Mumbai, June 9: India has emerged as the second-largest single-country contributor to global construction growth between 2020 and 2030, according to the latest State of the Project Economy 2026 report from Foundamental, a Berlin-based venture capital firm specialising in architecture, engineering and construction technology that invests worldwide.
India and China together account for nearly 40% of global construction growth over the period. According to the report, global capital expenditure is becoming increasingly concentrated in five countries: India, China, the United States, Germany and France.
“India accounts for the second-largest share of global construction growth by volume between 2020 and 2030, at 14.1%, behind only China at 26.1% and ahead of the United States at 11.1%,” said Shubhankar Bhattacharya, Co-Founder & General Partner at Foundamental.
Construction spending hits US$15.97 trillion
Global construction spending reached US$15.97 trillion in 2024 and is projected to grow to US$19.86 trillion by 2028, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.6%. This makes construction one of the largest sectors of the global economy.
Within that total, infrastructure is the fastest-growing major construction segment globally, expanding at a CAGR of 5.1% between 2020 and 2025. In India the pace is markedly higher: the country’s infrastructure market is forecast to grow at around 8% annually through the end of the decade, well above the global rate (source: Mordor Intelligence). The report also notes that global gross fixed capital formation has grown roughly 30-fold since 1960, with that investment becoming increasingly concentrated among a handful of major economies.
“Global construction spending has already surpassed previous forecasts and is creating new opportunities across infrastructure, industrial facilities, energy systems, transportation networks and digital infrastructure,” said Bhattacharya.
India at the centre of global capital investment
Foundamental sees India’s growing share of global capital expenditure as reflecting its infrastructure agenda, rapid urbanisation, manufacturing-led growth and rising investment in logistics, transportation and energy networks, including highways, railways, airports, ports, industrial corridors, urban transit and logistics infrastructure.
In Foundamental’s view, India’s expansion is increasingly driven by discrete, time-bound projects across infrastructure, energy, real estate and manufacturing, rather than routine business operations — the hallmark of a maturing project economy.
Five forces reshaping the project economy
The report identifies five structural drivers shaping the future of the global project economy.
The first is re-industrialisation. As manufacturing reshores to the US and Europe, the report notes that every reshoring announcement becomes a construction project before it becomes a
factory, and that the bottleneck is increasingly delivery rather than intent, with output lagging well behind announced plans.
The second is data centre construction, which the report expects to double by 2030 versus 2018 and add 10–15% to the global construction market. Each facility triggers a wider build-out of grid upgrades, power generation, water systems and heavy civil work.
The third is energy infrastructure. Data centre and electrification demand are outpacing the grid’s ability to build: the report notes the US alone may need the equivalent of 35 nuclear plants’ worth of new power, while Europe is investing some €1.4 trillion into its transmission and distribution grid.
The fourth is civil infrastructure, roads, rail, transit, ports and water, which sits within the infrastructure segment growing fastest of all, at a 5.1% CAGR between 2020 and 2025.
The fifth is defence infrastructure. The report describes a defence-spending super-cycle, with the underappreciated opportunity in construction and maintenance rather than new systems, and budgets that are structural rather than cyclical.
Data centres add up to 15% to the construction market
The report forecasts the global data centre construction market will double by 2030 compared with 2018 levels, driven by artificial intelligence and cloud computing, making data centre infrastructure one of the fastest-growing construction segments through 2030.
“Data centre construction could add between 10% and 15% to the global construction market by 2030,” said Bhattacharya.
For India specifically, Foundamental expects AI adoption, digital public infrastructure, cloud expansion, financial-services digitisation and data-localisation requirements to further accelerate data centre investment, generating demand across construction, engineering and project management.
Energy infrastructure is the next big build-out
Data centre growth creates significant demand for power generation, transmission and grid modernisation. Foundamental expects India to require substantial investment over the coming decade across renewable energy, grid modernisation, transmission networks, battery storage and green-hydrogen infrastructure. According to the report, the next wave of value creation in the project economy will come from technologies that help convert investment capital into completed infrastructure assets more efficiently and predictably.
India poised to lead the next decade of the global project economy
The report concludes that India is positioned to benefit from multiple long-term growth trends at once, including infrastructure expansion, industrial development, the energy transition, digital transformation and urbanisation. As global investment shifts toward physical and digital infrastructure, India is expected to remain one of the world’s most influential contributors to construction growth through 2030 and beyond.