THE WEEKLY ROUNDUP
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Everyone Wants In on Power, Including Foreign Hackers: Who's Guarding the Grid?
This week: Data center landlords can't lease space fast enough; JE Dunn just stood up a dedicated power generation unit to chase the same demand, and the feds took down a China-backed hacking network that spent years inside U.S. infrastructure. Plus, reads on the rising construction costs, venture capital, and the budget fight in Washington.
TOP HEADLINES
Data Center Vacancies Hit Record Low Despite Building Boom
CBRE's latest report found data center construction rose almost 25% in the first half of 2026 across major U.S. markets, yet power vacancy fell to a record low 1.4%. Landlords are leasing space faster than developers can build it, and Atlanta has now overtaken Northern Virginia as the top market for new construction. Read more
JE Dunn Bets on a Power Generation Boom
JE Dunn Construction launched a dedicated power generation unit within its advanced technology group, tapping longtime project engineer Ryan Wilson to lead it. The Kansas City builder points to AI infrastructure growth, manufacturing onshoring, and an aging power fleet as the forces driving demand for new generation capacity. Read more
Feds Dismantle China-Backed Hacking Network Tied to Infrastructure
The FBI and DOJ seized domains linked to a China-backed hacking operation, known as QTFY, that spent years targeting power companies, telecom firms, hospitals, and other critical infrastructure providers, along with federal agencies including the Department of Energy. Investigators say the group exploited software vulnerabilities to steal credentials and maintain long-term network access. Read more
BEST MOMENT THIS WEEK
Klas Berghede has spent nearly two decades watching construction repeat itself: every project starting from zero, every hard-won lesson lost the moment the job wraps. Asked why the industry can't seem to compound its own knowledge, he put it bluntly:
"Our industry has this remarkable own definition of insanity that we essentially start over on every project and we think miraculously that we will get better than last time we did it."
It's a line that reframes construction's productivity problem as a memory problem and sets up his real optimism: that AI's biggest prize isn't robots on site but finally closing the learning loops so no one ever has to do the same thing twice from scratch.
3 READS AND WATCHES
Contractors Are Running Out of Room to Absorb Costs. JLL says copper is up 36%, aluminum 45%, and steel 27% year over year, with contractors running out of margin to absorb it. CRE Daily
Venture Money Is Flowing Again, Just Not Evenly. Fresh venture rounds from fintech to space to cybersecurity landed this week, with investors increasingly pairing debt and equity. A read on shifting capital discipline. TechStartups
Congress Buys Time on the Budget. The House passed a stopgap bill funding federal agencies through December 11, avoiding a shutdown that would have hit contractors on public and defense work. Reuters via Investing.com
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