future next-generation NVIDIA AI infrastructure. The designs target hyperscale, neocloud, and colocation operators across North America, providing scalable architecture built around 250 MW deployment blocks that support expansion to gigawatt-scale campuses and enable rack densities to grow from approximately 200 kW today to more than 1 MW per rack. Each 250 MW deployment block can operate islanded, using on-site generation and battery energy storage with a pathway to future utility interconnection, or grid connected. The framework integrates utility interconnection, on-site generation, battery energy storage, electrical distribution, advanced cooling, and facility controls, and aligns with NVIDIA MGX rack-scale accelerated computing platforms and the NVIDIA Vera Rubin DSX AI Factory Reference Design infrastructure provisioning strategy. Tricia Breeger, President and CEO of MEPPI, said success depends on resilient energy systems and scalable infrastructure that can grow from today's deployments to tomorrow's gigawatt-scale campuses, while Vladimir Troy, Vice President of AI Infrastructure at NVIDIA, said the designs give operators a repeatable blueprint for deploying NVIDIA Vera Rubin infrastructure.

Alpha Compute has executed definitive real estate and asset purchase agreements to acquire over 300 acres of land and subsurface rights in Pennsylvania. The acquisition secures surface, mineral, and gas rights across the Utica and Marcellus shale formations, including over 75 existing wells, heavy equipment, and gathering infrastructure. Historical Halliburton estimated 10,000 barrels per acre of light Pennsylvania sweet crude oil across subsurface parcels, with modern geological reviews now underway to map reserve potential. Alpha Compute plans to build a new data center on the site modeled after its Northern Pennsylvania facility, complying with local zoning, regional grid standards, and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection regulations. The company intends to establish municipal covenants to align with local development goals, create construction and operational jobs, modernize utility infrastructure, and ensure responsible well management under DEP oversight.

The top five US hyperscalers are projecting a combined capital expenditure of $660 billion to $725 billion for 2026, nearly double their 2025 outlays, as the AI build-out shifts from software to physical infrastructure. Microsoft is guiding for roughly $175 billion in adjusted capital expenditure for both FY2026 and FY2027, with two-thirds of quarterly spend going to short-lived assets like CPUs and GPUs and the rest to long-lived data center infrastructure, and it added 1 gigawatt of capacity in Q3 FY2026, doubling its global footprint in two years. Amazon AWS has raised its 2026 capex guidance to approximately $220 billion, with CEO Andy Jassy saying AI capacity is expected to remain constrained through 2027 and contracted demand extending into 2028. Meta saw profit drop 14% in Q2 2026 despite a 28% revenue increase as its build-out, including a 1 gigawatt data center in Ohio and a Louisiana facility that could scale to 5 gigawatts, compressed margins, while Alphabet raised its 2026 capex guidance to as much as $205 billion and its Google Cloud backlog more than doubled year-over-year to $240 billion. The Stargate joint venture involving Oracle, OpenAI and others targets up to $500 billion in infrastructure investment by 2029, and Oracle's FY2026 capex reached $55.7 billion, more than doubling from the previous year.

Crusoe announced the initial closing of its anticipated $3.9 billion Series F funding round at a $30.9 billion post-money valuation. The oversubscribed round was co-led by Atreides Management, Mubadala Capital, and Valor Equity Partners, with backing from new and existing investors including Founders Fund, GIC, NVIDIA, Qatar Investment Authority, Radical Ventures, and TPG. The company said the capital will help it scale existing programs and build out its own AI factories, from large-scale vertically-integrated campuses to modular Crusoe Spark units, fueling growth of Crusoe Cloud. Crusoe reported over $140 billion in total contracted value across its vertically-integrated platform and more than 6 GW of gross contracted capacity across data centers and cloud, including 1 GW of gross capacity delivered and operational today. The company also cited 20x-plus year-over-year growth in Crusoe Cloud bookings year to date and over $100 million in contracted ARR for Crusoe Managed Inference, launched late last year.

BlackRock and its AI Infrastructure Partnership signed an agreement in August with North America's Building Trades Unions to give unions visibility into the coming project pipeline and to train and deploy the workforce needed to build it, with more than 3 million skilled craft professionals represented across the U.S. and Canada. BlackRock expects the expansion of data centers, power generation and related infrastructure to create hundreds of thousands of skilled jobs, and its separate $100 million Future Builders initiative aims to reach 50,000 workers over five years. For traveling union members, pension contributions made while working outside a home local may stay with the jobsite fund or return home through reciprocal arrangements such as money-follows-the-man, while pro-rata reciprocity can combine service earned under multiple participating funds for eligibility or vesting purposes, with each fund responsible for its share. Social Security instead keeps a single lifetime earnings record regardless of the states worked, using the highest 35 years of indexed earnings, though the Social Security Administration ordinarily limits corrections to an earnings record after three years, three months and 15 days, with important exceptions. The company said workers should confirm how reciprocity works before taking an out-of-area job, keep records from every fund and local, and check their Social Security earnings record against W-2s from every state worked.