The era of the data center will dwarf the skyscraper era

You might say that data centers are the skyscrapers of our era. Of course, data centers are not tall like skyscrapers, (data centers are no more than three stories), but they are the mega-projects of this era, gobbling up millions of acres, gigawatts of power, and billions of dollars, while stretching the limits of technology. Worldwide, as of August 2025, the number of data centers is estimated to be around 11,800 to 12,000, depending on how you define ‘data center.’ In the United States, the number is approximately 5,400 to 5,426, making it the country with the highest concentration globally. They can cost roughly the same as skyscrapers.

The tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa in Dubai, cost $1.5 billion and took five years to build its 163 floors with 3.3 million square feet. The Microsoft Des Moines Data Center Campus cost roughly the same, about $1.3 billion, occupying about 1 million square feet, but it was fully constructed in 24 months. Meanwhile, you could build more than one Burj Khalifa compared to the Switch Citadel Campus in Nevada, a hyperscale data center. Estimated to cost $10 billion at full build out, the Switch will occupy 7.2 million square feet, with full development in five to 10 years. Global expansion of data centers could hit $1.8-6.7 trillion by 2030, dwarfing historical dam investments (U.S. dams totaled about $2 trillion over a century) or skyscraper eras. Large data centers employ up to 1,000 people, largely in security and maintenance related tasks. Google data centers, for example, have six layers of the highest tech security, employing about 800 people. The challenge is in powering the giant facilities full of thousands of servers. Hundreds of acres of solar panels often power the facilities, with small contained nuclear projects in planning.