Kaufman & Company has announced BUILD 2030, a national development initiative that unites its housing, real estate, construction, technology, and AI infrastructure capabilities under a coordinated investment and development strategy. The initiative reflects a growing recognition that America's next infrastructure cycle will be shaped 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," 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."
BUILD 2030 will coordinate projects across the Kaufman platform, which includes operating companies in residential development, build-to-rent, 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." Housing requires land, power, transportation, entitlement expertise, construction capacity, and capital. AI infrastructure demands many of the same inputs. Kaufman believes developers who can navigate both physical and digital infrastructure will have 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," 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 in evaluating future AI infrastructure locations. Rather than treating data centers as isolated industrial projects, Kaufman & Company plans to explore opportunities where infrastructure 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 stated. "The better model is to ask what else our investment can unlock for the people who already live there."
Kaufman & Company's existing platform includes residential and mixed-use development, workforce and affordable housing, build-to-rent communities, hospitality, AI infrastructure, and a venture portfolio developing technology for the real estate industry. BUILD 2030 will serve as the connective strategy across these businesses as the company evaluates its next generation of 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 more information, visit Kaufman & Company.
