Build-out, Construction & Engineering

Quanta Services said earlier this month that it expects data center and technology customers to contribute about 18% of its 2026 revenue, up from roughly 10% a year earlier. The disclosure reinforces the company's AI-driven power theme and suggests its infrastructure business mix is tilting further toward large technology and AI-related power needs, potentially making those clients a bigger driver of future contract activity and backlog composition. The most relevant recent announcement remains Quanta's July 2026 guidance raise to US$39.3b to US$39.7b of revenue and US$1.74b to US$1.82b of net income, an outlook that already assumes strong execution on record backlog and contribution from acquisitions. Quanta's valuation has been flagged as stretched, and insiders have sold about US$123m of stock. The company's narrative projects $54.6 billion in revenue and $2.7 billion in earnings by 2029, requiring 18.4% yearly revenue growth and roughly a $1.4 billion earnings increase from $1.3 billion today, while some of the most optimistic analysts already assumed Quanta could reach about US$64.6b of revenue and US$3.2b of earnings by 2029.

IREN Chief Commercial Officer Kent Draper said at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles that the company operates as a vertically integrated AI cloud provider, delivering compute services through company-owned data center infrastructure. Speaking to NYSE Live, Draper said controlling the underlying physical assets lets IREN support customers across a range of AI workloads while expanding capacity to meet growing demand. He identified land, power, labor, supply chains and execution as the central challenges in scaling AI infrastructure, calling the addition of new capacity one of the most important issues facing providers. Draper also pointed to evolving financing markets and growing capital availability for compute and data center expansion, tied to customer commitments and changing financing structures. He cited manufacturing, research and development, drug discovery, enterprise operations and customer-facing technologies as expanding real-world use cases, and highlighted physical AI, including robotics and AI-enabled manufacturing, as an area attracting increased attention.

AZIO AI Holdings announced a power purchase and hosting agreement with Power Champion Investment Limited at its Atlas One compute infrastructure campus in South Texas. The deal establishes an initial contracted capacity of 10 megawatts, with expansion rights up to 50 MW, and at that initial capacity the company expects roughly $1.5 million in monthly capacity reservation charges, or $90 million over the five-year initial term, excluding electricity sales and additional services. Full expansion to 50 MW could generate approximately $450 million in capacity reservation charges over the same period. The agreement is the first hosting contract at Atlas One, a 548-acre campus designed for up to 500 MW of planned power capacity, where approximately 11 MW has been secured to date, including 6 MW currently activated. No capacity has yet been energized under the new agreement, expansion beyond the initial 10 MW has not been exercised, and service commencement remains subject to infrastructure development, required U.S. export control approvals and other contractual conditions.

KONST, a Taiwan-based next-generation AI compute operator, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by ADATA Technology, with strategic participation from MMobility, Pegatron Venture Capital, and several other corporate investors. The company said it will use the proceeds to scale up its AI data center buildout across Asia and accelerate its Token Factory strategy, which treats compute as production equipment and tokens as its output. That strategy rests on three layers: Konstra AI handles compute supply, from site selection and mechanical, electrical, and environmental control systems through GPU cluster tuning and operations; Glows.ai provides the conversion layer, breaking cluster compute into smaller units billed per second; and Horizon AI's (k) ATP Token handles governance and delivery, letting enterprises connect to every authorized model with a single project key and track usage through audit logs. KONST said the round's principal investors come from memory and storage, electrification solutions, and electronics manufacturing, while other participants span energy, semiconductors, and thermal management. Co-founder and chairman Ben Chang said the round is about more than the amount raised, adding that once AI becomes part of operations, computing power becomes essential infrastructure rather than a one-time project expense.

