Private construction spending on data centers rose in September, the U.S. Census Bureau's preliminary figures show. The Bureau's table of the value of private construction put in place carries the date November 2, 2026. Its values are in millions of dollars, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate. Parts of the table follow, not the whole.
The Data Center Row
In the table, "Data center" stands under "Office," beside "General" and "Financial." For September 2026 the row shows $96,462 million. That month is marked preliminary. August is marked revised, at $88,815 million.
The table gives its own percent changes. September is 8.6% above August. It is 90.3% above September 2025, when the row showed $50,700 million.
The table shows five months of 2026 for the row. May stands at $65,688 million.
Beside the Other Rows
The same table carries other rows for the same month. The "General" row under "Office" shows $45,964 million for September, down 8.2% from a year before.
Total private construction shows $1,639,330 million. That is down 3.8% from September 2025.
Power, which in the table includes gas and oil, shows $171,658 million, up 12.1% from a year before. The table gives these rows together. It says nothing of how one bears on another.
The table counts construction. It cannot say whether the power for these buildings arrives on the same schedule.
The Table's Limits
The table warns in its own heading that "Details may not add to totals since all types of construction are not shown separately." Under its second table, which gives coefficients of variation and standard errors, a note says they "are relevant to the estimate from the most recent period."
Nothing in the table says what counts as a data center. It does not say how much of the value is the building and how much is the equipment inside it. It names no place.
A value of construction put in place is not a count of capacity coming online.
September's figure is preliminary. August's and July's are marked revised.
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau. Value of Private Construction Put in Place, Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (Construction Spending, 2 November 2026). 2 November 2026. statistics office