Data Centers a Goldmine for Commercial Contractors (If You Can Land the Gig)

AI, cloud, streaming, remote everything, all of it lives on servers. And those servers don’t run without HVAC, power, maintenance, and control systems that work flawlessly.

According to CBRE, 2.3 gigawatts of new supply are under construction in North America alone, and demand is still outpacing supply. The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects global data center electricity use will double by 2030.

Microsoft plans to invest $80 billion in AI-related data centers in 2025

Google’s allocating $75 billion for cloud infrastructure.

Amazon is investing $100 billion to expand hyperscale data centers.

There’s a wave of money flowing into data centers. And contractors who can prove they're ready are in line for some of the most valuable service work in the industry.

Frankly, this surge couldn’t come at a better time.

Commercial real estate isn’t bouncing back the way people hoped. Office vacancies are up across the country. Leasing activity is down. Owners are pulling back on capex because tenants aren’t renewing. The entire space is in retreat.

Data centers don’t just fill the void. They present a once-in-a-generation opportunity. One we haven’t seen since the dot-com boom... if ever.

With this much money in play, it’s no wonder contractors want in. One maintenance contract alone could be a game-changer.

There’s no standardized benchmark for what a data center service agreement is worth. But look at the size of the investments and what’s at stake if something fails, and you start to get the picture.

Just one example: A 100-acre AI data center project in Utah just secured $2 billion in financing.

Service and maintenance on sites like this aren’t side gigs. They’re recurring, critical, and fully embedded in operations.

Become the go-to shop for just one of these facilities, and it can reshape your entire revenue model.

But with great demand comes even greater expectations.

Data centers don’t tolerate downtime. They don’t want excuses. And they don’t give second chances. Response times are tighter. Inspections happen on a tight cycle. Every visit has to be logged, verified, and backed by documentation that holds up under scrutiny.

You either show up with your crew trained, your paperwork clean, and your systems dialed in, or you don’t get the work. Period.

The owners and operators running these sites are asking smarter questions than most contractors are prepared for. They want to know:

Can your techs work on this exact equipment, or are you hoping they can figure it out on-site?
What’s your protocol for dispatching qualified people at off-hours?
How fast can you prove something got done without having to dig through texts or emails?

They’re not asking these questions because they love process. They’re asking because they’ve seen what happens when the wrong shop gets the job.

The good news is it’s not always the biggest firms getting the work. It’s the contractors who:

Already know what systems are on site.
Can map their techs’ certs to the equipment.
Show documentation not as a checkbox, but as a way of doing business.

At BuildOps, we work with a lot of contractors ahead of the curve. Here’s what they’ve shared:

Don’t wait for the RFP. Start with outreach: LinkedIn, AFCOM, 7x24 Exchange, and retrofit projects. Look for titles like Critical Infrastructure Manager or Facility Director before a bid ever drops.
Know the data center types:

Enterprise (Visa, hospitals): private, controlled, security-focused

CoLo (like QTS): multi-tenant, uptime-driven

Hyperscale (Google, AWS): invite-only unless you’re already in

Know the certs that matter: You don’t need to overhaul your business. But you do need:

Manufacturer certs (Liebert, Stulz, Daikin, etc.)

OSHA 10/30 and a clean EMR

Cyber + umbrella insurance (expect $5M+ if automation is involved)

- Rapid-response capability (2–4 hour SLAs are standard)

Data centers are shaping up to be the single most important growth path for contractors in the next decade.

Want the work? Know the tech. Know your team. Know how to prove your value. Because this opportunity isn’t slowing down. And it’s not going to wait for you to catch up.