Data Center Spending Surpasses Housing, Investor Daniel Kaufman Calls for Integrated AI Campuses

U.S. spending on information processing equipment reached $752 billion in the second quarter, edging past real private residential fixed investment of $748 billion, according to federal data reported by Fortune on Sept. 20. The milestone marks the first time computing investment has exceeded housing investment, with residential investment down 18% from its early 2021 peak while computing spending is up 51%.

Investor Daniel Kaufman, founder of the permanent capital holding company Kaufman & Company, said Wednesday that this shift should change how AI campuses are built, with housing for the people who run them planned from the start instead of left to chance.

“For the first time, this country is putting more money into the machines that run AI than into the homes people live in,” Kaufman said. “I’m not here to fight that capital. We develop data centers ourselves. But every campus needs electricians, operators and their families living within a reasonable drive, and right now almost nobody is budgeting for those homes. That is how you lose a town hall, and it’s how you lose a workforce.”

The announcement comes as backlash to data centers grows. In Utah, residents are challenging a county’s approval of a $10 billion data center campus, and El Paso adopted new rules for data centers this summer. These local tensions highlight the need for developers to address community concerns, particularly around land use and infrastructure.

Kaufman & Company has a stake on both sides of the trade. ServerDomes Global, a Kaufman Ventures portfolio company, announced plans in July for geodesic dome data centers in Utah and El Paso, Texas, including an El Paso site spanning 24,000 acres. The company has said the domes are designed to use about 90% less water than conventional facilities. On the housing side, the platform includes DK Homes, Design Build Affordable and the factory built Mr Good Container Homes, and works with Oldivai, an aligned, independently led workforce housing partner.

“Communities are right to ask what they get in return for hosting this infrastructure,” Kaufman said. “Our answer is that we don’t want a blighted site with a fence around it. We want to build housing and other uses around the domes, and we want the people who keep those buildings running to be able to live near them. An investor who treats the housing as somebody else’s problem is going to find the power, the permits and the people all harder to get.”

The implications for Texas are significant. As El Paso emerges as a key location for data center development, the integration of workforce housing could serve as a model for other Texas communities facing similar growth. By aligning housing with AI infrastructure, developers can mitigate local opposition, ensure a stable workforce, and create more sustainable economic development. Kaufman & Company’s approach, backed by more than 25 years of real estate experience and over $2 billion in project value, suggests that the future of AI campuses may depend on building both the technology and the homes to support it.