Data center construction costs an average of about $11.3 million per megawatt for shell and core in 2026, up from $10.7 million in 2025 and $7.7 million in 2020, according to JLL’s 2026 Global Data Center Outlook. For a facility built around high-density AI hardware, tenant fit-out can add as much as $25 million per megawatt on top of that. If you own or manage a data center program, the hard part is no longer deciding to build. It is holding the budget and the schedule together while power, materials, and skilled labor all compete against you at once.
This guide breaks down what data center construction actually costs in 2026, the specific factors that push those numbers up, and the decisions owners and owner’s representatives can make early to keep a mission-critical build on budget and on schedule.
Key Takeaways
- Shell and core data center construction averages about $11.3 million per megawatt in 2026, and AI-density tenant fit-out can add up to $25 million per megawatt more.
- Budgets keep climbing because demand is climbing. U.S. private data center construction reached a $50.7 billion annualized rate in April 2026, surpassing office construction for the first time.
- Power is the largest single cost and schedule driver. Grid interconnection in primary markets now exceeds four years, which is why speed to power drives site selection.
- Labor scarcity turns schedule risk into cost risk. In the 2025 AGC Workforce Survey, 92 percent of hiring firms reported trouble finding qualified workers.
- Owners control cost and schedule by locking power early, procuring long-lead equipment ahead of design completion, using shop fabrication, and hiring a contractor that self-performs the hard scopes.
What does data center construction cost per megawatt in 2026?
Shell and core data center construction averages roughly $11.3 million per megawatt in 2026, a 6 percent increase over the 2025 figure of $10.7 million, according to JLL. That number covers the building, the base power distribution, and the cooling infrastructure. It does not cover the tenant technology fit-out, which JLL notes can run as high as $25 million per megawatt for AI infrastructure.
The gap between a standard build and an AI-optimized build is the single biggest reason two projects of the same size can carry very different price tags. A traditional air-cooled hall and a high-density hall built for liquid-cooled racks are not the same product. The AI hall needs more electrical capacity, more mechanical piping, more structural steel to carry heavier equipment, and tighter tolerances on equipment setting. Every one of those scopes adds cost per megawatt.
2026 cost basis
What a megawatt of data center costs now
Shell-and-core pricing, the AI fit-out premium, and the market behind them.
JLL 2026 data center construction cost guide; U.S. Census Bureau construction spending, April 2026; Associated General Contractors 2025 Workforce Survey.
For budgeting, the practical takeaway is to separate the two numbers early. Shell and core is what your construction contract prices. Fit-out is a second, often larger, capital line that depends on the compute you install.
Why data center construction budgets keep climbing
Data center budgets keep climbing because demand keeps climbing faster than supply. U.S. private data center construction reached a $50.7 billion seasonally adjusted annual rate in April 2026, up roughly 27 percent from $39.8 billion a year earlier, and surpassed general office construction for the first time. When that much capital chases the same crews, cranes, transformers, and switchgear, prices move up.
The trend is not a one-year spike. JLL’s data shows average construction cost per megawatt rising from $7.7 million in 2020 to $10.7 million in 2025, roughly a 7 percent compound annual increase before the 2026 jump. Escalation like that means a budget built on last year’s unit costs is already behind on the day it is approved.
Three pressures sit underneath the escalation: competition for skilled trades, long lead times on electrical equipment, and the rising power density of the buildings themselves. The next two sections take the two largest, power and labor, in turn.
Power is the biggest cost driver, and the biggest schedule driver
Power is the center of gravity for both the budget and the schedule. Global data center electricity use reached about 415 terawatt-hours in 2024, roughly 1.5 percent of world electricity, and the International Energy Agency projects it will double to about 945 terawatt-hours by 2030, growing near 15 percent a year. In the United States the concentration is sharper. Data centers consumed about 4.4 percent of national electricity in 2023, and the Department of Energy projects that share could reach 6.7 to 12 percent by 2028.
That demand reshapes the physical building. Higher power density means more electrical distribution, more cooling capacity, and, increasingly, liquid cooling piped directly to the racks. Each of those requirements adds mechanical, piping, and structural scope, which is why power density shows up directly in the cost per megawatt.
Power also sets the schedule. JLL reports that the average wait time for a grid connection in primary data center markets now exceeds four years, and that speed to power has become the primary criterion driving site selection. A site with available power beats a cheaper site that cannot be energized on time, because every month of delay carries financing and lost-revenue cost that dwarfs the land savings.
What a data center construction budget actually buys
A data center construction budget buys far more heavy industrial scope than a commercial building of the same footprint. JLL’s shell and core figure is separate from the technology fit-out because the two are built by different teams on different clocks, and the shell and core itself is dominated by mechanical and electrical systems rather than architecture.
The major hard-cost scopes on a typical build include:
- Structural steel and civil work to carry heavy equipment, cooling plants, and generator yards.
- Mechanical systems and process piping for chilled water, liquid cooling loops, and fuel.
