Unilever is planning to construct a global innovation center in New Haven, Conn., to drive expansion in the U.S. market. Focusing on beauty, personal care, and wellbeing brands, the 200,000-sf facility will be fully AI powered and leverage the latest technologies including quantum computing and machine learning to accelerate the scaling of product development.
The University of West Florida broke ground in April of 2026 on an advanced intelligence, cybersecurity, and engineering research facility in Pensacola. Building 129, also known as the Synapse, was designed by Caldwell Architects and Perkins&Will to serve as the base for the Center for Computational Intelligence and the Center for Cybersecurity and AI.
The University of California, Berkeley held a ribbon-cutting ceremony in May of 2026 to celebrate the approaching completion of the Barbara and Gerson Bakar Gateway building. The $557 million facility will house the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society (CDSS) and bring together approximately 1,325 faculty, students, and staff to elevate education and accelerate AI-driven discovery.
At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), which ranks 11th in the nation in research expenditures, the question of how to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into research facilities is no longer theoretical—it is urgent. The institution operates a vast and diverse research enterprise across multiple buildings. That scale, combined with rapid shifts in federal science policy, has prompted a fundamental reassessment of how research infrastructure is designed, operated, and managed.
The University of Texas at San Antonio opened San Pedro II in April of 2026 in the city’s downtown technology corridor to fuel innovation, education, and research. Designed by Gensler and OVERLAND Partners, the $131 million facility features flexible and reconfigurable spaces for the College of AI, Cyber and Computing, including classrooms, teaching labs, and meeting areas.
The College of the Desert is constructing a $268 million campus in Palm Springs, Calif. Designed by WRNS Studio, this regional hub for education and workforce training will offer dry labs, maker spaces, AI-enabled environments, and immersive studios. The development’s main facility, The Accelerator, will house programs in digital media and arts, healthcare, and architecture. Technology-driven classrooms will prioritize flexibility to support innovative teaching and learning methodologies.
The University of Michigan is constructing the Center for Innovation in Detroit to accelerate technology-focused research and train the next generation of skilled workers. Designed by KPF, the $250 million facility will act as a powerful engine for job creation and inclusive talent development by accommodating both degree-based offerings and instructional courses for non-students in a range of fields.
Carnegie Mellon University celebrated the opening of the $100 million Robotics Innovation Center (RIC) in late February of 2026. Located at Hazelwood Green, the site of a former steel mill in Pittsburgh, the 150,000-sf facility embodies the evolution of that industrial heritage by uniting programs in robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence under one roof. Perkins Eastman's vision for the three-story structure created flexible high-bay research spaces and R&D venues that can address robotic systems at different scales.
Meta broke ground in early 2026 on a next-generation data center in Lebanon, Indiana. Designed to deliver 1 gigawatt of capacity, the 1,500-acre campus will include 13 structures spanning a total of 4 million sf. In addition to administrative, logistics, and warehousing environments, 10 data center facilities will offer the flexibility to accommodate advances in AI while furthering the company's core businesses. Building at this scale supports both goals while enabling technology with higher bandwidth, lower latency, and improved reliability.
Ancora is planning to construct a vibrant research and innovation hub in South Bend, Ind. Created in partnership with University of Notre Dame, the City of South Bend, and the State of Indiana, Colfax Corner will bring together academic experts, startups, established companies, and students to shorten the pathway from idea to impact. A five-story facility will offer 202,000 sf of laboratories, offices, and gathering venues.
The ideal lab building can flex over time to accommodate each new generation of researchers, with minimal disruption and infrastructure change. Using an approach called the “resilient chassis,” labs are grouped by typologies and placed around a common spine or “chassis” of mechanical/electrical/plumbing (MEP) systems based on zoning and capacity needs. The best location for each lab is determined by grouping labs together that share specialized requirements, such as vibration sensitivities, noise restrictions, lighting or electrical requirements, and instrumentation needs.
The University of California, Davis is constructing the Lynda and Steward Resnick Agricultural Innovation Center on its main campus. The $66.4 million facility will enable the exploration of new ways of balancing food production with leading sustainability practices while advancing the global agricultural industry with scalable solutions. Designed by Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign to drive collaboration, the 32,000-sf building will feature diverse and dynamic environments for learning and research.
Daikin Applied is constructing an advanced research and development test lab at its headquarters in Plymouth, Minn. The $163 million facility will accelerate the creation of next-generation cooling technologies for hyperscale data centers and traditional HVAC markets to address intensifying demand driven by the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing.
Vantage Data Centers is developing the Frontier mega-campus in Shackleford County, Texas, to meet growing demand for leading-edge artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Sited on 1,200 acres, the $25 billion complex will supply 1.4GW of critical IT capacity to support global hyperscale customers. Ten one-story data centers will span a total of 3.7 million sf and accommodate ultra-high-density racks of over 250kW, utilizing combined air-cooling and liquid-to-liquid cooling to enable these next-generation GPU loads.
Eli Lilly and Company is planning to construct an advanced manufacturing facility in Huntsville, Ala. Representing a total investment of $6 billion, the multibuilding campus will offer over 1 million sf of space for production, laboratories, packaging, logistics, and utilities. The sophisticated development will manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients and small molecule synthetic and peptide medicines, including the company’s first oral small molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist, orforglipron.
