The largest construction boom in a generation is underway, but it's not where you'd expect. While traditional manufacturing struggles, investment is pouring into semiconductor plants ($113B) and data centres ($40B) - the infrastructure of the digital economy.
This transformation reveals how manufacturing itself has been redefined. President Trump's tariffs aimed to restore America as a manufacturing nation once again. And by one measure, they're succeeding, it's just not in the way anyone expected.
The factories capturing billions in investment don't produce cars or steel. They produce computing power. A modern data centre employs 50 people where an auto plant would employ thousands. Traditional manufacturing executives report six straight months of contraction, citing tariff pressures and uncertainty.
America is indeed building factories again. They just happen to be factories where the assembly line is a server rack, and the output is measured in teraflops rather than tonnes.
What are your thoughts?
Music: Fun While It Lasted by Emil Axelsson, Epidemic Sounds
