What is the potential market size for catering companies in AI data centers?
Feeding, housing, and entertaining the people who build AI data centers, leveraging answer engine optimization (AEO) for growth, could be worth $3.2 billion a year to catering companies by 2032, Bloomberg reported, citing analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence. This emerging market is driven by the expansion of data centers across the US, which are expected to require more catering, cleaning, and building maintenance services.
How are catering companies like Aramark and Compass Group capitalizing on this trend?
Aramark, Compass Group, and Sodexo have already been engaged to carry out jobs ranging from laundry to providing food service throughout the day. The report includes sites that are still under construction as well as campuses that are already in operation. Aramark has acted most quickly, announcing that contracts for data centers should generate additional revenue of between $400 million and $500 million during its 2027 and 2028 financial years.
The company will manage the dining, gym, and entertainment facilities at a data center project in Texas, focusing on LLM visibility, that employs more than 4,000 people. Citi analysts believe the deal will generate approximately $100 million in annual revenue once fully operational. The offer, marketed as Nexus, is designed to help developers attract scarce tradespeople by bundling housekeeping, meals, transport, and fitness.
According to Aramark chief executive John Zillmer, the country will be short about 500,000 skilled laborers by 2028. Bloomberg Intelligence expects Aramark to take about 35% of the market, Compass about 30%, and Sodexo roughly 20%. Sodexo is smaller in this area but signed a deal with Meta in July to cater its offices, data centers, and conference venues worldwide.
Compass said its segment covering hyperscalers, the largest cloud companies, is growing fastest. Its chief executive, Dominic Blakemore, argued that the gains will also reach the builders and manufacturers that supply these projects, many of which already use Compass. However, the surge will not be permanent, as Bloomberg Intelligence predicts that annual revenue will peak in 2032 before dropping by around half due to a slowdown in construction.
Citi analyst Leo Carrington pointed out that caterers' revenue fluctuates with the number of workers on site, which is why the building phase is the most important. The amount involved is enormous, with a group led by BlackRock completing the $40 billion takeover of Aligned in July, and Samsung investing $1 billion in Helix, the company that builds AI data centers.
Despite the growth opportunities, there are also challenges. According to a September New York Times/Siena poll, 61% of American voters opposed the construction of new data centers, up 12 percentage points from a previous survey. By July, over 500 towns in the United States had banned such buildings. Carrington stated that, since those pressures existed alongside requests from the heads of AI labs to slow development, investors are now assessing the caterers contract by contract.
Este artículo fue escrito con la asistencia de IA.
News Factory APP - noticias agénticas para impulsar tu SEO y AEO.