Middle East leads on data-center construction costs, report finds

The Middle East is the cheapest place in the world if you want to build a data center, according to Turner & Townsend’s 2026 construction cost index, released yesterday. It costs an average of USD 9.93 to build one watt of tech capacity here, against USD 12.06 in North America and USD 12.76 in Europe — or around 18% cheaper.

BY THE NUMBERS: The UAE comes in at USD 9.20, making it the fifth-cheapest of 62 markets surveyed. Qatar clocks in at USD 9.80 and Saudi Arabia at USD 10.80. Egypt was not included in the ranking.

Building an AI data center? You’ll pay more. Facilities specifically built for AI carry a construction premium of around 10% in the US, the report estimates, in large part due to the additional cost of cooling for more intensive loads.

The cost of building in the US is also driven up by the scale of the construction boom, which is making it difficult to lock in specialized contractors to build just about anything.

The Gulf starts from a cheaper base, but the report’s regional benchmarks cover conventional, air-cooled facilities, not the more expensive liquid-cooled systems needed in much of our part of the world. The comparisons also exclude land, utility works, and the computing equipment itself — including the chips.

It’s going to come down to availability (and cost) of power: 56% of industry respondents around the world identified power as the big obstacle to wrapping up a project. Nearly a third said it takes more than two years to get connected to utilities, Turner & Townsend says.