American industrial infrastructure moved into a new phase this week. JLL's Midyear 2026 North America Data Center Report confirmed that more than 66 gigawatts of data center capacity are already under construction across the continent, an electricity requirement greater than the entire nation of Germany, a country of roughly 84 million people and a 4.7 trillion dollar economy. BloombergNEF revised its 2030 installed US data center capacity forecast upward by 52 percent to 118 gigawatts and its 2035 forecast up 83 percent to 194 gigawatts, driven by a 101 gigawatt expansion in the announced pipeline since December 2025. Texas Governor Greg Abbott directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas and ERCOT to audit every data center advancing through the ERCOT interconnection process before any project may proceed, citing more than 474 gigawatts of interconnection requests, over five times ERCOT's record peak demand, with roughly 90 percent of new power requests coming from data centers. ENEOS Holdings announced a definitive agreement to acquire TPC Group's Houston Texas petrochemical operations along with terminal operations in Port Neches Texas and Lake Charles Louisiana, with regulatory approvals expected in October 2026. QTS filed plans for an 11-building 1 gigawatt campus at Lancium's Clean Campus in Hall County Texas representing a 10 billion dollar investment across 465 acres. Fermi Inc. secured its first binding customer lease at Project Matador in Carson County Texas, committing to deliver a 222 megawatt turnkey facility. Riot Platforms signed a 20-year 9.1 billion dollar lease with Anthropic covering 191 megawatts. Circe Energy is developing a 1,950 acre AI campus in West Texas powered entirely by a behind-the-meter Cummins natural gas microgrid, scaling from 10 megawatts in 2026 to 1.1 gigawatts by 2030 with potential expansion to 2 gigawatts. AWS is expanding its Hobart Indiana campus from 6 to 26 planned buildings and roughly 2 gigawatts of total facility power capacity. Microsoft restarted construction across its Heath, Hebron, and New Albany campuses in Licking County Ohio totaling 17 buildings and 869 megawatts. Meta officially confirmed its Hyperion expansion from 2 to 5 gigawatts in Richland Parish Louisiana with total projected investment reaching 50 billion dollars, and its first Canadian data center in Sturgeon County Alberta at 9.17 billion dollars powered by the 932 megawatt Greenlight Electricity Centre natural gas plant. Cheniere reiterated its plan to reach first FID for the Sabine Pass expansion in late 2026 or early 2027, taking a phased approach where each facility adds one large-scale liquefaction train without additional berth, storage tank, or pipeline. Phillips 66 announced its refineries will operate in the mid 90 percent range of combined capacity in the third quarter of 2026. The workforce picture continues to reset with the AGC 2026 Outlook confirming 82 percent craft hiring difficulty, 80 percent difficulty filling salaried openings, and 33 percent of firms directly impacted by immigration enforcement in the past six months.
JLL Confirms 66 GW of North American Data Center Capacity Under Construction, BloombergNEF Revises 2030 US Forecast Up 52 Percent to 118 GW
JLL published its Midyear 2026 North America Data Center Report this week and put the number that everyone in the industrial construction supply chain has been waiting for on paper. More than 66 gigawatts of data center capacity are already under construction across North America. For context, JLL notes that this represents an electricity requirement greater than the entire nation of Germany, a country with roughly 84 million people and a 4.7 trillion dollar economy. And that is only the projects that have broken ground. Adding to that pile, BloombergNEF this week revised its 2030 installed US data center capacity forecast upward by 52 percent to 118 gigawatts, driven by a 101 gigawatt expansion in the announced pipeline since December 2025. BloombergNEF's 2035 forecast climbed 83 percent to 194 gigawatts. To meet that base case, BloombergNEF calculates that 48 gigawatts of on-site natural gas generation needs to be built by 2035, on top of the 124 gigawatts of on-site gas capacity already announced. Only 56 percent of that announced on-site gas capacity has been mapped to a target commissioning date, meaning the industry now needs to convert announcements into engineering, procurement, and construction execution at a rate that the American industrial construction supply chain has not previously delivered.
