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 coordinated investment and development strategy. The company argues that America's next infrastructure cycle will be defined not only by traditional projects like roads and bridges but also by two critical needs: housing and computing infrastructure for an AI-driven economy.
"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 initiative leverages Kaufman & Company's existing platform, which includes residential development, build-to-rent communities, workforce and affordable housing, custom housing, commercial and hospitality development, AI infrastructure, real estate advisory, and venture capital. With over 25 years of experience and more than $2 billion in project value and 10,000 housing units developed, the company is positioning itself at the intersection of physical and digital infrastructure.
Central to BUILD 2030 is the concept of "infrastructure convergence." Kaufman notes that both housing and AI infrastructure require similar inputs: land, power, transportation, entitlement expertise, construction capacity, and capital. "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."
The initiative also emphasizes community impact. When evaluating AI infrastructure locations, Kaufman & Company plans to explore opportunities where 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."
BUILD 2030 will serve as the connective strategy across Kaufman & Company's businesses as it pursues future projects and partnerships. "We've spent 25 years building real estate. The next 25 will be about building the infrastructure around it," Kaufman added.
For readers and industry observers, this move signals a potential shift in how developers approach large-scale projects. By combining housing and AI infrastructure, Kaufman & Company aims to address two pressing national needs simultaneously, potentially creating more integrated communities and efficient resource use. The focus on community impact could set a new standard for data center development, which has often faced criticism for being detached from local needs. As AI continues to drive economic growth, the demand for both computing power and housing will only increase, making strategies like BUILD 2030 increasingly relevant. The success of this initiative could influence how other developers and investors view the relationship between technology infrastructure and human infrastructure, possibly leading to more holistic development models across the country.