Bitdeer AI, part of Bitdeer Technologies Group, has entered a 10-year data center services agreement for A901, a 67MW AI Cloud data center campus in Malaysia. The campus becomes Bitdeer AI's third Malaysian hub alongside Cyberjaya and Johor and will be engineered for liquid-cooled, rack-scale NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 systems serving next-generation enterprise AI workloads. Delivery of A901 capacity is targeted to begin in the first quarter of 2027, with the full 67MW targeted for the second quarter of 2027. With the addition of the 67MW A901 campus, Bitdeer AI's secured AI Cloud data center capacity, meaning capacity owned or under an executed data center services agreement, totals approximately 273.5MW across facilities in Malaysia, Norway and the United States, or approximately 78% of its target of up to 350MW to be delivered by the first quarter of 2028. Bitdeer AI said its active pipeline for AI Cloud capacity is now estimated to exceed $10 billion, and Chief Financial Officer Michael G. Potter said demand for liquid-cooled, rack-scale AI capacity in Southeast Asia is running ahead of what the market can deliver.

Applied Digital beat Wall Street's revenue expectations in calendar Q3 2026, with sales up 322% year on year to $341.9 million against analyst estimates of $135.3 million. The digital infrastructure provider's non-GAAP loss of $0.01 per share was 96.7% above consensus, while adjusted EBITDA of $64.41 million beat estimates of $39.79 million at an 18.8% margin. Management attributed the quarter to rapid expansion of its AI-focused data center campuses in North Dakota, which delivered 150% more capacity year over year, and to a new long-term power purchase agreement with Base Electron securing 1,200 megawatts of natural gas generation. CEO Wes Cummins said the company expects approximately 250 megawatts of expansion leases to be executed by calendar year-end at materially higher pricing compared to prior leases. ChronoScale, in which Applied Digital holds a majority stake, announced a significant AI compute deployment with Microsoft, and the company entered Finland as a measured step into Europe with initial power available in 2028.

CoreWeave has entered India, announcing plans to develop 240 MW of AI data center capacity through a collaboration with AdaniConneX at its Taloja campus in Navi Mumbai. The initial deployment will consist of three 80 MW buildings, with CoreWeave serving as the sole tenant, and the campus has the potential to double capacity by another 240 MW, giving a possible total expansion opportunity of 480 MW. The first phase is expected to become operational in mid-2028, with additional capacity coming online in phases, and the project will deploy the NVIDIA Vera Rubin Platform. CoreWeave has been aggressively building a global footprint across North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific, including an entry into Indonesia in August, and has approximately 4.2 GW of contracted power as stated on its second-quarter earnings call. The India project fits into a broader strategy of securing power, building specialized data centers, deploying advanced NVIDIA hardware and providing AI infrastructure close to customers.

IES Holdings completed its acquisition of DBM Global for about $691 million on October 5, a deal that reshapes the contractor's business and financing profile as it competes with larger rival EMCOR Group in data-center construction. The consideration included $545 million of cash and 430,974 IES shares valued at roughly $146 million, with the cash portion funded by cash on hand and credit-facility borrowings, meaning June's debt-free balance sheet no longer describes the company. DBM adds structural steel engineering, fabrication and erection with about $1.5 billion of trailing revenue, and IES reported fiscal third-quarter revenue rose 40% to $1.24 billion, with communications revenue up 51% to $453.1 million. EMCOR, meanwhile, reported second-quarter revenue of $5.15 billion, up 19.8%, earnings of $9.06 per share, up 34.8%, and remaining performance obligations of $17.14 billion, up 43.9%, while raising full-year earnings guidance to $32 to $33.25 per share. At October 5 prices, consensus forward earnings multiples were about 22 times for EMCOR and 27 times for IES, though the IES figure may not reflect every acquisition effect.

