Hyperscalers are on pace to spend somewhere between $630 billion and $690 billion on data center capital expenditure in 2026 alone, part of a build-out PwC projects could total $31.6 trillion globally through 2050. Every one of those dollars eventually needs a person to pull the wire, run the duct, and commission the cooling system, and that is where the story most coverage misses actually lives.
The Trillion Dollar Headline Has a Staffing Problem
The data center construction industry is facing a projected shortfall of 439,000 to 499,000 workers as of 2026, a gap that only widens from here: roughly 41 percent of the current construction workforce is expected to retire by 2031, and nearly 20 percent of the existing workforce is already over 55. Electricians are the most acute bottleneck. The industry needs more than 300,000 new electricians over the next decade, but only about 20,000 enter or complete training annually against that need, and nearly 30 percent of union electricians are already between 50 and 70 years old. HVAC and liquid cooling technicians are close behind, as AI-driven rack densities push cooling requirements the existing workforce was never trained to handle at this scale.
Where That Workforce Actually Operates From
None of these trade contractors run their business out of the hyperscale campus itself. They run it out of small-bay industrial space nearby, typically 2,000 to 10,000 square feet with dock access and enough power to run their own equipment, vehicles, and materials storage. This is the space category actually absorbing the labor demand the data center headlines create, and it is structurally undersupplied. Small-bay industrial vacancy sits at 4.2 percent, well below the 7.4 percent vacancy in large-scale industrial space. Rents are up more than 40 percent since 2020, with some Southeast markets seeing increases near 100 percent. Properties under 150,000 square feet made up 62 percent of all industrial sales in the second quarter of 2025, with small-bay deals in the $5 to $25 million range totaling nearly $5.9 billion in that quarter alone, and average sale prices up 55 percent since 2020 to roughly $104 per square foot.
The Asset Class Underneath the Headline Asset Class
Data centers get the press releases. Small-bay industrial gets the electricians, the HVAC contractors, and the local trade businesses that keep growing as long as the data center build-out, the reindustrialization push, and the manufacturing investment already underway in this region continue. It is a slower, less glamorous demand driver than a hyperscale campus announcement, and that is exactly why it is underpriced relative to what it is actually capturing.
Why This Belongs in the Buy Box
We are not underwriting a bet that AI infrastructure spending continues at its current pace forever. We are underwriting the fact that whatever pace it runs at, the trade contractors building and maintaining it need somewhere ordinary and unglamorous to park a truck and run a business, and that space is in short supply everywhere, including here.
Draymoor Ventures is seeking cash-flowing workforce multifamily, sized between 4 and 70 units, across the Indianapolis, Columbus, and Louisville metros, priced to work on today's rent roll rather than tomorrow's projection.
If your property already houses the people keeping this region's freight and manufacturing base running, we want to understand the deal.
Share an opportunity: Steven@DraymoorVentures.com
Sources
iRecruit, "Data Center Construction Labor Market Report." https://www.irecruit.co/insights/data-center-construction-labor-market-report
CRE Daily, "Small-Bay Industrial Growth Driving Demand Across US Markets." https://www.credaily.com/briefs/small-bay-industrial-growth-driving-demand-across-us-markets/
Futurum Group, "AI Capex 2026: The $690B Infrastructure Sprint." https://futurumgroup.com/insights/ai-capex-2026-the-690b-infrastructure-sprint/
PwC, "Global Investment in AI Infrastructure to Hit US$31.6 Trillion Through 2050." https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/news-room/press-releases/2026/global-investment-in-ai-infrastructure.html