The AI buildout isn't just minting Nvidia billionaires. It's feeding — literally — a new class of scrappy entrepreneurs. But small towns might be the ones left holding the bill.
TL;DR: Hyperscalers are on track to spend $5+ trillion on data centers through 2030, with 1,500+ already in the works in the US alone. A cottage industry of caterers, parking brokers, man-camp operators, and security firms is following the construction crews from town to town. The gold rush is real — but uneven, temporary, and the locals are negotiating harder than ever.
The Enchilada Economy
At 5 a.m. in Northern Virginia, chefs are cranking out chicken enchiladas and fried shrimp tacos for thousands of data center construction workers. Big Tech pays the bill.
The player:National Jobsite Catering, founded by Scott Kaplan — a guy whose old business was food trucks for one-off events. Now he serves *~1,500 meals a day at each of a dozen sites* across Virginia, Texas, Ohio, Louisiana, Nevada, and Georgia. His busiest sites? Double that.
Since pivoting to data centers four years ago, his revenue has gone up *10X*.
His secret: partner with established local caterers who know how to cook — they've just "never cooked for 1,000 to 3,000 people."
No Parking, No AI
Every construction worker needs a spot. Some projects need *2,000 spaces*. Enter WhereiPark, which pivoted from city parking marketplace to data center parking broker.
Their inventory: church lots (Sundays only), struggling strip malls, fairgrounds, casinos. They broker, add shuttle service, and move on when the project wraps. As CRO Joshua Eisen puts it:
"If there's nowhere for the construction workers to park, the thing doesn't get built."
🏨 Man Camps Are Back — But for AI
Target Hospitality ($1.8B market cap) made its name housing oilfield workers. Now they're building a **$550 million, 4,000-bed facility in North Texas** for data center crews. Furnished rooms, gyms, WiFi, communal dining — modular units that redeploy to the next site.
Since January, they've locked in contracts for *9,000+ beds worth $1.4 billion*.
Not to be outdone, Aramark launched a new division, Nexus, offering hotel-style amenities at construction sites. Execs project *~$150M in annualized revenue per site* across three initial locations. Margins: above average.
🔒 The Ones Who Stay
Salute (founded 2013, data centers exclusively) handles security during construction — and facility management after. The math favors them: for a guard, "it's still the same perimeter. It still has the same fence line."
⚠️ The Fine Print
Here's where it gets messy for the towns hosting all this:
The Louisiana cautionary tale: A couple spent **$40,000+** on a food truck serving Meta's Hyperion site. Orders crashed from 100+/day to under 40 when an out-of-state caterer got brought in. Boom → bust → viral press → Meta threw them a contract → ~80 orders/day. All *before construction even finished.*
The job cliff (Brookings Metro data):
| Study | Construction jobs (one-time) | Operational jobs (ongoing) |
|---|---|---|
| PwC (2023) | 10,000 | 300 |
| JLARC (2024) | 5,000 | 400 |
| Sage Policy (2024) | 2,000 | 200 |
| Morrow County (2024) | 1,500 | 120 |
~30X drop-off when the crews leave. Microsoft's "one direct job = one spillover job" promise? It happens — but varies wildly project to project## 💡 The Takeaway
1. The entrepreneur play is real. Follow-the-crew business models — catering, parking, housing, security — let you ride the $5T wave without owning a single acre or GPU.
2. The town play is negotiable.Brookings' Mark Muro says locals have more leverage than they realize. Want a $400K fire truck? Training programs? Local hiring guarantees? *Ask for it.* The hyperscalers need these sites more than the towns need them.
3. The window is now. 1,500+ US data centers in the pipeline means the gold rush is still hot — but every gold ends. The winners (like Kaplan) built *portable* businesses. The losers (like that Louisiana food truck, briefly) bet on one site staying busy.
The AI buildout is feeding thousands. The question is whether the towns get a seat at the table — or just the leftovers.
What do you think — sustainable boom or bubble-era footprint? Hit reply or drop a comment.
Know someone in the data center services game? Forward this. 👇