The AI boom has turned yesterday’s “white space” into tomorrow’s “data fab,” a hyper-efficient production line for tokens and insights. Like chip fabs before them, data centers in the AI era are becoming highly specialized factories where, instead of semiconductor chips, the fabrication plant makes the tokens and insights that drive AI value. Over the next five years, rack power densities will triple, grid bottlenecks will deepen, and speed-to-capacity will decide who captures the surge in AI demand. To thrive, operators must industrialize the last untouched construction frontier: the data hall itself.
The Density Reversal: 80/20 → 20/80
Early cloud builds devoted roughly 80 percent of the floor area to IT gear and just 20 percent to supporting plant. AI and HPC flip that ratio: Mechanical and electrical infrastructure will soon swallow most of a data center’s square footage. What used to be called “white space” will soon be a very small portion of the overall data center. Hyperscale roadmaps already cite 30–60kW as “mainstream” racks, with prototypes from the likes of NVIDIA’s Rubin Ultra exceeding 600kW. The power, cooling, and network systems supporting that level of performance absorb a lot of space.
Liquid cooling solutions are racing to keep pace with the increases in heat density. Analysts like Research Nester forecast a leap from three billion USD in 2022 to 230 billion USD by 2035 (a CAGR above 25 percent) as direct-to-chip and immersion cooling systems become default choices. For executives, the message is stark: Air is out, and liquid is table stakes.
Time-to-Tokens: The New ROI Clock
AI economics live on time-to-tokens, a measure of how fast a GPU cluster starts generating revenue. Yet construction delays plague nine of ten data centers, stretching schedules by 34 percent on average, according to Foresight Works’ co-founder Atif Ansar in a recent interview. Even as far back as 2023, analysts from CBRE and TD Securities have been pointing to power-availability queues of two to seven years across 22 US markets. Meanwhile, the US construction sector must attract 439,000 extra workers in 2025 just to meet baseline demand, according to Associated Builders and Contractors.
Every lost month erodes net-present value; factory-built modules recapture it. Modular construction and prefabrication trim 30–50 percent from delivery cycles, according to the Modular Building Institute and others. Speed wins the capital war.
Modularization and Off-Site Fabrication
Multiple analysts report global spend on modular data centers will soar from 29.93 billion USD in 2024 to 79.49 billion USD in 2030—a 17.7 percent CAGR.
Three forces drive adoption:
- Labor Risk – Factory assembly shifts work to controlled environments, which reduces on-site exposure and eases skilled-trade shortages.
- Quality and Commissioning – Skids and enclosures ship factory-tested, which slashes punch-list churn and start-up surprises.
- Grid Uncertainty – Prefabricated 1MW–5MW blocks let owners stage capacity in lockstep with scarce utility feeds.
Early studies show the potential in terms of 47 percent less site labor and a 22-day shave in functional testing versus stick-built halls. When offsite fabrication becomes the norm, cost efficiencies will begin to accrue and it’s likely that the industry will never look back.
Power and Cooling Innovation
Take a moment to stop and really think about the future we are entering today. It’s not science fiction. In fact, judging by the past two years or so, some of these assertions may be understatements. Imagine this world and consider whether your organization is ready. What about partners and suppliers?
- Liquid Everywhere: Seventy-three percent of new AI facilities now deploy direct-to-chip or immersion cooling. Rack power densities of 130kW will be mainstream by 2027; liquid’s 3,000× thermal efficiency over air makes it inevitable. Designs and planning must either lean into this approach or be pulled along.
- On-Site Generation: AI demand and grid limits are driving on-site power solutions. Cooling and computing consume near equal shares of the power load. Site select ion is now far more than land, power availability, water, and network. Thinking outside this old box is the new norm.
- AI-Driven Optimization: With real-time telemetry from sensors embedded across white space, AI and ML algorithms are now being used to optimize airflow, fan speeds, cooling setpoints, and even workload placement. This dynamic optimization isn’t just fine-tuning—it’s unlocking efficiency gains and resiliency at scale. Major operators are already embracing these strategies to reduce energy consumption and get ahead of operational drift.
- Energy Storage: Data centers are moving toward deploying large Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) onsite to reinvent backup power and improve efficiency. Unlike diesel generators, BESS can respond in milliseconds, smoothing out power load spikes and providing a fast demand response to bridge power gaps. Strategically placed batteries also help stabilize the grid by maintaining frequency and offsetting renewable intermittency, all while ensuring uninterrupted service for the data center.
The Labor Paradigm Shift
As liquid cooling gains ground, we may not see any relief from today’s electrician shortage, but we will begin to see a hockey stick rise in the demand for precision piping talent. Modular plants magnify that trend by concentrating high-skill welding and brazing under one roof while sites become plug-and-play assembly lines.
Risk and Asset-Lifecycle Economics
Five-year GPU refresh cycles collide with 20-year real-estate depreciation. Modular halls could let owners swap 5MW blocks rather than gut-renovate entire buildings, thus aligning asset life with silicon cadence and easing capital write-offs.
Five Board-Level Questions for 2025
- What is our plan for scalable, modular white space integration?
- What is our month-by-month plan to shrink time-to-tokens?
- Do we control on-site or adjacent power options?
- Does our energy management strategy optimize for AI and BESS?
- Are our contracts and depreciation schedules ready for modular swap-outs?
These are the kinds of questions boards are starting to ask as the modular future takes shape. The goal isn’t just faster capacity—it’s also about enabling innovation, improving cost predictability, and supporting long-term growth. Infrastructure service providers like Compu Dynamics are helping operators navigate that shift with clarity and confidence.
Conclusion
AI has shattered the slow-build paradigm. In the new order, industrialized white space is the critical path. Operators that embrace modular fabrication, liquid thermodynamics, and agile power strategies will ride the AI wave. Those who cling to stick-built tradition risk obsolescence. Prefabrication has swallowed the entire data center construction industry, and the data hall is now the factory floor. It is time to build like it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steve Altizer has nearly four decades of experience building some of the world’s most sophisticated government and commercial facilities. In 2002, Altizer founded the Andrew Browning Group (now Compu Dynamics). Prior to that, he served as a senior executive with several nationally ranked general and mechanical contractors.
Throughout his career, he has been a student of and thought leader in the technology and science behind today’s modern building environments. This interest has naturally led to an affinity for clients whose requirements drive them toward facilities that are smart, clean, safe, reliable, and secure. His focus for the last 25 years has been exclusively on data centers ranging in size from 20kW to over 100MW. Altizer earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA, both from the University of Virginia.
