Judge pauses Google's Pine Island data center, Wildcat and EnergyX form a JV for an LFP cathode plant in Texas, and AWS proposes a $7 billion data center in a small Indiana town. New Jersey lands a $300 million healthcare campus, Wood Partners breaks ground on 274 units in Georgia, Washington Union Station gets $466 million for a long-overdue redevelopment, and McCarthy puts Palantir AI to work across its construction operations. Let's dive in!

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A Goodhue County judge issued a temporary restraining order on May 22, halting all construction on Project Skyway, Google's 482 acre planned data center campus in Pine Island, Minnesota. Judge Patrick Biren ruled that environmental advocates raised enough legal questions to pause the work.

The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy filed suit in October 2025, arguing the city's environmental review was too vague. They claim Pine Island and developer Ryan Companies described generic development scenarios while already knowing a large-scale Google facility was planned.

Internal documents show Ryan Companies referencing a single Fortune 200 client as early as February 2025. A non-disclosure agreement between Ryan and the city had been in place since November 2024.

The court also flagged Pine Island's failure to comply with a records request filed by MCEA, finding that starting construction before resolving it would permanently harm their case.

Ryan Companies estimates delays will cost $5 million or more. The court set MCEA's bond at the $2,000 statutory minimum.


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Wildcat Discovery Technologies and EnergyX have announced a joint venture to build a lithium iron phosphate cathode manufacturing facility in Hooks, Texas. The Phase 1 plant targets 15,000 metric tonnes of LFP cathode material per year, serving energy storage, electric vehicles, military platforms, and drones.

The 330-acre site at the TexAmericas Center sits next to EnergyX's Project Lonestar lithium plant and near the Red River Army Depot. Rail access and existing utility infrastructure made it the right fit.

Total investment exceeds $230 million. The companies are seeking DOE funding to accelerate construction and position the plant as one of the first meaningful domestic LFP cathode alternatives to Asian supply.

EnergyX will supply the majority of lithium carbonate feedstock at below-market rates with a price floor and ceiling. Lithium precursors account for 60 to 85 percent of LFP cathode production costs, so stable pricing is a significant structural advantage.

The project is expected to create 150 permanent jobs and between 800 and 1,200 construction and indirect roles across Northeast Texas, with hiring support from local colleges and veterans' organizations.

Cooper University Health Care is building a $300 million multispecialty outpatient campus in Gloucester Township, New Jersey. The five-story, 184,000 square foot facility sits on 39 acres along Route 42, becoming Cooper's largest ambulatory campus. It will house specialty care across multiple disciplines, an MD Anderson Cancer Center suite, and an ambulatory surgery center. Construction starts mid-2027, with first patients expected spring 2029.

Amazon Web Services has proposed a $7 billion, nine-building data center campus in Wheatfield, Indiana, a Jasper County town of roughly 900 people. The 304-acre site is owned by NIPSCO, half a mile from the Schahfer Generating Station. AWS has committed $1.25 billion to offset energy costs for local ratepayers and the project is part of a broader $15 billion AWS investment in Northern Indiana. The project is still pending county approval.

Wood Partners has broken ground on Alta Newnan Crossing in Newnan, Georgia, 40 miles southwest of Atlanta. The mixed-use development includes 274 apartments, seven three-bedroom townhomes with two-car garages, and 7,700 square feet of retail space. It connects to Newnan's LINC Trail and targets a fall 2027 completion.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a $466 million federal investment in Washington Union Station on May 28. The funding covers structural roof repairs, expanded concourses, ticketing, security, and commercial upgrades. The station handles 37 million passengers annually and has long been operating beyond capacity.

Landmark 81 rises 461 meters across 81 floors in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's tallest building and second tallest in Southeast Asia. Developer Vinhomes broke ground in December 2014 and completed the tower in 2018.

Design was led by UK firm Atkins, with the tapering silhouette modeled on a bamboo bundle, a Vietnamese symbol of strength and unity.

Arup provided structural and geotechnical engineering, Mace served as construction manager, and Vietnamese firm Coteccons was appointed main contractor.

The foundation work set records in Vietnam. Construction required excavating 25,000 cubic meters of soil and pouring 17,000 cubic meters of concrete to form an 8.4-meter deep pile cap.

The tower is mixed-use throughout. A shopping center anchors the base, apartments fill the middle floors, and a five-star Marriott Autograph Collection hotel begins at floor 47.

The top three floors house the SkyView Observatory at 383 meters, the highest observation deck in Vietnam. A broadcast antenna crowns the spire.

McCarthy Building Companies and Palantir Technologies have announced a multi-year, multi-million dollar strategic partnership to deploy AI across McCarthy's full construction operation. The deal spans early design through field execution at one of America's oldest employee-owned contractors.

The centerpiece is Pulse, McCarthy's AI Operations Suite, built on Palantir's Artificial Intelligence Platform. The tool gives superintendents, project managers, and field operators real-time insight, scenario planning, risk analysis, and decision support on active job sites.

The scope goes well beyond a single product. McCarthy is deploying Palantir's AIP across estimating, contracts, bidding and buyout, QA/QC, logistics, and equipment planning, all connected through Palantir's Ontology framework.

McCarthy is also building enterprise software internally, with engineers embedded directly into that model.

The partnership was announced June 4, 2026, at Palantir's AIPCon 10 in Miami.