Analysis Caterpillar's Physical-AI Deal Is About Watching, Not Driving Caterpillar is putting FieldAI's robot foundation models to work on inspections, digital twins and situational awareness. No terms, no timeline, no machine named — and read the list of applications carefully, because not one of them operates a machine. Hugo Pegley · Sep 11, 2026
Analysis Construction's AI Drawing Reviewers Have Started Absorbing Each Other Plangrep is joining Buildcheck nine months after Buildcheck's $5.9M seed. Terms were not disclosed — but which layer of the stack got bought says something about where the hard problem actually is. Hugo Pegley · Sep 8, 2026
Analysis Construction's AI Problem Is That Nobody Shares. Virginia Tech Is Building a Reddit for It. The Coalition for Smart Construction is building a digital commons where builders — especially small ones — can compare notes on technology they cannot individually afford to evaluate. Pilot testing starts in October. It is not an AI product, and that is rather the point. Hugo Pegley · Sep 2, 2026
Analysis Someone Stole a Payroll File From America's Largest Contractor. They Say They Also Took the Drawings. Turner Construction has notified 6,098 Californians that their SSNs and bank details were taken. The ransomware group claims it holds 27.2 terabytes including engineering documents and ITAR-restricted material — a claim Turner will not address, and one the industry should think hard about. Hugo Pegley · Aug 24, 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 McKinsey Says AI Could Automate 39% of Construction's Desk Work. Nine Percent of the Industry Uses AI Daily. Two credible July datasets point in opposite directions: a McKinsey study on how much of construction's nonphysical work AI could automate, and survey data showing single-digit daily use. Analysis of what the gap actually measures — and who it favors. Hugo Pegley · Jul 30, 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 The Camera That Never Blinks: How AI Safety Monitoring Is Changing Construction's Most Stubborn Problem Construction kills more workers than any other industry in the United States. A new generation of AI-powered computer vision tools promises to change that — by turning every camera on a job site into an always-on safety inspector. The technology is real. The adoption challenges are equally real. Hugo Pegley · Jun 12, 2026
Analysis AI Estimating Is Claiming 99% Accuracy. Here's What Contractors Actually Find The pitch is compelling: AI tools that complete takeoffs in hours, not days, with near-perfect accuracy on quantity counts. The reality is more complicated — and more interesting. A look at where AI estimating genuinely works, where it falls short, and what it means for the estimating profession. Hugo Pegley · Jun 12, 2026