Sterling Infrastructure shares have rebounded 12.2% over the past month, outpacing a 1.4% decline in the Zacks Engineering - R and D Services industry, a 3.2% dip in the Zacks Construction sector, and a 1.2% gain in the S&P 500. The rally is underpinned by the company's E-Infrastructure segment, where second-quarter 2026 revenues surged 192% year over year on mission-critical work including data centers and semiconductor campuses, with adjusted operating income up 148% and margins near 24%. Signed backlog reached $4.33 billion at June 30, 2026, up 116% year over year, while combined backlog rose 150% to $5.62 billion, and total visibility across signed backlog, unsigned awards, and future phases exceeded $7 billion. Second-quarter revenues rose 90% to $1.17 billion and adjusted earnings per share jumped 116% to $5.80, prompting the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 EPS to rise to $20.02 from $19.54 over the past 60 days. Risks remain in Transportation Solutions, where revenues fell 20% and full-year segment revenues are expected to decline 7-10%, and in Building Solutions, where revenues slipped 1% amid weak housing affordability.

Blackstone-backed data centre operator AirTrunk plans to invest $1 billion to expand its TOK1 campus in Inzai, Japan, as demand for infrastructure to support artificial intelligence workloads grows. The investment will support the deployment of liquid-cooling technology for AI workloads at TOK1, which has more than 300 megawatts of capacity. AirTrunk CEO Robin Khuda said geopolitical factors are driving more customers to Japan as a North Asian hub. Khuda also said AI infrastructure deployment is becoming more difficult in the U.S. and is already challenging in Europe, making Asia a major beneficiary.

Land and Houses Securities Public Company Limited rates Infraset Public Company Limited, or INSET, and WHA Utilities and Power Public Company Limited, or WHAUP, as poised for continued growth from the expansion of the Data Center business and rising production capacity, and sees them as stocks with catalysts from new investment projects in the period ahead. For INSET, the analyst maintains a buy recommendation with a target price of 5.25 baht, expecting profit in the second half of 2026 to accelerate steadily, particularly in the third quarter of 2026, which has the potential to grow both quarter on quarter and year on year. The key driver comes from the gradual recognition of revenue from six Data Center projects in hand, with a combined size of approximately 335 MW. At the same time, there is remaining revenue from the Trading business still to be recognized of about 290 million baht. INSET's latest backlog has risen to approximately 5.7 billion baht after securing additional new work, and the company is in the process of bidding on another four to five large projects with a combined value of approximately 10 billion baht. If it wins this work, it would be upside to the backlog and profit forecasts, and would help extend the growth of operating results into 2027. As for WHAUP, the analyst gives a buy recommendation with a target price of 8.80 baht and expects profit in 2026 and 2027 to grow outstandingly and continuously, driven mainly by revenue and capacity revenue from the water business, especially the increase in water usage from Data Center customers, as well as the recovery of the Gheco-One power plant and rising power generation capacity from Solar projects. In addition, WHAUP stands to benefit further from the new Power Development Plan through selection for new power plant projects, as well as opportunities from Direct PPA projects. For the profit trend in the third quarter of 2026, it is expected to be flat from the previous quarter, supported by the share of profit from the Gheco-One power plant, where losses from the coal business are likely to narrow, while water usage tends to increase in line with demand from petrochemical customers, together with the recognition of power generation capacity from new Solar projects providing additional support.

Yuanta Securities (Thailand) said the government is drafting the 14th National Economic and Social Development Plan for 2028-2032, which will take effect from October 2027, aiming to restructure the Thai economy and reduce constraints that hinder growth, in order to push economic expansion above 3% per year and set a goal for Thailand to rank among the world's top 20 in competitiveness by 2029. The plan is driven through five key areas, covering raising production efficiency and attracting new industries, reforming public administration toward OECD standards, upgrading human capital to support an aging society, turning natural resources and the environment into development capital, and investing in technology and innovation. A key shift from the 13th plan is the move away from designating target industries toward addressing structural constraints, through five pillars: Transform, Reform, Upgrade, Sustain, and Transfer. Yuanta's research team sees industries with a chance to benefit, including AI and data centers, electrical infrastructure, smart grid and smart meter, automated production systems, proactive water management, and digital infrastructure. The five stock groups expected to benefit are power plants, commercial banks, telecommunications, electronics, and construction contractors and building materials. Stocks that stand to gain include GULF, GUNKUL, GPSC, SSP, SCB, KTB, ADVANC, TRUE, SMT, and EPG.

