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AI infrastructure buildout is 'modern space race': Clayco CEO

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Big Tech companies like Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), and Meta (META) are spending billions on building out data centers to train and run AI. Clayco CEO Anthony Johnson — whose company constructs data centers — joins Catalysts with Madison Mills to discuss what he calls the "modern space race."

To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Catalysts here.

00:00 Speaker A

Well, Big Tech is pressing pause on some of its AI data center plans. Microsoft said it's slowing some of its construction projects. Well, recent report from Wells Fargo said Amazon Web Services was considering pulling back its spend. But that doesn't necessarily mean the AI spend itself is slowing. So far, both Amazon and Microsoft have stood by their 2025 CAPEX forecast, the two planning to spend a combined $180 billion. Joining us now with more context on how those AI data center dollars are being spent. We've got Anthony Johnson, CEO of Clayco. It's a construction firm specializing in data centers with clients including Google, AWS, and Microsoft. Anthony, great to speak with you here. Talk to me about what you are seeing in terms of this investment here. What are you seeing across your desk? Does it mirror some of the reporting that we've heard thus far in some of these earnings calls?

01:37 Anthony Johnson

Yeah, thank you. Good morning. Appreciate the chance to speak with you again. Um, happy to dive into that a little bit. I would say that what what we're hearing and seeing on a daily basis is, uh, you know, continues to be incredible demand for growth in this space. Um, I think you can kind of relate the data center expansion to other industries over time to where neither the industries trajectory nor the individual companies within that industry, their their business plans, their trajectories, they're not always exactly linear. Their plans change over time, they need to adopt. New technologies are introduced, which which causes the time to maybe shift or adjust your plans. And so that happens on an individual company basis all the time. But the industry as a whole remains very, very strong, and we're seeing nothing but continued growth trends in the business.

02:58 Speaker A

Yeah, and to what extent are you monitoring what you're hearing in terms of CAPEX this earnings cycle? Obviously, Alphabet was the first of your clients that we listed, and and they did mention that they are maintaining their CAPEX spend. Does that match with what you're hearing about in terms of CAPEX? Are you even hearing about a potential growth in CAPEX moving forward?

03:34 Anthony Johnson

Yeah, you know, largely what what we see in here mirrors what you see in the in the public announcements in terms of what each company's individual goals are. Um, and as we, you know, look across the pipeline of of prospects as well, it's it's really not even just the the big, you know, hyperscalers, the big names you're showing on the screen here as well. There's other, uh, players that are in the space. There's also the quantum computing side of things that are that is continuing to to grow exponentially. So we we're really excited for all the continued trends in the business.

04:24 Speaker A

And and I I wonder too, when you think about those trends in the business, I I want to talk a little bit about investment in domestic infrastructure. Obviously, this is something the Trump administration wanted from the big tech companies. We've seen 500 billion from the likes of Nvidia, now an additional 150 billion from the likes of IBM. How do you see these investments impacting the ability for these firms to meet growing demand and therefore increase profits?

05:02 Anthony Johnson

It is truly a modern space race we're kind of in the midst of right now. No question. It is uh, it is there's there's a lot of new capital coming to the space to be deployed, which is exciting. Uh, that introduces, you know, new resources. It introduces an additional level of speed that we may not have otherwise had. Um, really the the, you know, with the support of the the government and and big investment from and support from that standpoint, that just adds further fuel to this this growth fire. Um, what what we really see as as the constraints in the industry are how fast can we get power? And um, you know, that's that's a constant puzzle that's changing that we're helping companies look uh, throughout the United States of, you know, weighing their options and finding sites that either have existing power or can be modified and and um, you know, how fast can that happen? How fast can new infrastructure be built with a utility company? How fast can that infrastructure be actually fabricated by the companies who make turbines and and things like that? So it's really a mad dash of pulling together, um, all different types of energy providers, um, renewable sector, solar specifically, natural gas, um, uh, obviously nuclear is a big part of the conversation today and and you know, repurposing some of those facilities to support this rapid growth. So as we look at our business as a whole, um, you know, we're not just, you know, needing to provide assistance on the construction of these facilities. It's really leveraging the full vertical integration of our enterprise, which includes, um, on the real estate side helping our owners find powered sites, on the design engineering side helping to get these facilities built for the the newest modern technology. And then obviously on the construction side, the delivery. And, you know, one of the bigger challenges that we're working with our customers to overcome right now is is also the labor side of things. The explosive growth in this and the need for skilled trades. And so that all encompassing solution is what our customers are really looking for to help achieve that exponential growth rate in this constrained environment.

08:16 Speaker A

All right, Anthony, we got to run. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

08:21 Anthony Johnson

Thank you.