Kaufman & Company has announced BUILD 2030, a national development initiative that integrates its housing, real estate, construction, technology, and AI infrastructure operations under a single investment and development strategy. The initiative reflects the company’s view 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 to support an AI-driven economy.
“Everyone is talking about the AI infrastructure boom, but infrastructure cannot only be about machines. If we’re going to build infrastructure for AI, we should be equally serious about building infrastructure for people,” said Daniel Kaufman, Founder and Principal of Kaufman & Company.
BUILD 2030 will coordinate projects across Kaufman’s 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. The strategy leverages over 25 years of development experience, representing more than $2 billion in project value and over 10,000 housing units developed.
Central to the initiative is the concept of “infrastructure convergence.” Kaufman notes that both housing and AI infrastructure require similar foundational elements: land, power, transportation, entitlement expertise, construction capacity, and capital. By understanding both physical and digital infrastructure, the company believes developers can gain a significant advantage in the coming decade.
“The real estate industry still tends to put everything into separate boxes: multifamily, build-to-rent, affordable housing, data centers, technology. We don’t see it that way. We see land, infrastructure, housing, technology and capital increasingly colliding. BUILD 2030 is our response to that,” Kaufman said.
The initiative also emphasizes community impact when selecting AI infrastructure locations. Instead of treating data centers as isolated industrial projects, Kaufman & Company plans to explore opportunities where infrastructure investment can drive 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. The better model is to ask what else our investment can unlock for the people who already live there,” Kaufman added.
BUILD 2030 will serve as the connective strategy across Kaufman’s existing businesses as the company pursues its next generation of projects and partnerships. More information about the initiative can be found at Kaufman & Company’s website.
“We’ve spent 25 years building real estate. The next 25 will be about building the infrastructure around it,” Kaufman said.