The World Bank has raised its forecast for Thailand's GDP growth this year to 2% from 1.3%. TTBB Wealth Securities said the upgrade was driven by exports of AI-related goods and investment in data centers, which helped offset the impact of higher energy prices. For 2027 and 2028, Thailand's economy is expected to expand by 2.3% and 2.4%, respectively. Risks to watch include conflict in the Middle East, higher US import tariffs, a weak tourism sector, the effects of a severe El Niño that could hit farmers' incomes, and household debt as high as 87%. Although the upward revision to the GDP forecast is a positive factor, growth remains concentrated in only a few industries, so the research team is using a selective strategy, focusing on export groups with strong growth and groups that benefit from data center investment, namely DELTA, KCE, HANA, STECON, GULF, GUNKUL, BGRIM and GPSC.

Digital Realty announced the commencement of construction of KIX15, a new 24 megawatt data center at its KIX Campus in Ibaraki City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. The facility is being developed by MC Digital Realty, Digital Realty's 50/50 joint venture in Japan with Mitsubishi Corporation, and is scheduled to commence operations in the fourth quarter of 2028. KIX15 will be the fifth data center at the KIX Campus and, upon completion, will bring MCDR's Japan portfolio to 10 data centers representing approximately 220 MW of aggregate IT capacity. The expansion follows the opening earlier this year of the NRT14 Data Center in Inzai City, Chiba Prefecture, one of the first facilities in Japan to achieve the DGX-Ready Data Center certification. KIX15 is a key component of MCDR's Kansai AI Infrastructure Co-Creation Project and is designed to support hybrid air- and liquid-cooling technologies for hyperscalers, cloud service providers and companies deploying AI infrastructure.

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman said the massive capital flowing into AI infrastructure and data center construction is the only reason the U.S. economy is not in a recession. Speaking on the 'Newcomer' podcast released Friday, Hoffman said most of that capital does not go directly to areas where data centers are being built but is more distributed across the country, and he highlighted the work it provides for construction workers, carpenters, real estate agents, electricians and lawyers. He added that a massive percentage of the capital infusion is going toward data center construction, and said developers should work fairly with local communities so both sides benefit. The remarks come as Meta Platforms reportedly classified some AI data centers as pilot models to claim federal research tax credits, reducing its tax bill by $3.9 billion in 2025, and as Broadcom was reportedly assembling a $60 billion financing package to help Anthropic and other companies fund AI chip and infrastructure needs. AI skeptic Ed Zitron has warned that private credit funding the data center boom has become a brewing crisis, while Bill Gates said the world might need to experience serious AI-related problems before governments and the public fully address the technology's risks.

Tutor Perini Corporation announced that its subsidiary Fisk Electric Company has been awarded an electrical services contract worth approximately $24 million for a confidential data center customer in Houston, Texas. Fisk's scope covers prefabrication and assembly of modular containment systems and related electrical infrastructure, including liquid-cooled components and piping, for a new ground-up data center. Those units will be built at Fisk's new 75,000-square-foot prefabrication and manufacturing facility in Houston, which the company says positions it to serve a fast-growing prefabrication market driven by a nationwide shortage of electricians. Electrical construction work is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026, with substantial completion anticipated in the first quarter of 2027. The contract value will be reflected in Tutor Perini's backlog for the third quarter of 2026.

