Sources: American Cement Association, Washington, D.C.
The number of data centers in the U.S. is on track to climb from 5,426 at present to more than 6,000 by 2027, a trend fueled by the advent of artificial intelligence technology. A new American Cement Association Market Intelligence report projects that
construction of data centers hosting AI platforms will require upward of 1 million metric tons of cement annually over the next few years, owing to such projects’ voluminous concrete schedules.
In addition to the U.S. data center census and projected cement consumption attending facility construction, the Data Center Market Analysis report finds:
- Over the past decade, inflation-adjusted spending on data centers has grown more than 800 percent, with a 55 percent year over year jump in 2024 alone;
- Annual spending on data centers hovers $27 billion;
- States poised to see the highest number of data center projects in the 2025-2027 window are, in descending order, Texas, Virginia, Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, and Ohio; and,
- In 2014, data centers accounted for just under 4 percent of office-related construction spending; by 2024 they surpassed 26 percent and are on track to reach nearly 40 percent by 2027.
“President Donald Trump has said he’s determined to make the U.S. the global leader in AI, and America’s cement manufacturers want to provide the materials to build the infrastructure necessary to make that possible,” says ACA CEO Mike Ireland. “Such facilities are engineered primarily for function and resilience.” Concrete is the optimal data center construction material, he adds, as it “is fire resistant, offers thermal stability, provides unparalleled physical security, and has long-term structural integrity. There really is no other viable material for such an important nationwide effort.”