Kaufman & Company has announced BUILD 2030, a national development initiative that consolidates its housing, real estate, construction, technology, and AI infrastructure capabilities under a single coordinated investment and development strategy. The initiative reflects a growing recognition that America's next infrastructure cycle will be defined not only by traditional roads and bridges but by two critical needs: places for people to live and computing infrastructure capable of supporting an AI-driven economy. Kaufman & Company aims to address both.
The strategic rationale is clear. Housing development requires land, power, transportation, entitlement expertise, construction capacity, and capital. AI infrastructure—data centers and related computing facilities—requires many of the same inputs. By bringing these capabilities under one platform, Kaufman & Company seeks to capitalize on what it calls "infrastructure convergence." The company believes that developers who understand both physical and digital infrastructure will hold a significant advantage over the next decade.
"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." This philosophy underpins BUILD 2030, which will coordinate projects across a platform that already 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.
The initiative 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. Unlike conventional strategies focused on a single asset class, BUILD 2030 is designed to break down silos. "The real estate industry still tends to put everything into separate boxes: multifamily, build-to-rent, affordable housing, data centers, technology," Kaufman noted. "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. Kaufman & Company intends to evaluate future AI infrastructure locations with an eye toward broader economic development. Rather than viewing data centers as isolated industrial projects, the company will explore opportunities where infrastructure investment can support 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 launch of BUILD 2030 signals a strategic shift that could influence how other developers approach the intersection of housing and technology infrastructure. As AI continues to drive demand for computing power, the need for complementary housing and community infrastructure will only grow. Kaufman & Company's integrated model may serve as a blueprint for future development, demonstrating that meeting the needs of both people and machines can be mutually reinforcing. The company's existing platform, which includes operating companies across multiple sectors, provides a foundation for executing this vision. BUILD 2030 will serve as the connective strategy as Kaufman & Company evaluates its next generation of projects and partnerships.
