Analysis The AI Buildout Just Put the Building Trades Out Front On 28 September, OpenAI, Blackstone, SoftBank and a roster of data-centre developers and operators launched the American Infrastructure Alliance alongside five construction unions and two Ohio labour bodies. It will campaign in seven states ahead of the 2027 legislative sessions. We argued in July that permission, not power, was the binding constraint on the buildout — this is what the industry does about that. Hugo Pegley · Oct 2, 2026
Funding Buzz Solutions Raised $20M to Inspect the Grid the AI Buildout Is About to Overload An oversubscribed Series A led by Texas-based S3 Ventures, closed the same week Texas paused 474 gigawatts of interconnection requests. The pitch is that utilities must improve reliability and absorb AI load growth simultaneously — and cannot hire their way through the imagery. Hugo Pegley · Aug 18, 2026
Analysis Texas Paused 474 Gigawatts of Grid Requests. The Next Day, Caterpillar Had Its Best Quarter Ever. On August 3, Governor Abbott ordered an audit of every data center in ERCOT's interconnection queue. On August 4, Caterpillar posted a record $20.5 billion quarter on data center demand and raised guidance. Both facts are true, and the gap between them is the whole story. Hugo Pegley · Aug 18, 2026
Analysis Europe Just Opened Bidding on Seven AI Gigafactories. Someone Has to Build Them. The European Commission launched its AI Gigafactories call on 30 July, aiming to mobilise more than €30 billion for up to seven AI compute campuses. Proposals close 12 November, selection lands in early 2027, and the winners are expected to be operating within 18 months of that — a construction timeline worth reading closely. Hugo Pegley · Aug 3, 2026
Analysis New York Paused Data Center Permits. Fifteen Days Later, an Analyst Cut Caterpillar. Executive Order 62 froze state permitting for data centers of 50 MW and up. On July 29, Baird downgraded Caterpillar and cut its target from $1,200 to $900, naming that moratorium. The constraint on the AI buildout is turning out to be permitting, not power. Hugo Pegley · Jul 30, 2026
Analysis OpenSpace Has Now Documented 1,000 Data Centers. That Number Tells You Something About Where Construction AI Is Actually Being Deployed. Half of those 1,000 projects were added in the past year alone. The milestone positions OpenSpace as the de facto construction intelligence standard for the AI infrastructure boom — and raises the question of what that dataset is worth. Hugo Pegley · Jun 15, 2026
