The AI ​​data center boom could be bad news for other infrastructure projects

Improvements to roads, bridges and other infrastructure may be affected as data center construction accelerates. According to Bloomberg.

In 2025, state and local governments reportedly sold a record amount of debt for the second year in a row, and strategists expect another $600 billion in sales next year. It is expected that most of this money will be allocated to finance infrastructure projects.

Meanwhile, Census Bureau data reportedly show that private spending on building data centers has been running at an annual run rate of more than $41 billion — roughly the same as state and local governments’ spending on building transportation.

All of these projects are likely to compete for construction workers as the industry faces labor shortages due to retirements and President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Andrew Anagnost, CEO of architecture and design software maker Autodesk, told Bloomberg that “there’s absolutely no doubt” that data center construction “is sucking resources from other projects.”

“I guarantee you that a lot of (infrastructure) projects will not move as quickly as people want,” he said.