Golden Pass Ramps Up, Venture Global Greenlights CP2 Phase 2, and a Record $25.2 Billion Month for Data Centers

This week's intelligence covers major LNG milestones on the Gulf Coast, a record-breaking month in data center construction spending, the staggering scale of Texas's concurrent mega-project pipeline, and the continued acceleration of modular construction demand.

Golden Pass LNG Advances Toward First Production in Southeast Texas

ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy's $10 billion Golden Pass LNG facility in Sabine Pass, Texas is advancing rapidly through commissioning. Feedgas nominations to the 18.1 million ton per year terminal climbed to 312 million cubic feet on March 18, up from an average of 203 million cubic feet per day over the prior seven days, according to pipeline data reported by Argus Media.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted Golden Pass's latest request to introduce hazardous fluids to the dehydration regeneration gas system on March 18, a standard pre-commissioning milestone. ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods stated in January that the facility would begin producing LNG in early March with the first cargo later that month.

Once fully operational, Golden Pass will rank among the largest LNG export facilities in the United States. The project has overcome significant challenges, including contractor bankruptcy and cost overruns since construction began in 2019. According to The Perryman Group, the project's investment will create approximately $34 billion in U.S. economic gains over its lifespan and generated approximately 19,000 construction jobs over five years, with peak employment reaching around 7,000 workers.

What this means for fabrication and construction: Golden Pass reaching commercial operations marks a turning point for Gulf Coast LNG infrastructure. The facility's ramp-up creates downstream demand for maintenance, turnaround, and expansion support services that will persist for the life of the terminal. For fabrication and field execution contractors operating in Southeast Texas, the transition from construction to operations opens a long-duration service relationship.

Venture Global Takes Final Investment Decision on CP2 Phase 2

Venture Global announced on March 13 that it has taken final investment decision on Phase 2 of its CP2 LNG project in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, with full notice to proceed issued to construction contractors. Industrial Info Resources reports it is tracking more than $88 billion worth of active and proposed Venture Global projects.

CP2 Phase 1, backed by a $15.1 billion financing deal (the largest in the LNG sector last year), is already under construction. Phase 2 adds to what is becoming one of the most aggressive LNG development programs in U.S. history. The combined CP2 facility will have an export capacity of at least 20 million metric tons per annum.

Separately, Venture Global's Plaquemines LNG facility continues ramping commissioning operations, now producing more than one commissioning cargo per day. Phase 1 of Plaquemines is on track for commercial operations in Q4 2026, with 70% of 2026 cargoes already contracted.

What this means for fabrication and construction: CP2 Phase 2 reaching FID means another multi-billion-dollar construction program is moving into active execution in Cameron Parish. Combined with Plaquemines and Calcasieu Pass operations, Venture Global's Louisiana footprint alone represents an enormous, sustained need for structural steel fabrication, process module assembly, and field installation crews. This is the kind of long-duration project pipeline that defines the Gulf Coast industrial market for the next decade.

Data Center Construction Starts Hit $25.2 Billion in a Single Month

January 2026 marked the highest single month for U.S. data center construction starts since recordkeeping began, with $25.2 billion in groundbreaking activity across 20 projects. Two of those projects were each valued at $10 billion. According to ConstructConnect, this pushed the trailing twelve-month total to $103.7 billion, with average monthly spending of $8.6 billion.

The pace shows no signs of slowing. ConstructConnect is tracking 65 additional data center projects valued at $92.1 billion with potential start dates within the next six months. Meanwhile, construction costs per square foot have surged from $183 in 2020 to $415 in 2025, with 2026 projections reaching $488 per square foot.

Key developments driving the pipeline this month:

Microsoft: Secured approval for 15 new data center buildings in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, with a combined taxable value exceeding $13 billion and nearly 9 million square feet of building space.
Meta: Broke ground on a $10 billion, 1 GW data center campus in Lebanon, Indiana, supporting roughly 4,000 construction jobs at peak.
AMD and Meta: Announced a $100 billion agreement to supply up to 6 GW of AI capacity, with deployments beginning this year.
AVAIO Digital Partners: Announced a multi-phase campus in Little Rock, Arkansas, with a combined $6 billion investment and power demand reaching 1 GW.

Morgan Stanley forecasts $3 trillion in global AI data center investment by 2029, with half going to construction. JPMorgan projects more than $5 trillion when including related power infrastructure. The hyperscalers alone are expected to issue $250 to $300 billion in debt in 2026 to finance buildouts.

What this means for fabrication and construction: Data centers are now the single largest category of U.S. construction spending growth. These facilities require massive structural steel frameworks, prefabricated mechanical and electrical modules, and compressed construction timelines that favor modular and offsite fabrication approaches. For contractors with structural steel and modular assembly capabilities, the data center pipeline represents a decade-long demand driver that operates alongside and in addition to traditional energy and petrochemical work.

Texas Stacks $142 Billion in Concurrent Mega-Projects

Texas is not facing a single marquee project year. It is facing stacked programs. According to industry analysis, $142 billion in infrastructure, LNG, semiconductor, grid, and digital projects are converging simultaneously across the state in 2026.

The major corridors:

Gulf Coast (Houston, Beaumont, Corpus Christi): LNG and industrial work stacking with port access improvements, freight connector projects, and long-duration freeway reconstruction.
Central Texas (Austin, San Antonio, Taylor): Samsung's $17 billion Taylor semiconductor fab and TI's potential $40 billion Sherman mega-site create sustained demand for complex civil and high-spec building scopes.
Statewide digital infrastructure: Google, Microsoft, and other hyperscalers are expanding data center footprints across Texas, which received $13.4 billion in data center starts in 2025 alone.

Eight Baton Rouge-based industrial contractors rank in the nation's top 20, including four of the top five, underscoring how deeply the Gulf Coast region dominates large-scale industrial execution. The reality for 2026 is that this is as much a staffing and sequencing challenge as it is a construction opportunity.

What this means for fabrication and construction: When $142 billion in projects are competing for the same craft labor, supervision, and fabrication capacity across a single state, the advantage goes to companies that can self-perform critical scopes without depending on an already overstretched subcontractor market. Vertically integrated execution capability is not just a differentiator in this environment. It is a prerequisite for winning and delivering work.

Modular Construction Market Crosses $116 Billion

The global modular construction market is projected to grow from $107.83 billion in 2025 to $116.81 billion in 2026, an 8.3% compound annual growth rate, according to The Business Research Company. The market is on track to reach $158 billion by 2030.

The operational advantages are driving adoption across every industrial sector. Modular approaches deliver projects 30 to 50% faster, reduce field labor requirements by up to 40%, and eliminate 80% of weather-related work stoppages by moving the majority of construction into controlled factory environments. In data center and LNG applications specifically, modular prefabrication is now standard practice, not an alternative approach.

For industrial fabrication, this growth validates the core model: controlled-environment manufacturing, integrated quality systems, and modular delivery. The companies capturing this market are not general contractors pivoting to modular work. They are purpose-built fabricators with the shop capacity, production workflows, and QA/QC systems to deliver at scale.

The Bottom Line

Two LNG terminals moving into production and active construction in Texas and Louisiana. A record-breaking month for data center spending that is still accelerating. $142 billion in concurrent Texas mega-projects straining every available execution resource. And a modular construction market growing at 8.3% annually because the industry simply cannot build fast enough using traditional methods.

Every data point this week reinforces the same conclusion: execution capability is the bottleneck, and the companies that have it are positioned to define this cycle. PSV Industries was built for this market.