The ENR 2026 Top 500 reported design revenue at a record $158.7 billion, up 7.4% in a year. If your firm didn't feel that, you're not imagining it. The growth is concentrated in data centers and the largest firms on the list. For most mid-market civil and public-sector firms, the reachable work sits next to the boom, not inside it.
That gap, between the headline and the view from a 40-person civil firm, changes where you should aim your pursuits for the next two years.
Where the Design-Revenue Boom Actually Landed
ENR titled its Top 500 coverage "AI Boom Buoys Design Revenue." Jacobs returned to No. 1 on the strength of a data-center business that grew more than 60%, with a project pipeline up roughly fivefold. McKinsey projects up to $7 trillion in global data-center capital spending by 2030, about 70% of it from a handful of hyperscalers.
That spending is concentrated by design. Hyperscaler campuses go to firms that already hold the logos, carry the bench for campus-scale work, and have the balance sheet to wait out a multi-year build. The revenue is real. It is also pooling at the top of the list.
Why the Boom Skips Most Mid-Market Firms
A firm of 10 to 500 people doing municipal, state DOT, and federal civil work has no hyperscaler pipeline and won't win a data-center building program against a top-ten design firm. The boom filling the trade press is in a segment most mid-market firms don't compete in.
Worse, the public-sector work these firms depend on faces its own uncertainty. The IIJA expires September 30, and its replacement has cleared committee but not a floor vote. And the concentration is not a single-source read: independent 2026 outlook reporting finds planning activity cooling and construction hiring slowing outside data centers, with one widely cited projection putting data centers at roughly 85% of this year's net new construction-workforce demand. So the disconnect is real: design revenue is at a record while your core pipeline looks shaky. There's reachable work here. It just isn't the building.
| The boom (mostly not yours) | The adjacency (reachable) |
|---|---|
| Hyperscaler data-center buildings | Power, substations, and transmission to serve them |
| Campus architecture and structures | Water and wastewater capacity for that demand |
| Awarded to top-ten design firms | Sitework, grading, stormwater, and access roads |
| Multi-year hyperscaler programs | Environmental review and permitting |
| National GCs with the bench | Public-sector capacity work the boom is straining |
Where the Reachable Work Actually Is
A hyperscaler campus doesn't run on its own. The power, water, sitework, and permitting it demands run through the utilities and public agencies mid-market firms already serve, and they surface as SOQs and qualifications-based pursuits, not hyperscaler-logo awards. Industry cost reporting notes a data center demands far more electrical engineering than any other facility type, against a market already short on those engineers, and that interconnection, substation, and power scope is the same public and utility work mid-market firms have done for years. We made the aim-here version of this case in the spring; this is the same play from the mid-market seat.
One honest caution: this is a positioning play, not a quarter-end rescue. ACEC's reporting on the surge notes power constraints are pushing project timelines 24 to 72 months out, so the adjacency is a FY2027 and FY2028 pipeline. The market is moving the way it moved off highway and bridge work this year, and the firms that reposition early hold the right evidence when solicitations land.
How to Position for Data-Center-Adjacent Work
- Map your real adjacency. Pull every job in your history that touches power, substations, transmission, water and wastewater, large-site civil, or environmental permitting. Most firms have more than they think.
- Tag the evidence by outcome, not project type. An evaluator scores the substation you energized on schedule, not the phrase "utility experience."
- Watch the right pipeline. Utility interconnection queues, public-power capital plans, and water-authority improvement programs near announced campuses show where adjacency procurements surface before the RFQ does.
- Get your qualifications current before the RFQ. Your SOQ, state DOT prequalification, and Section F project sheets should already reflect the adjacency work, so you can reach out before the solicitation instead of scrambling after it.
- Run a real go/no-go. A new adjacency isn't a mandate to chase everything near a data center. The concentration risk in your pipeline still applies, and a pursuit you can't staff or differentiate on is still a no-go.
What This Means for Your Proposals
When a data-center-adjacent solicitation lands, your SOQ or SF330 Section F has to show utility, power, water, and sitework evidence mapped to that scope. That's where most firms lose it. The relevant project is real, but it's buried in an old PDF or one engineer's memory, and under deadline the proposal falls back on a generic "we have utility experience" line that scores like everyone else's. Differentiation here is evidence, not adjectives, and evidence only helps if you can retrieve it. The boom isn't yours. The work next to it can be, if your qualifications are ready to prove you've done it. For the recovering public-sector market, that readiness is the game.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is design revenue actually growing in 2026?
Yes. ENR's 2026 Top 500 reported design revenue at a record $158.7 billion, up 7.4% year over year. But the growth concentrates in data-center work and the largest firms on the list. For mid-market civil and public-sector firms, that record doesn't reflect their own market, which faces uncertainty around IIJA reauthorization.
How do small or mid-market engineering firms get data center work?
Not by competing for the building. The reachable work is the infrastructure around the campus: power and transmission, water and wastewater capacity, sitework and stormwater, and environmental permitting. Most of it runs through utilities and public agencies mid-market firms already serve, and it comes out as SOQs and qualifications-based pursuits, not hyperscaler awards.
Is the data-center boom a short-term opportunity?
No. Power constraints are pushing data-center timelines 24 to 72 months out, per ACEC's reporting on the surge. The adjacency work for civil and utility firms is a FY2027 and FY2028 pipeline. Treat it as a positioning decision for your qualifications now, not revenue this quarter.
What does this mean for my SF330 or SOQ?
Your Section F and SOQ project sheets need to show utility, power, water, and sitework evidence mapped to a data-center-adjacent scope. The firms that win can retrieve the relevant project quickly and frame it for the agency, instead of falling back on a generic experience claim that scores like everyone else's.