Published 2026-10-01 · Cyclone Bolt

Data center construction starts in the United States reached $98.5 billion through August 2026, according to ConstructConnect's October 2026 Data Center Report, published September 29, 2026. Texas alone accounts for more than $22 billion of that spending.

The report, written by ConstructConnect chief economist Michael Guckes, counts 153 data center projects started so far this year. August added $14.4 billion across 17 projects.

Data center projects are getting larger and more expensive

Among projects with a known price and size, the average data center started in 2026 cost $1.18 billion and covered 707,000 square feet. The comparable figures for 2025 were $507.4 million and 493,000 square feet. After removing the top and bottom 10% of projects, the report puts the median cost at $541 per square foot and the average at $867.

The report sums up the trend in one line: "Data Centers are rising in costs faster than size, pushing cost per square foot prices steeply higher."

Data centers made up 24% of all nonresidential building starts through August. The largest project to break ground during the month was the AVAIO Digital Data Center Campus in Little Rock, Arkansas, a nearly 300-acre site valued at $6 billion.

Texas data center construction tops $22 billion

ConstructConnect says new data center builds are moving away from the coasts and toward the Midwest and the South. It describes strong spending across the states from Texas to Mississippi, with Texas standing apart at more than $22 billion year to date.

More work is scheduled. ConstructConnect is tracking 65 data center projects worth a combined $26.1 billion with start dates before the end of 2026. The same report shows power infrastructure starts running 119.9% above the same period in 2025, with a further 30% rise forecast for 2027 compared with full-year 2026.

Power is also shaping how Texas projects are approved. The Public Utility Commission of Texas approved a net metering arrangement for a 260-megawatt AI data center co-located with a wind farm of about the same capacity, Utility Dive reported on July 30, 2026. Crusoe is the developer. Under the commission's July 23 order, the data center must be able to curtail its full load within 30 minutes during grid emergencies.

Steel prices and lead times are rising

The building boom is showing up in materials. Steel prices have climbed 25% over the past year and lead times have more than doubled to 55 weeks, Tom Park, vice president of strategic supply chain at Skanska, said during a September 10 webinar on materials costs, as Construction Dive reported on September 16, 2026. The article ties the price increase to the rush to build data centers and semiconductor plants, and says developers are now looking at timber as an alternative.

What a data center build asks of the fastener supply chain

A data center is a steel and concrete structure filled with heavy mechanical and electrical equipment, and threaded products run through all of it. A project of this kind typically calls for:

  • Anchor bolts and anchor rods that tie structural steel and equipment pads to the foundation.
  • Structural bolting for the steel frame.
  • Threaded rod, studs, nuts and washers that support pipe, conduit and cable tray.
  • Bolting for generators, chillers, switchgear, pumps and the flanged piping in cooling and fuel systems.

The grades, coatings, dimensions and documentation for each of these are set by the project specifications and the engineer of record, not by the supplier. On projects of this size, buyers commonly ask for material test reports and lot traceability with each shipment.

Fasteners are a small share of a data center budget next to steel, but the schedule depends on them. With steel lead times at 55 weeks by Park's account, the hardware that connects that steel needs to be on site when the steel arrives. Two points in a project tend to strain fastener supply. The first is the full take-off at the start, when quantities are large and delivery dates are fixed. The second is the shorts at the end, when a handful of missing sizes can hold up a turnover.

Where Cyclone Bolt fits

Cyclone Bolt is a Houston, Texas manufacturer of fasteners, threaded products and custom machined components. Cyclone is supplying several large data center builds in Texas and welcomes more, from full-build take-offs to the shorts at the end of a project. Product families include stud bolts, heavy hex nuts, hex bolts and custom machined components. Cyclone's published certifications include ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100D.

Cyclone manufactures to customer-specified standards and does not provide engineering or design services. To discuss a data center bolting package, request a quote with your take-off, specifications and delivery dates.

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