Arrow Syndicate Public Company Limited, or ARROW, is confident that its 2026 operating results will grow about 5% as targeted, even though the property market remains sluggish in the second half. Chief Executive Officer Panupong Wijittongrueang told the Stock Vision news team that third-quarter 2026 results will be close to projections, while the fourth quarter of 2026 is likely to grow compared with the same period last year, supported by strong performance in the first and second quarters of 2026. The company is in the process of bidding on new projects with a combined value of about 100 million baht, spread across several small to mid-sized projects ranging from about 3 million baht and 5 million baht up to 10 million baht per project. If it wins the work, it can begin delivering products immediately, helping support sales late in 2026 and continuing into the first quarter of 2027. At present, the company has an order backlog worth about 500 to 600 million baht. Data Center work is a key factor helping sustain revenue and offset the slowdown in the high-rise property market. The company expects demand for Data Center construction and expansion in Thailand to keep growing for at least two to three years, driven by the digital economy and artificial intelligence technology. At the same time, the company is monitoring public-sector infrastructure investment projects, especially airport expansion projects, to prepare for bidding and extend its backlog in the next phase. Its revenue structure is split into about 60% from sales through dealers and about 40% through contractors. Its standout products, or Hero Products, this year include the waterproof electrical conduit group and RTRC underground conduit, or Reinforced Thermosetting Resin Conduit. As for its growth target in 2027, the company is in the process of preparing its budget before presenting it to the board of directors' meeting.

Applied Digital has announced its first international expansion, securing up to 1 gigawatt of potential power capacity in Finland to develop a large-scale AI campus. The company said the move leverages Finland's favorable climate, energy ecosystem and connectivity to support hyperscale and AI applications, while it continues to concentrate on its U.S. projects. The agreement provides a pathway for future expansion in emerging European AI markets, with investment decisions based on customer demand and regulatory conditions to maintain disciplined capital deployment. Applied Digital last closed at $24.70, down 2.7%.

The World Bank raised its 2026 growth forecast for East Asia and the Pacific to 4.5%, up 0.3 percentage points from its prior estimate, citing strong global demand for AI-related hardware. The region's semiconductor, data-center component, and electronics producers are benefiting from the AI investment cycle, though growth is expected to moderate to 4.4% over 2026-2028. Separately, billionaire investor Ray Dalio warned that reduced demand for U.S. government debt from China and Japan could pressure the Treasury market, noting the U.S. depends on foreign capital for about one-third of its debt. Nokia CEO Justin Hotard told CNBC that data-center construction could advance twice as quickly if supply constraints were eased, saying the infrastructure buildout remains in its early stages. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a statewide disaster emergency as the state reported more than 100 measles cases, expanding vaccine administration to paramedics, advanced EMS providers, pharmacists, and midwives. The iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF has fallen to its lowest level relative to the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust on record, with the IYR-to-SPY total-return ratio reaching 0.122, according to Creative Planning's Charlie Bilello.

Nokia CEO Justin Hotard said the tech industry could build data centers twice as fast if not for supply constraints, telling CNBC that continued demand signals the AI buildout is still in its early days. "If we could build 2x faster, our customers could build 2x faster, they probably would," Hotard said, adding that he does not believe the industry is overbuilding. Nokia, one of the world's biggest telecommunications equipment makers, has pivoted into the AI infrastructure space, and its stock is up around 130% over the past year. Investments in the AI buildout, from data centers to chips and related infrastructure, will total $10.3 trillion from 2025 to 2032, an average of 3.63% of U.S. gross domestic product per year, according to research presented at the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. Hotard said demand is not solely dependent on frontier labs like Anthropic and OpenAI releasing new models, arguing that even without another frontier model in the next three years, deploying existing technology could yield tremendous progress.

Goldman Sachs said the short-term impact of rising political opposition to US data centers on rapid expansion will be limited, and its growth outlook through 2027 is broadly unchanged. In a report published on the 4th, the bank raised its forecast for US data center capacity at the end of 2026 by 5 gigawatts to 64 gigawatts, while cutting its forecast for the end of 2027 by 5 gigawatts to 90 gigawatts. It projected that US data center power demand will rise 38 percent, or 12 gigawatts, in 2026, and 38 percent, or 17 gigawatts, in 2027. Data centers provide the computing power needed to train and run artificial intelligence models, but they face resident opposition across the United States over concerns about local impacts such as power demand and utility bills. In a Reuters/Ipsos survey in June, only one-third of Americans supported the pace of construction, and just 14 percent said they supported construction in their own area. Goldman noted that public opinion has become even more negative, and that this backlash has become a political issue for Republicans ahead of the US midterm elections on November 3.