The pipeline itself continues to grow at every scale. Fermi Inc. secured its first binding customer lease at Project Matador in Carson County Texas this week, committing to deliver a 222 megawatt turnkey data center facility. Riot Platforms, one of the world's largest Bitcoin mining companies, signed a 20-year lease with Anthropic worth 9.1 billion dollars covering 191 megawatts of capacity. QTS filed plans for an 11-building 1 gigawatt campus at Lancium's Clean Campus in Hall County Texas, representing a 10 billion dollar investment across 465 acres anchored by a 1 gigawatt grid connection. Meta officially confirmed the Hyperion expansion from 2 to 5 gigawatts of IT capacity in Richland Parish Louisiana with total projected investment reaching 50 billion dollars, and its first Canadian data center in Sturgeon County Alberta at 9.17 billion dollars for a 1,750 acre 1 gigawatt AI campus powered by the 932 megawatt Greenlight Electricity Centre natural gas plant. AWS is expanding its Hobart Indiana campus from 6 to 26 planned buildings and roughly 2 gigawatts of total facility power capacity. Microsoft restarted construction across its Heath, Hebron, and New Albany campuses in Licking County Ohio totaling 17 buildings and approximately 869 megawatts after the projects were paused in April 2025, with operations still targeted by the end of 2029. Circe Energy is developing a 1,950 acre AI infrastructure campus in West Texas powered entirely by a behind-the-meter microgrid using Cummins natural gas generators, planned to scale from 10 megawatts in 2026 to 1.1 gigawatts by 2030 with potential expansion to 2 gigawatts.
The pattern is unmistakable. Data center capacity under construction in North America now exceeds the electricity requirement of most G20 economies. The announced pipeline is expanding faster than execution can keep up. And every one of these projects requires the same fabrication and construction inputs at once. Structural steel envelopes at hyperscale volumes. Substations, transformer skids, switchgear lineups, and high voltage electrical distribution moving in massive parallel. Cooling manifolds, liquid distribution, and mechanical modules landing on shop floors weeks ahead of installation dates. Backup generation packages, on-site gas peakers, and increasingly full behind-the-meter power plants requiring gas turbine generator sets, heat recovery steam generators, controls buildings, and balance of plant scope that would have made an EPC firm proud a decade ago.
Texas Directs ERCOT to Audit Every Data Center Interconnection Request as Requests Hit 474 GW
On August 3, Texas directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas and ERCOT to audit every data center advancing through the ERCOT interconnection process before any project may proceed. Texas cited more than 474 gigawatts of interconnection requests, over five times ERCOT's record peak demand, and said about 90 percent of new power requests are data centers. The directive is a binding grid and resource constraint that fundamentally changes how the largest data center market in the country is going to allocate power over the next decade. It is not a slowdown of construction. It is a filter. Every project advancing through ERCOT will now be evaluated for creditworthiness, milestone credibility, and phasing realism before it can lock in interconnection queue position.
The Texas directive arrived at the same time as a broader industry conversation about the gap between announced and executed data center capacity. Inc. Magazine reported this week that AI companies have announced plans for nearly 3,969 new US data centers, with roughly 5 announced for every 1 being built. As of August 4, projects representing 20 gigawatts of the roughly 37 gigawatts IIR Energy expects to come online in 2027 had not begun clearing land, according to satellite monitoring by intelligence firm SynMax. Columbia Business School real estate professor Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh estimates that of the 565 gigawatts of computing power AI companies are currently planning (more than 10 times today's power), just 180 gigawatts will actually get built over the next decade. Two-thirds of the announced pipeline is, in his assessment, implausible.
That is a healthy dose of reality alongside the announcement flow, and it is exactly why owners, EPCs, and financial partners are increasingly focused on execution certainty. Announcement plus interconnection queue position does not equal capacity. Only steel, concrete, cable, and craft in the ground gets you gigawatts. Owners are increasingly selecting execution partners on the basis of demonstrated modular capacity, credentialed workforce, and Gulf Coast execution track record, because those are the inputs that separate the projects that come online from the projects that stay on the announcement page. That trend is a durable tailwind for the fabricators and construction firms that own the shop, the craft workforce, and the modular execution capability from end to end.
ENEOS Agrees to Acquire TPC Group's Houston Texas and Louisiana Petrochemical Operations, Phillips 66 Guides Refineries to Mid 90 Percent Capacity in Q3 2026
ENEOS Holdings and TPC Group announced this week a definitive agreement under which ENEOS will acquire TPC Group's petrochemical operations in Houston Texas along with terminal operations in Port Neches Texas and Lake Charles Louisiana. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions including applicable regulatory approvals, and the companies expect all regulatory approvals will be received in October 2026. TPC Group is one of the largest producers of C4 hydrocarbons in North America, including butadiene, high purity isobutylene, and specialty derivatives that feed into synthetic rubber, plastics, fuel additives, and lubricants. ENEOS is one of Japan's largest energy and petrochemical companies. The acquisition strengthens ENEOS's position in the global C4 value chain and is another data point that international majors continue to see the US Gulf Coast as the most competitive petrochemical operating environment in the world.
The macro picture in refining continues to be tight. Phillips 66 announced this week that its refineries will operate in the mid 90 percent range of combined capacity in the third quarter of 2026, following a second quarter in which refineries ran above their faceplate capacity. That is unusually high utilization for an industry that has spent the last two years talking about margin compression and demand uncertainty. The reality is that US refining margins are strong, product demand remains healthy, and both refiners and petrochemical operators are extending planned turnarounds and pushing capital into reliability improvements to maintain elevated throughput. Every one of those turnarounds and reliability projects requires shop based fabrication, modular skid assembly, structural steel, and specialty pipe fitting scope. The Gulf Coast refining and petrochemical asset base is one of the largest and most reliable sources of shutdown and turnaround demand in American industrial construction, and the current elevated utilization environment makes that demand more predictable, not less.
