MasTec Inc. announced Wednesday it will acquire The Superior Group for $1.65 billion, buying one of North America's largest electrical contractors as hyperscale data center construction accelerates beyond available skilled labor. Shares rose 6% on the news. Superior generates roughly $3 billion in annual revenue and employs 12,000 workers across electrical, mechanical, and communications infrastructure.
The acquisition directly addresses the industry's tightest constraint: not rack space or cooling systems, but qualified electricians who can wire substations and high-voltage distribution. Superior's workforce includes licensed journeymen and project managers with security clearances for critical infrastructure work. MasTec expects the deal to close in Q2 2025, funded through a combination of cash and debt. The company already holds $4.2 billion in backlog for communications and power delivery projects.
This matters because data center operators now compete for construction capacity, not just land. Hyperscalers have announced over $200 billion in combined capex for 2025, much of it earmarked for AI training clusters requiring substations in the 50-150 megawatt range. Electrical contractors book out 18-24 months in advance for projects of that scale. MasTec's move consolidates roughly 15,000 skilled tradespeople under one roof, creating negotiating leverage with utilities and reducing subcontractor risk on fixed-price contracts. The integration also positions MasTec to bid on turnkey builds where a single vendor handles everything from site prep to energization.
The timing reflects a structural shift. Five years ago, data center construction was a regional business with commodity pricing. Today it resembles defense contracting: long lead times, security-cleared labor, and principal relationships that span decades. MasTec now controls enough capacity to guarantee delivery timelines, a capability worth premium margins when a three-month delay costs a hyperscaler $40-60 million in lost compute revenue. Superior's existing relationships with utilities also matter. Interconnection queues stretch beyond four years in some markets; contractors with standing agreements can sometimes bypass portions of that process.
Watch for MasTec's guidance on Q1 2025 earnings in late April, particularly commentary on backlog composition and margin expectations for integrated electrical work. Competitors including Quanta Services and AECOM will likely respond with their own consolidation moves before summer. Utilities in Virginia, Texas, and Arizona have started pre-qualifying contractors for multi-year master service agreements; the first of those RFPs close in June.
The $1.65 billion price tag works out to roughly 0.55x revenue, a discount to MasTec's own trading multiple but reasonable given Superior's asset-light model and the integration complexity of merging 12,000 unionized workers across 47 locations. MasTec didn't buy growth. It bought certainty of execution, which hyperscalers will pay to access.