AM Intelligence has placed two further firm and binding orders for 20,000 NVIDIA Rubin GPUs, to be deployed as NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 rack-scale systems in Malaysia and India with delivery scheduled for Q2 2027. The follow-on capacity totals roughly 70 megawatts and comes on top of AMI's inaugural commitment announced on August 25, 2026, for 9,000 NVIDIA Rubin GPUs at its first AI Factory in Hyderabad. Taken together, the three orders bring AMI's committed frontier compute to approximately 29,000 Rubin GPUs and close to 100 MW of capacity, establishing AMI among the earliest and largest committed buyers of Rubin GPUs outside of North America. Those three orders represent the first committed tranche within AMI's roughly 400 MW global pipeline of Compute-as-a-Service capacity across India, the United States, Europe and Malaysia, with the balance under development for delivery in subsequent phases in 2027 and early 2028. AMI plans to bring an additional 300 MWs of capacity to market in the next 15 months, involving capital expenditure of more than $20+ billion in addition to the $6 billion already committed for the initial $100 MW, advancing its stated intention to bring 1 GW of Compute-as-a-Service capacity to global AI workloads within a broader programme of 5 GW of powered AI data centres across India, the United States and Europe.

Quanta Services raised its full-year 2026 free cash flow outlook to $2-$2.5 billion, alongside operating cash flow expectations of $2.9-$3.4 billion, after a strong first half. In the second quarter, Quanta generated operating cash flow of $1.10 billion and free cash flow of $886 million, bringing first-half free cash flow to $1.07 billion, sharply higher than $288 million in the comparable 2025 period. Management attributed the second-quarter strength partly to favorable working-capital dynamics, particularly from large-load and renewable projects, while days sales outstanding improved to 57 days. The outlook is underpinned by a record $53.4 billion backlog, expanding project activity and rising investment in electric grids, power generation, data centers and other mission-critical infrastructure. Quanta still expects roughly $900 million of net capital expenditures in 2026, and cash generation could fluctuate with project timing, working-capital requirements, acquisitions, weather, permitting, supply-chain issues, inflation and project execution. Quanta competes with MasTec and EMCOR Group across power, electrical and mission-critical infrastructure markets; MasTec reported negative $59 million of free cash flow in the second quarter, while EMCOR posted record remaining performance obligations of $17.14 billion.

Private infrastructure fundraising hit a record $250.70 billion globally in 2025, more than 150% above the prior year's $98.80 billion, as the artificial intelligence super-cycle pulls capital into the physical backbone of computing. Private equity investment in data centers alone reached $45.70 billion in 2025, the highest total in at least five years, and a typical global infrastructure fund's exposure to digital infrastructure has climbed from just 5% a decade ago to 25-30% today. Companies supplying that buildout have posted sharp gains: Quanta Services is up 60.3% year to date on 41% second-quarter 2026 revenue growth, Caterpillar has surged nearly 48% with a 24% rise in quarterly revenue, and Eaton has climbed 37% on 21% revenue growth. Bank of America analysts project the AI data center systems addressable market will reach $1.7 trillion by 2030 at a 45% CAGR. The iShares Global Infrastructure ETF attracted $1.485 billion in fund-level flows over the year ending August 2026, lifting its assets under management to roughly $10.1 billion.

