U.S. private construction spending still reached $1.61 trillion in July; data center construction rose to an annualized level of over $75 billion, with a year-on-year growth rate of nearly 60%, but still accounted for less than 5% of total private construction spending. Non-AI construction has not disappeared, but the downward trend has spread: spending on single-family homes fell 6.5% year-on-year, and manufacturing construction fell 21.7%. AI is partially offsetting the gap caused by high interest rates and the retreat of manufacturing expansion, but it is insufficient to reverse the overall trend of a 3.8% year-on-year decline in construction spending, reflecting that U.S. investment growth is further concentrated in a few AI projects.
