TheJobWalk E.50

Welcome to this week’s edition of TheJobWalk! AWS and OpenAI join forces in a $38B AI infrastructure partnership, while DataBank’s Red Oak campus gains momentum in DFW. Meta keeps building their $800M Texas data center, CNH Industrial commits $5B to US manufacturing, and Amazon officially opens its $11B “Project Rainier” data center. Meanwhile, the Carolina Panthers select builders for their $800M stadium renovation. Big tech, big builds, and even bigger ambition. Let’s dive in!

NEWS
Amazon Opens $11B “Project Rainier” Data Center

Amazon has officially opened "Project Rainier," a large-scale AI data center campus located in New Carlisle, Indiana. This $11 billion investment marks one of Amazon Web Services' most significant infrastructure expansions to date, designed specifically to support the growing demands of AI model training and deployment.

The 1,200-acre facility currently houses approximately 500,000 Trainium 2 chips, Amazon's custom-built AI training processors. Capacity is expected to scale to over 1 million chips by the end of the year. The data center will support model training and inference for major AWS clients, including Anthropic’s Claude AI models.

Construction of the data center began back in 2024, due to NDA’s the contractors, both general and specialty, have not been named. 

TheJobWalk’s got eyes on this too...

📰 CNH Industrial Invests $5B for Manufacturing(Reuters)
📰 First Automation Robots Go Into Production(Rockwell)
📰 OpenAI Expands Project Stargate(OpenAI)
📰 Turner Completes $490M Renovation(Turner)
📰 Vantage Data Centers Appoints New CCO(Vantage)

PROJECTS
Build of The Week

$800M Carolina Panthers Stadium Renovation

At the end of last month, it was announced that Clark Construction Group & D.A. Everett Construction Group will be leading the $800M build on the Bank of America Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers.

The renovations include a new 500-level patio with skyline views, a state-of-the-art sound system, an expanded retail/team store, and much more. 

This project is expected to support over 9,000 jobs in the Charlotte region, across hospitality, tourism, and events.

Construction is expected to begin in 2026. 

• Client: Tepper Sports & Entertainment / Carolina Panthers

• General Contractors: Clark Construction Group / D.A. Everett Construction Group 

• Design Team: HOK

• Award: Stadium

• Value: $800 Million 

• Location: Charlotte, North Carolina

Movement in the field:

🏗️Digital Realty Begins $400M Phase One of Garland Data Center: Digital Realty is developing a new 410,000 sqft data center campus in Garland, Texas, marking one of the company’s largest expansions in North Texas. The first building will feature six 8 MW data halls, contributing to an overall 150MW capacity across the multi-phase site. Construction activity began following filings in September 2024, with completion of the initial phase expected in late 2026. Total investment for the full campus could reach up to $1.9 billion, depending on future build-outs.

Key Details: Owner/Developer: Digital Realty, General Contractor: TBD, Sector: Data Center, Value: Current phase $120 Million+ (Potential $1.9B full build), Location: Garland, Texas

📈Meta’s Not Slowing Down Data Center Builds in Texas: Construction is still underway on the $800 million, 900,000 sqft data center campus in Temple. The facility sits on a 393-acre site and is designed to operate on 100% renewable energy. The project features advanced cooling systems, high-efficiency power infrastructure, and construction practices focused on sustainability. Construction is progressing on schedule, with the first major phase expected to wrap up in 2026, employing thousands of workers throughout the build.

Key Details: Owner/Client: Meta, General Contractor: JE Dunn Construction, Sector: Data Center, Value: $800 Million, Location: Temple, Texas

☀️T1 Energy’s $850M Solar Cell Factory in Texas: Construction is underway on T1 Energy’s $850 million solar cell manufacturing plant in Texas, part of the Advanced Manufacturing & Logistix Campus at Sandow Lakes. The facility will produce up to 5GW of solar cells each year, positioning it among the largest renewable manufacturing projects in the US. The project officially broke ground earlier this year, with full operations expected to begin by late 2026. Once complete, the plant will create roughly 1,800 permanent jobs.