On the greenfield side, America First Refining continues to advance a 300 billion dollar greenfield oil refinery at the Port of Brownsville Texas, the first new US refinery built from scratch since 1976. Groundbreaking is scheduled for the second quarter of 2026. Shintech's PEP-2 500,000 metric ton per year ethane cracker in Plaquemine Louisiana, along with the parallel VCM-4 vinyl chloride monomer facility, continues to progress toward operations in the fall to winter 2027 window. And the Golden Triangle Polymers joint venture between ChevronPhillips Chemical and QatarEnergy remains on schedule for operations in 2026 in Orange Texas, delivering a 2.08 million metric ton per year ethane cracker and two 1 million metric ton per year HDPE units. The petrochemical and refining pipeline that everyone was told was slowing down is running at full capacity, and the international majors continue to consolidate around the Texas and Louisiana operating footprint.
Cheniere Reaffirms Sabine Pass First FID for Late 2026 or Early 2027, LNG Buildout Continues Across the Gulf Coast
Cheniere CEO Jack Fusco reaffirmed the company's plan to reach the first FID for the Sabine Pass expansion in late 2026 or early 2027, taking a phased approach where each facility can add one large-scale liquefaction train without requiring another berth, storage tank, or pipeline. That structure is a significant departure from the previous mega-train Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi expansion economics, and it allows Cheniere to sequence FIDs against customer offtake commitments rather than launching an entire multi-train facility on a single credit event. Cheniere's Corpus Christi Stage 3 continues to progress through commissioning with Train 7 operational, and the company detailed a phased 24 million ton per year Corpus Christi Stage 4 expansion earlier this year with FID timing dependent on offtake commercialization.
The broader Gulf Coast LNG picture continues to build. Argent LNG received US Department of Energy authorization on July 24 to export up to 1.3 trillion cubic feet per year (36.8 billion cubic meters per year) of LNG to FTA countries from its planned Port Fourchon Louisiana terminal over a 20-year period, and the project targets FID within two years. Commonwealth LNG remains in construction in Cameron Parish Louisiana at 1.21 billion cubic feet per day of authorized capacity. Rio Grande LNG Phase 1 continues to progress ahead of schedule with first gas targeted this year, first LNG in H1 2027, and Train 6 FID targeted H2 2027. Delfin LNG remains pre-FID at 1.8 billion cubic feet per day. Freeport LNG's fourth train remains pre-FID at 0.72 billion cubic feet per day. Texas LNG Brownsville and Lake Charles LNG both remain pre-FID. Shell's LNG Canada Phase 2 FID is targeted before end of 2026 per management commentary. The composite picture is the largest sustained LNG export construction cycle in American history, and the credential Gulf Coast fabrication and construction supply chain is the constraint.
On the greenfield fabrication capacity side, AG and P Industrial officially broke ground on its 85 hectare next generation module fabrication yard in San Pascual, Batangas, Philippines. The facility has an annual fabrication capacity of 80,000 metric tons and will serve global demand across LNG, petroleum, clean and renewable fuels, power, refining, chemicals, digital infrastructure, and other industrial sectors. AG and P also announced a joint venture with Pragati Infra Solutions earlier this year to build India's first advanced modular EPC and fabrication manufacturing facility in Andhra Pradesh, targeting 2027 completion. Together the AG and P Batangas and India facilities represent one of the most substantial industrial modular fabrication capacity additions announced globally in the past year, and they signal that Asian modular capacity is expanding aggressively to compete for the same global LNG and industrial scope that American Gulf Coast fabricators are executing.
Workforce Reality Check: AGC 2026 Outlook Confirms 82 Percent Craft Difficulty, 33 Percent Immigration Enforcement Impact, ABC Projects 349,000 Net New Workers Needed in 2026
The AGC 2026 Hiring and Business Outlook confirmed this week that 82 percent of firms report difficulty filling hourly craft positions, 80 percent report difficulty filling salaried openings, and 33 percent of firms report being directly affected by immigration enforcement actions in the past six months. Six percent report a jobsite or offsite was visited by immigration agents. Eleven percent report workers left or failed to appear because of actual or rumored immigration actions. Twenty-four percent report subcontractors lost workers. The AGC data is consistent with the ABC 2026 Workforce Shortage Analysis, which projects that the construction industry needs 349,000 net new workers in 2026 to meet demand, rising to 456,000 in 2027 as spending growth resumes. The AGC 2025 Workforce Survey found that 92 percent of firms hiring craft workers report difficulty filling positions, and 45 percent of contractors identify worker shortages as the leading cause of project delays.