Sterling Infrastructure is positioning its business mix toward higher-margin work, reporting an adjusted EBITDA margin of 22% in the second quarter of 2026, up 150 basis points year over year. E-Infrastructure's adjusted operating margin stood at 24%, with margins improving across both site development and electrical operations, though CEC's faster growth weighed on the consolidated rate because electrical margins remain below those of site development. CEC revenues increased 140%, while site development revenues more than doubled organically, and Sterling is moving resources away from lower-margin transportation work toward higher-margin E-Infrastructure projects. The company expects 300-500 bps of margin improvement at CEC over 12-18 months as it exits lower-margin legacy activities and benefits from larger data center projects and later-phase work. Sterling's 2026 and 2027 earnings estimates have moved upward over the past 60 days to $20.02 and $25.79 per share, implying year-over-year growth of 84% and 28.8%, respectively, while the stock trades at a forward 12-month price-to-earnings ratio of 22.75.

Comfort Systems USA reported second-quarter 2026 earnings per share of $12.53, up 92% year over year, as revenues climbed 50.3% to $3.27 billion, the first quarter the company surpassed $3 billion. Gross margin improved to 25.9% from 23.5% and operating margin expanded to 17.1% from 13.8%, while adjusted EBITDA surged 79.7% to $600.5 million. Backlog reached a record $14.06 billion, up 73% year over year, with same-store backlog up 69%, and technology accounted for 57.6% of first-half 2026 revenues. Management said hyperscaler demand remains strong with no signs of a slowdown, and the Modular business is expected to lift production capacity from more than 3.5 million square feet currently to more than 4 million by year-end and roughly 5 million by late summer 2027. Second-quarter operating cash flow reached $1.14 billion with free cash flow near $1 billion, and the company holds $1.85 billion of cash against just $54.1 million of debt.

TeraWulf said Monday it executed an amended and restated electric service agreement with Kentucky Power, an American Electric Power company, raising contracted power capacity at its Muskie Data Campus in eastern Kentucky from 500 megawatts to 1 gigawatt. The amendment moves planned delivery of Muskie's second 500 MW phase forward from 2030 to 2029, while the first 500 MW phase remains targeted to begin ramping in 2028. TeraWulf acquired Muskie in May 2026 for phased development as an AI and high-performance computing campus, and Kentucky Power is developing a 765-kV / 345-kV substation connected to the regional transmission network to serve the site. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Paul Prager said securing the next 500 MW and moving its planned delivery into 2029 gives the company greater flexibility to meet prospective customers' deployment needs. The company added that it continues to evaluate the campus's potential to support up to 2 GW over time, subject to additional utility planning, infrastructure, and agreements.

CIBC raised its price target on Enerflex to CA$30 from CA$27.50 after updating its model for a 450 MW behind-the-meter power generation award tied to a North American data center developer, while keeping a Neutral rating on the stock. The firm had already lifted its target to CA$30 in July 2026, and it cited strong Engineered Systems bookings and a modest EBITDA beat in the second quarter as positives supporting execution on the core business. CIBC noted that earlier weakness in the shares followed a lack of secured data center power generation bookings, which it believes pushed potential catalysts into later quarters. On the updated assumptions, Simply Wall St's fair value for Enerflex rose to CA$46.94 from CA$44.50, with revenue growth now 6.72% versus 3.39% previously, net profit margin at 8.64% versus 9.01%, a future P/E of 18.29x versus 17.87x, and a discount rate of 6.83% versus 6.68%.

Amazon is pledging to invest $1 billion into the communities surrounding its AI data centers, a move aimed at easing local opposition to the facilities. Matt Garman, who heads Amazon Web Services, laid out the commitment in a 3,000-word essay, saying the money will go toward things like building out schools in the communities where the company builds data centers. Garman also said Amazon will no longer ask communities to sign non-disclosure agreements, a practice some legislators have discussed banning by law. The discussion comes as state governors tout data centers as job creators, though critics note the facilities are labor-light once construction ends, leaving unions that represent electricians, plumbers, construction builders and HVAC workers supportive of the projects while communities question what remains afterward.

