Kaufman: AI Data Centers Must Include Workforce Housing

Daniel Kaufman, founder of the permanent capital holding company Kaufman & Company, is calling for a fundamental shift in how AI data center campuses are planned and built. In a statement released Wednesday, Kaufman argued that with America’s spending on computing now outpacing its spending on homes, housing for the workforce that operates these facilities must be included from the outset. Fortune reported Sept. 20 that U.S. spending on information processing equipment hit $752 billion in the second quarter, surpassing real private residential fixed investment of $748 billion. Residential investment has dropped 18% from its early 2021 peak, while computing spending has surged 51%. This milestone arrives as public opposition to data centers intensifies. 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. Kaufman & Company has a stake on both sides of this trade. Its portfolio company ServerDomes Global announced plans in July for geodesic dome data centers in Utah and El Paso, Texas, including a 24,000-acre El Paso site. 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 workforce housing partner. “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.” Kaufman emphasized that communities are right to demand returns for hosting infrastructure. “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.”

Kaufman & Company is a permanent capital holding company founded and led by Daniel Kaufman, spanning residential development, workforce housing, AI infrastructure and venture capital across 10 operating companies: Convivium Living, DanReDev, DEK Builds, Design Build Affordable, DK Homes, Forge Development Partners, Kaufman Development, Kaufman Real Estate & Consulting, LoneStar Kaufman and Kaufman Ventures. Backed by more than 25 years of real estate experience, the platform has delivered more than $2 billion in project value and financed or developed more than 10,000 housing units. Kaufman & Company is a d/b/a of Kaufman Family Office LLC and Kaufman Real Estate & Consulting LLC. Learn more at thekaufmanco.com.