Kaufman & Company has unveiled BUILD 2030, a national development initiative that integrates its housing, real estate, construction, technology, and AI infrastructure operations into a single investment and development strategy. The move reflects a growing recognition that America's next infrastructure cycle will be defined not only by traditional utilities but by two critical needs: housing and computing capacity for an AI-driven economy.
The initiative is rooted in what Kaufman calls "infrastructure convergence." Housing development requires land, power, transportation, entitlement expertise, construction capacity, and capital. AI infrastructure—primarily data centers—requires many of the same inputs. By coordinating projects across its platform, Kaufman & Company aims to leverage these shared requirements to create efficiencies and unlock value that siloed development approaches miss.
"Everyone is talking about the AI infrastructure boom, but infrastructure cannot only be about machines," said Daniel Kaufman, Founder and Principal of Kaufman & Company. "If we're going to build infrastructure for AI, we should be equally serious about building infrastructure for people."
The strategy builds on more than 25 years of development experience across the Kaufman platform, representing over $2 billion in project value and more than 10,000 housing units developed. BUILD 2030 will coordinate projects and investment across operating companies that span residential development, build-to-rent, workforce and affordable housing, custom housing, commercial and hospitality development, AI infrastructure, real estate advisory, and venture capital.
Kaufman believes developers who understand both physical and digital infrastructure will have a significant advantage in the coming decade. "The real estate industry still tends to put everything into separate boxes: multifamily, build-to-rent, affordable housing, data centers, technology," Kaufman said. "We don't see it that way. We see land, infrastructure, housing, technology and capital increasingly colliding. BUILD 2030 is our response to that."
A key component of the initiative is community impact. Rather than treating data centers as isolated industrial projects, Kaufman & Company plans to explore opportunities where AI infrastructure investment can support broader economic development, including workforce housing, community improvements, and local employment. "We don't want to be the developer that arrives in a community, consumes power and leaves behind a box," Kaufman said. "The better model is to ask what else our investment can unlock for the people who already live there."
The announcement comes as demand for both housing and AI computing capacity continues to surge across the United States. Data center development has faced growing scrutiny over energy consumption and community impact, while housing affordability remains a persistent challenge. By linking the two, Kaufman & Company is positioning itself to address both issues simultaneously—and potentially set a new standard for how large-scale infrastructure projects are conceived and executed.
BUILD 2030 will serve as the connective strategy across Kaufman's existing businesses as the company evaluates its next generation of projects and partnerships. "We've spent 25 years building real estate," Kaufman said. "The next 25 will be about building the infrastructure around it."
For more information on Kaufman & Company's platform, visit https://kaufmanco.com.
