When he joined the Midwest’s largest contractor 17 years ago, Anthony Johnson thought the move to Clayco’s St. Louis office would be temporary — a five-year stop before returning to Minnesota.
Instead, the energy and excitement of the organization turned five years into nearly two decades, a tenure during which Johnson helped drive Clayco’s growth into a leader in advanced manufacturing and data center construction.
Now, close to 20 years later, Johnson has taken the helm as CEO of Chicago-based Clayco.
His move to the top role aligns with the launch of Clayco Compute, a dedicated business unit focused on high-tech construction projects. The new division positions Clayco firmly within the advanced technology construction sector, including the ongoing data center construction boom.
That boom shows no signs of slowing. For example, a joint venture among OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle announced a $500 billion initiative at the White House on Tuesday to accelerate AI infrastructure development. The plan includes the construction of up to 20 data centers by 2028.
Here, Johnson talks with Construction Dive about the vision behind Clayco Compute, challenges in hyperscale facility construction and how the company plans to lead in an increasingly competitive market.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
CONSTRUCTION DIVE: How does the launch of Clayco Compute help build on the firm’s work in advanced technology construction?
ANTHONY JOHNSON: We are already a top five builder of data centers in the U.S., with 57 active projects nationwide with the largest hyperscale and tech companies. In 2024 alone, our data center projects generated $3.6 billion in revenue, which accounted for half of our total revenue last year and was more than double the revenue we generated from data center construction in 2023. And we anticipate revenue from data center construction to reach over $4.6 billion by 2026, so we are clearly talking about a high growth, high potential, extremely competitive sector.
The hyperscale data center market is projected to grow 10% to 20% annually in the next five years, and at Clayco, many of the projects in our pipeline for 2025 are mission critical, technical projects like hyperscale data centers, quantum computing and advanced manufacturing facilities.
Establishing Clayco Compute as a dedicated business unit allows us to both be hyper-focused on these types of projects while differentiating ourselves in terms of the unique expertise and services that we bring to clients.
What led to the decision to establish Clayco Compute as a dedicated business unit rather than continuing advanced technological construction within the existing structure?
As much as we’ve already worked in the data center and quantum computing space, there’s still a tremendous amount of opportunity for us to build both in terms of projects and as an organization in this sector. We like to lean into markets like advanced technological construction where we can differentiate ourselves, and the launch of Clayco Compute is our first step towards that.
Anthony Johnson
Permission granted by Clayco
Our vertically integrated platform is what really sets Clayco Compute apart and provides clients with enhanced capabilities that our competitors simply don’t have. Clayco Compute offers a turnkey, full-service design-build solution for clients. Not only are we a construction firm, but our platform offers architecture, design, engineering, real estate development and self-performance capabilities.
Clayco Compute will combine our industry-leading expertise with our proven track record of execution and meeting the toughest challenges of our clients. Creating this dedicated business unit will allow us to sharpen our focus to better serve our clients and help them achieve their goals.
With data center construction growing rapidly, what challenges do you see in meeting the demands of these hyperscale projects?
The biggest issue we’re facing is that the demand for data centers and quantum computing facilities is outpacing the growth and supply of transmission and power generation, and our clients are constantly asking us to help them solve their energy challenges.
One of our biggest priorities is to address those issues through renewables and other power generation solutions like large utility scale builds and developments or microgrid solutions. We will be working on expanding those capabilities in the near term.
How are interest rates and inflation impacting project planning and execution in the data center construction sector?
The demand for these kinds of projects is massive, so I don’t anticipate financial constraints having much of an impact on data center construction.
In reality, there is a race going on right now to get these facilities built.
On one hand, you have the biggest hyperscalers and tech companies racing with each other to get these facilities built to keep up with demand and provide a competitive advantage. On the other hand, there is also a race going on from a national security perspective between the U.S. and the rest of the world to determine who is the technological leader in terms of computing and artificial intelligence.
The main bottleneck for these projects comes down to energy and power challenges, and I think that is the biggest issue to overcome more than any financial constraints.
Any other trends around data center construction you think are important to mention?
I think it is important to stress what a game changer AI has been in this sector. The market was already very hot, but AI has not only caused demand to explode but has changed where that demand can be deployed. New geographies are being created outside of the typical regional clusters that the cloud industry served.
But again, high density AI deployments require a lot of energy. We have great relationships with utility companies across the country, which allows us to help our clients find sites that work best for them and meet the needs of their project.
But by the same token, we also want to be good stewards of the environment, and it is important to be able to deliver the energy that these projects need in an environmentally friendly way. We’re working to solve these challenges through sustainable design practices, sustainable construction practices, all while developing renewable energy sources.
Ultimately, the biggest trend and challenge of the sector is meeting the demand for AI and quantum computing — and the energy and power those facilities require — in a sustainable way. And with our vertically integrated platform, Clayco Compute is perfectly positioned to deliver these solutions to our clients.
