Improvements to roads, bridges, and other infrastructure may face challenges as the construction of data centers ramps up, according to Bloomberg.
In 2025, state and local governments are said to have sold a record amount of debt for the second consecutive year, with projections suggesting another $600 billion in sales for the upcoming year. Much of this funding is expected to be allocated to infrastructure initiatives.
In another development, data from the Census Bureau indicates that private investment in data center construction is running at an annualized rate of over $41 billion—roughly equivalent to what state and local governments spend on transportation projects.
These competing projects are likely to vie for construction workers, particularly as the industry grapples with labor shortages due to retirements and the effects of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
Andrew Anagnost, CEO of Autodesk, a company specializing in architecture and design software, stated that there’s “absolutely no doubt” that data center construction “sucks resources from other projects.” He added, “I guarantee you a lot of those [infrastructure] projects are not going to move as fast as people want.”
