Data Center Freight Demand Index
The AI build-out is one of the largest freight events in the market. A single hyperscale campus pulls thousands of inbound loads of transformers, switchgear, gensets, cooling, steel, and cable. The hyperscaler does not tender that freight: its OEM, distributor, and fabricator vendors do. This index maps where the demand is concentrated, what ships and on what equipment, and the live shipper signals LaneRadar is tracking, so brokers can reach the vendor before the load reaches a board.
Data center freight, by the numbers
Where data center freight concentrates
Data center construction by state. Two states (Texas, Virginia) hold the bulk; demand then drops sharply, which is what concentrates broker opportunity in a handful of corridors.
Where the freight is: top markets
Data centers under construction by state (Aterio, March 2026). Texas and Virginia are the only two states above 100; demand then drops sharply, which concentrates broker opportunity.
What ships to a data center build, and on what
The commodity tells you the trailer, the permit burden, and which vendor tenders the load.
| Commodity | Who makes it | Freight mode |
|---|---|---|
| Power: transformers, switchgear, gensets | Eaton, ABB, Siemens, Schneider, Hitachi Energy, ERMCO, Cummins, Caterpillar | Heavy-haul / RGN / lowboy (oversize permits + escorts), flatbed |
| Cooling: chillers, CRAC/CRAH, towers, liquid-cooling skids | Vertiv, Stulz, Munters, Johnson Controls/York, Carrier, Trane | Heavy-haul + flatbed |
| UPS + lithium batteries | Vertiv, Schneider/APC, Eaton | Dry van, white-glove, air-ride (hazmat handling) |
| Racks + containment | Vertiv, Legrand, Rittal, Chatsworth | Dry van, white-glove |
| Structural steel, precast, modular/prefab | fabricators + precast yards | Flatbed, heavy-haul |
| Cable, conduit, copper | Southwire, Prysmian via Graybar, Wesco, Rexel, CED | Flatbed, dry van (project-staged distributor releases) |
Live: data center shipper signals on LaneRadar
6 in-market data center shipper signals currently on the board, by state and signal type.
By state
By signal type
Freight by build phase
Demand moves through a campus in sequence, and each phase hands the freight to a different shipper.
- 1. Sitework — aggregate, fill, pipe, earthmoving. Local dump + flatbed.
- 2. Structural — steel, precast, rebar, modular shell. Flatbed + heavy-haul.
- 3. MEP / electrical (the peak) — transformers, switchgear, gensets, chillers, conduit, cable converge. Heavy-haul + high-volume distributor flatbed.
- 4. Fit-out — UPS, batteries, racks, containment. Dry-van + white-glove.
- 5. Operations — the site becomes a recurring shipper for spares, expansions, and decommissioned gear outbound.
Methodology & sources
- Capacity + market data: Cushman & Wakefield Americas Data Center Update H2 2025 (25.3 GW under construction; NoVA ~25%); JLL North America Data Center Report YE 2025 (Texas ~6.5 GW, to pass Virginia by 2030; 64% of under-construction capacity in frontier markets); ConstructConnect (Jan 2026 starts).
- Counts by state: Aterio via Visual Capitalist, March 2026 (data centers under construction). Note: "planned" counts from other trackers use a different methodology and are larger; we report under-construction figures here.
- Freight signals: DAT Freight & Analytics (flatbed demand from DC construction; load-to-truck ratios); Power Magazine / industry reporting (transformer lead times); Equipment World (2025 construction spend).
- Live LaneRadar signals: the in-market data center shipper signals on the public board, deduplicated by company. This reflects what our engine is actively tracking, not a census of total demand. Figures are date-stamped to their vintage (H2 2025 / Q1 2026); the sector moves fast.
Reach data center shippers before the load board does
LaneRadar surfaces the OEMs, fabricators, and distributors feeding these builds, ranked by freight-demand signal. Browse the live board, or get an email when a new data center shipper signal appears.
Free · We'll email when new leads match.
Frequently asked questions
- Who ships freight to data centers?
- Not the hyperscaler. Microsoft, AWS, Meta, and Google hire general contractors, but the inbound freight is tendered by the OEMs, distributors, and fabricators that own the goods until delivery: transformer and switchgear makers (Eaton, ABB, Siemens), genset makers (Cummins, Caterpillar), cooling makers (Vertiv, Trane), and electrical distributors (Graybar, Wesco).
- Which US markets have the most data center freight demand?
- By data centers under construction, Texas (~140) and Virginia (~136) lead, followed by Georgia (~56) and Ohio (~51). By power under construction, Virginia (~6.3 GW) and Texas (~6.5 GW) are largest; Texas is projected to pass Virginia by 2030.
- What commodities ship during data center construction?
- Power gear (transformers, switchgear, busway, gensets), cooling (chillers, CRAC/CRAH, towers, liquid-cooling skids), UPS and lithium batteries, server racks and containment, structural steel and precast, and cable and conduit. Power gear is the heaviest and most permit-intensive.
- What equipment hauls data center freight?
- Transformers, gensets, chillers, and prefab skids move on heavy-haul, RGN, or lowboy with oversize permits and escorts. Switchgear, busway, conduit, and distributor releases run flatbed. Racks, UPS, and batteries move dry-van and white-glove. Critical-path parts go expedited.
- How big is the data center freight opportunity?
- US data center construction spending reached roughly $77.7B in 2025, and DAT attributes a major share of flatbed demand to it (about $41B/yr of construction, up over 200% since late 2022). Flatbed load-to-truck ratios hit 71:1 in early 2026, the highest since mid-2022.