Key Details: Owner/Developer: T1 Energy Inc, General Contractor: TBD, Sector: Renewable/Manufacturing, Value: $850 Million, Location: Rockdale, Texas

💨DataBank Red Oak Campus Gains Momentum: DataBank continues its expansion across the DFW region with the DFW9–DFW12 development at its Red Oak data center campus. DFW9, the first building on site, began construction in September 2024 with foundation work starting later that year. Completion is targeted for Q1 2027. DFW10 broke ground in February 2025 with Yates Construction serving as General Contractor. The second facility is scheduled to finish by August 2028. DFW11 is planned to start in December 2025 and wrap up by January 2028, following filings submitted earlier in 2025. DFW12 will close out the master plan, beginning in November 2026 and completing by November 2028.

Key Details: lOwner/Developer: DataBank, General Contractor: Yates Construction, Sector: Data Center, Location: Red Oak, Texas

🚀QTS Continues "Project Excalibur": Back in 2023, construction started on this 615 acre site on the west side of Fayetteville, Georgia. This data center campus for QTS is set to have 16 buildings comprising 6.6 million sqft of data-center space, plus 400,000 sq ft of office space. This project is expected to have a full build-out by 2032. QTS also utilizes water-free cooling technology, eliminating water use entirely.

Key Details: General Contractors: Clayco / HITT Contracting Inc, Client: QTS Data Centers, Award: Data Center, Value: Over $1 billion, Location: Fayetteville, Georgia

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WORLD
Gran Torre Santiago, Chile

Standing 300 meters (984 feet) tall with 62 above-ground floors and 6 basement levels, the Gran Torre Santiago dominates the skyline of Santiago, Chile. 

Located in the Providencia district, it forms the centerpiece of the Costanera Center, a $1 billion mixed-use complex developed by Cencosud that includes offices, retail, hotels, and entertainment space. 

Designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, with Alemparte Barreda & Asociados and Watt International, the tower spans 107,125 square meters and accommodates more than 240,000 visitors daily across the broader complex. Construction began in June 2006, halted during the 2009 global financial crisis, and resumed later that year before topping out in February 2012 and completing in 2014.

The Gran Torre Santiago stands as the tallest building in South America at 300 meters, dominating the Santiago skyline since its completion in 2014.

TECH SPOTLIGHT
$38 Billion AWS-OpenAI AI Infrastructure Partnership

OpenAI has entered a landmark $38 billion, seven-year partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to massively expand and support its AI model training and inference operations.

Under the agreement, OpenAI will utilize AWS’s EC2 UltraClusters built on next-generation UltraServer technology. These clusters will consist of hundreds of thousands of NVIDIA GPUs and scale up to tens of millions of CPUs. 

This partnership is designed to power OpenAI’s most advanced workloads, including inference for applications like ChatGPT and the training of future frontier models. Thousands of enterprise customers are already deploying OpenAI models for use cases, including research and software development. 

QUICK FIRE ROUND
Your quiz questions for this week:

What type of electrical conduit is best suited for corrosive environments, such as wastewater treatment plants?

A. EMT (Electrical Metallic Tubing) // B. PVC-coated rigid steel conduit // C. FMC (Flexible Metal Conduit)

Which HVAC system is most efficient for multi-zone temperature control in large commercial buildings?

A. Packaged rooftop units // B. Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) systems // C. Single-zone split systems

What’s the main reason for using post-tensioned concrete in slab construction?

A. Reduce cracking due to shrinkage // B. Lower cost compared to rebar // C. Increase load-carrying capacity and span

Which document governs construction safety regulations on U.S. job sites?

A. IBC (International Building Code) // B. ASCE 7 // C. OSHA 29 CFR 1926

In architectural drawings, what does the term “Datum” refer to?

A. The horizontal framing alignment line // B. A reference point or surface from which measurements are taken // C. The height of a beam from the finished floor

Check out the answers at the bottom.

WEEKLY FUNNY
sir, it’s how we get the engine running

REFLECTION
This week’s question to ask yourself✌️

What motivates me to show up at work beyond a paycheck?

ANSWERS

Q1 B. PVC-coated rigid steel conduit // Q2 B. Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) systems // Q3 C. Increase load-carrying capacity and span // Q4 C. OSHA 29 CFR 1926 // Q5 B. A reference point or surface from which measurements are taken

How many did you get?