News
Eaton forecasts U.S. data center capacity pipeline to reach 200 GW by 2030 amidst power and permitting constraints
Tuesday, February 3, 2026 at 01:14 PM
Eaton reports that planned U.S. data center capacity has increased to 165-200+ GW through 2030, up from a previous estimate of 100 GW. The company expects data center construction to hit a bottleneck of approximately 17 GW per year by 2026 due to permitting and power availability constraints, compared to the previous 11 GW per year average.
Context
Eaton is experiencing a surge in data center demand as Q4 orders skyrocketed 200% year-over-year, driven by the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure. The company’s order mix is shifting to a 50/50 split between traditional cloud and AI for 2025, with AI workloads significantly increasing hardware intensity. With a $3 trillion mega project backlog and U.S. data center construction pipelines now equaling 11 years of build rates at 206 GW, Eaton has secured unprecedented multi-year revenue visibility through 2026 and beyond.
To capitalize on this shift, Eaton is acquiring Boyd to provide specialized liquid cooling for Nvidia’s next-generation, high-heat chips. This move targets the "inner loop" of thermal management, including cold plates and manifolds, which is expected to increase Eaton’s dollar-per-megawatt content from $2.9 million to $3.4 million. As major hyperscalers reconfirm aggressive 2026 CapEx plans, Eaton is successfully pivoting from a general power utility provider to a critical high-margin specialist in the AI hardware supply chain.
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