- Precision equipment setting and millwright work to place and align generators, chillers, transformers, and pumps to tight tolerances.
- Electrical distribution, switchgear, and backup power.
- Industrial painting and protective coatings on piping, steel, and equipment.
Owners who understand this mix budget for it correctly. The building envelope is a small share of the number. The systems inside it, the steel that carries them, and the crews that set them are where the money and the schedule live. A contractor that self-performs mechanical and structural steel scopes can hold more of that cost under one accountable roof instead of stacking subcontractor margins and coordination risk.
How schedule risk turns into cost risk
Schedule risk becomes cost risk mainly through labor, and labor is tight. In the 2025 Workforce Survey from the Associated General Contractors of America, 92 percent of hiring firms reported difficulty finding qualified workers, and 45 percent reported project delays tied to workforce shortages. On a data center, a delayed pour or a late equipment set does not just slip a milestone. It pushes the energization date, and every week past that date carries carrying costs and deferred revenue.
Two moves blunt that risk. The first is shop fabrication. Building pipe spools, steel assemblies, and modular skids in a controlled facility runs in parallel with site work and reduces the field labor hours exposed to weather and congestion. The tradeoffs between shop and field fabrication decide how much of the schedule you can compress.
The second is self-performance. Every handoff between separate subcontractors is a place where the schedule can stall while two firms wait on each other. A contractor that self-performs the mechanical, piping, steel, and equipment-setting scopes controls its own crews and its own sequence, which is exactly the control a schedule-driven data center build needs.
How owners control data center construction cost and schedule
Owners hold cost and schedule by making four decisions early, before design is fully complete:
- Lock power first. Because interconnection exceeds four years in primary markets, secure the power position before committing to a site. Speed to power, not land price, decides the true schedule.
- Procure long-lead equipment ahead of final design. Transformers, switchgear, generators, and chillers drive the critical path. Ordering them early, even at risk, protects the energization date.
- Move work into the shop. Use modular and shop fabrication to run steel, piping, and skid assembly in parallel with site preparation.
- Consolidate accountability. Hire a contractor that self-performs the hard scopes so cost and schedule sit under one team rather than a chain of subcontractors.
None of these erase escalation. They keep it from compounding through delay, which is where budgets usually break.
How LMC Industrial Contractors builds data center scopes
LMC Industrial Contractors builds the heavy industrial scopes at the core of a data center project. Founded in 1982 and based in Dansville, New York, LMC self-performs mechanical and process piping, structural steel, precision equipment setting and millwright work, industrial coatings, and project controls, with more than 350 skilled tradesmen and women. Electrical work is delivered through established partners rather than self-performed, so that scope is coordinated, not improvised.
The fabrication behind those scopes runs out of an LMC-owned facility with more than 700,000 square feet of covered space on 88 acres, backed by over 300 pieces of owned equipment. That fabrication facility is what lets LMC prefabricate pipe spools, steel, and modular assemblies while site work proceeds, compressing the field schedule that decides a data center’s energization date. For a deeper look at the trade scopes involved, see our data center construction field guide.
Owners and general contractors planning a data center build can reach the LMC team at (585) 335-3131 or through the contact page to discuss scope, fabrication capacity, and schedule.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to build a data center per megawatt in 2026?
Shell and core data center construction averages about $11.3 million per megawatt in 2026, according to JLL, up 6 percent from $10.7 million in 2025. Tenant technology fit-out is separate and can add as much as $25 million per megawatt for AI-density infrastructure.
Why is data center construction more expensive than commercial construction?
A data center is dominated by heavy mechanical, electrical, and structural systems rather than architecture. High power density requires large cooling and electrical capacity, liquid cooling piped to the racks, and steel sized to carry heavy equipment, all built to tight tolerances on a compressed schedule. Those systems, not the building envelope, drive the cost per megawatt.
What is speed to power in data center construction?
Speed to power is how quickly a site can be energized with the electrical capacity a data center needs. Because grid interconnection in primary markets now exceeds four years, JLL reports that speed to power has become the primary factor in site selection, often outweighing land cost.
How long does grid interconnection take for a data center?
JLL reports that the average wait time for a grid connection in primary U.S. data center markets exceeds four years. That lead time is why owners secure a power position before committing to a site and procure long-lead electrical equipment ahead of final design.
Which data center construction scopes can be self-performed?
Mechanical systems, process piping, structural steel, precision equipment setting and millwright work, and industrial coatings can all be self-performed by an industrial contractor with the right crews and fabrication capacity. LMC Industrial Contractors self-performs these scopes and coordinates electrical work through partners.
Sources
- JLL, 2026 Global Data Center Outlook, construction cost per megawatt and grid interconnection wait times
- U.S. Census Bureau construction spending, reported by Data Center Knowledge, April 2026
- International Energy Agency, Energy and AI: energy demand from AI
- U.S. Department of Energy, report on rising electricity demand from data centers
- Associated General Contractors of America, 2025 Workforce Survey