The regional picture is stark. Texas leads the nation in unfilled construction positions with roughly 68,000 openings in the ABC 2026 analysis. The Dallas Fort Worth metro alone accounts for 23,000 of those openings. Florida runs second with 52,000 unfilled positions. California follows at 47,000. The Arizona and Nevada corridor tallies a combined 31,000 openings, driven largely by data center construction and semiconductor fab projects. Ohio and Michigan combine for 28,000 openings tied to EV battery plant construction and IIJA funded highway work. Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee collectively report 41,000 openings, fueled by manufacturing reshoring and residential development.
The demographic backdrop is well established at this point. Nearly 40 percent of skilled construction workers are now over 45. Roughly one in five electrical trade workers is past 55. Peak Boomer retirements will pull approximately 1.25 million construction workers out of the workforce by 2030. Immigration enforcement affects 33 percent of construction firms per the AGC 2026 Outlook and 28 percent per the earlier AGC 2025 Workforce Survey. The AI data center buildout alone is projected to require hundreds of thousands of additional electricians, MEP specialists, and industrial construction craft workers. Hyperscalers have committed over 700 billion dollars in 2026 capital expenditures. Federal infrastructure spending continues to sustain overall construction demand. And the new entrant pipeline, while growing, is not scaling fast enough to offset retirements. The result is a construction labor market where every credential earned, every apprentice trained, and every H-2B hour approved matters more than it did a year ago.
The Bottom Line
JLL confirmed 66 gigawatts of North American data center capacity under construction, an electricity requirement greater than Germany. BloombergNEF revised its 2030 US data center forecast up 52 percent to 118 gigawatts and its 2035 forecast up 83 percent to 194 gigawatts on a 101 gigawatt pipeline expansion since December 2025. BloombergNEF calculates 48 gigawatts of on-site natural gas generation must be built by 2035 on top of 124 gigawatts already announced, with only 56 percent of announced on-site gas mapped to a commissioning date. Texas directed the PUCT and ERCOT to audit every data center in the interconnection queue as requests hit 474 gigawatts (five times ERCOT's record peak demand, 90 percent from data centers). ENEOS Holdings agreed to acquire TPC Group's Houston Texas petrochemical operations and Port Neches Texas and Lake Charles Louisiana terminal operations, with regulatory approvals expected in October 2026. QTS filed plans for an 11-building 1 gigawatt Lancium Clean Campus in Hall County Texas at 10 billion dollars across 465 acres. Fermi Inc.'s Project Matador secured its first binding customer lease (222 megawatts, Carson County Texas). Riot Platforms signed a 20-year 9.1 billion dollar 191 megawatt Anthropic lease. Circe Energy is developing a 1,950 acre behind-the-meter Cummins gas microgrid AI campus in West Texas scaling from 10 megawatts to 2 gigawatts. AWS is expanding Hobart Indiana from 6 to 26 buildings and 2 gigawatts. Microsoft restarted the 869 megawatt Licking County Ohio buildout. Meta confirmed the Hyperion 5 gigawatt expansion at up to 50 billion dollars in Richland Parish Louisiana and the 9.17 billion dollar Sturgeon County Alberta campus paired with the 932 megawatt Greenlight Electricity Centre natural gas plant. Cheniere reiterated first FID for the Sabine Pass expansion in late 2026 or early 2027 with a phased approach. Phillips 66 guided refineries to operate in the mid 90 percent range of capacity in Q3 2026. AGC 2026 Outlook confirmed 82 percent craft hiring difficulty, 80 percent salaried hiring difficulty, 33 percent immigration enforcement impact, and 45 percent of contractors reporting project delays from worker shortages. ABC continues to project 349,000 net new construction workers needed in 2026 rising to 456,000 in 2027.
The composite picture is the largest industrial infrastructure supercycle in American history running simultaneously across data centers, LNG, petrochemicals, refining, and reshored manufacturing. Data center capacity under construction now exceeds the electricity requirement of Germany. LNG FIDs are stacking through the balance of 2026 and into 2027. Petrochemical majors continue consolidating around the US Gulf Coast operating footprint. Refineries are running above faceplate. And the craft workforce is the binding constraint on how fast all of this can execute. American operating firms with proven modular execution, credentialed craft workforce platforms, integrated shop capacity, and Gulf Coast and Texas execution track records hold the durable competitive position of the decade. PSV Industries is a vertically integrated joint venture executing structural steel fabrication, process modules, modular skid assembly, field installation, and shutdowns and turnarounds. American operating model. American craft platform. Houston headquartered. Texas and Louisiana geography. The work is here. The capital is here. The constraint is execution. PSV is built to deliver it.