JERA, Japan's major power producer, announced a partnership with Dell Technologies and RHAELM, a UK-based AI infrastructure developer, to develop a Hyperscale AI Data Center project in Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo, valued at approximately 15 billion dollars, with a power capacity of about 400 megawatts. It is positioned as one of the largest single-site AI infrastructure projects in Japan. Meanwhile, Apollo Global Management plans to join as RHAELM's investment and financial partner. A key point of the project is that it will be developed on land adjacent to JERA's Chiba thermal power plant, with JERA providing the site and 400 megawatts of power under a long-term agreement of 15 to 25 years, while RHAELM is responsible for development, construction, management, and financing. Dell will supply rack-scale AI infrastructure. The project is scheduled to come online in phases starting in 2028 and is expected to use the full 400 megawatts of power by 2029. The three companies also aim to create a model that expands to other JERA power plant sites during the 2030s, with the goal of developing total data center capacity at the multi-gigawatt level across Japan.

Jacobs Solutions has been selected by NVIDIA to deploy its Data Center Digital Twin platform at a large U.S. research and development facility, sending the company's shares up 3.3% in the afternoon session. The work is a three-year SaaS agreement built on NVIDIA Omniverse libraries, under which Jacobs will use the digital twin to optimize energy demand, monitor operations, and balance power loads across the AI facility. The stock closed the day at $139.76, up 3.3% from the previous close. Jacobs Solutions is up 3.3% since the beginning of the year, but at $139.77 per share it is still trading 15% below its 52-week high of $164.44 from October 2025.

KGI Securities unveiled its top stock picks for October 2026, recommending accumulation of stocks in the private investment and data center themes, comprising DELTA, GULF, WHA, STECON and CENTEL. The research team believes the market in October is likely to rebound, as the market has already priced in much of the global economic risk, including uncertainty in the Middle East and surging bond yields in major markets worldwide. It expects the SET Index to recover, and sees a high chance the Fed will pause rate hikes temporarily after August core PCE came in below consensus. It also sees a fairly high possibility that the US and Iran will reach some form of ceasefire agreement soon. On domestic factors, the Thai government began rolling out the final phase of consumption stimulus measures today and will shift its focus to stimulating private investment, including PPP-model infrastructure projects and FDIs. As for STECON, it signed new project contracts worth 10 billion baht, equal to 20% of its 2026F target of 50 billion baht, lifting its backlog to 116.4 billion baht, and it expects to win another 70 billion baht in projects, mainly data centers and power plants. Meanwhile, GULF has identified data center demand of more than 2GW of capacity expected to secure Direct PPAs, and the PDP2026 plan is expected to add another 20-30GW of renewable energy capacity and another 20GW of gas-fired capacity. For CENTEL, the research team remains positive after updating information with management, noting that RevPAR booked in Q3/2026F recovered year-on-year by a mid-single-digit rate from -10% in Q2/2026, and is expected to improve further during the high season in Q4/2026F. The recommended portfolio for September fell 2.6%, underperforming the overall market, which declined 2.0%.

The United States Department of Commerce and the Government of the Republic of Korea have selected Related Companies and NextEra Energy Resources, in partnership with Lewis Energy Group, to develop Project Star, a $22.3 billion energy infrastructure campus in Encinal, Texas. The project will create 6.47 GW of natural gas generation to directly support an adjacent 5 GW digital infrastructure campus that Related Digital is developing, and will deliver excess power generation back to the grid. The investment is expected to create an estimated 8,400 jobs during peak construction and approximately 170 permanent jobs once operational, with the adjacent data center campus also creating hundreds of permanent jobs. The energy campus will be owned jointly by the Republic of Korea and the United States under the structure of the joint trade agreement, and will be built and operated by the Related and NextEra Energy Resources joint venture team, with Lewis Energy providing associated infrastructure including gas. The project is expected to be developed in phases, with initial generating resources anticipated to come online as early as 2029, subject to required permitting and approvals.