Irish building materials giant CRH hopes to cash in on the US boom in data centre building, chief executive Jim Mintern told industry analysts on Thursday.
Mintern was speaking as the Dublin-based multinational reported rising revenues last year, with good growth in the final three months. It also announced a new share buyback programme.
Total revenues rose by 5 per cent to $37.4 billion (€31.8 billion) in 2025, with growth of 6 per cent in the final quarter. Favourable demand and acquisitions were credited for the gain.
CRH is “well placed” to cash in on the current US data centre construction boom, Mintern told analysts on Thursday. Data centre building has taken off the in the US, funded by $360 billion that has been borrowed by tech giants and others racing to develop processing power needed for AI.
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Mintern noted that 85 per cent of current construction was within 25 miles of one of CRH’s locations.
“These facilities need state of the art water, energy and communications infrastructure,” he said. Construction accounts for around 15 per cent of the total cost of their development, while CRH was well-positioned to capture an increasing share of this market, Mintern added.
Chief operating officer Randy Lake pointed out that the centres also needed surrounding infrastructure, specifically roads. Data centre building would help generate “higher profits, growth and cash for shareholders”, Lake said.
The group is one of the world’s biggest building materials suppliers and a market leader in the US. Its shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
CRH earlier said net income rose 8 per cent last year to $3.8 billion, while adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) increased by 11 per cent to $7.7 billion.
Diluted earnings per share rose 10 per cent to $5.51.
CRH said it had invested $4.1 billion on 38 acquisitions in 2025, including the $2.1 billion acquisition of Eco Material Technologies, a US provider of sustainable cement alternatives, which was announced in July 2025. A further $1.7 billion was used to back high-return growth capital expenditure projects to drive organic growth.
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Mintern said 2025 had been a year of “significant progress” for CRH. “Our balance sheet strength, cash generation capabilities and disciplined approach to capital allocation enabled us to deploy $5.8 billion in value-accretive growth investments across our connected portfolio while also returning $2.2 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buy-backs,” he said.
“We enter 2026 with confidence and expect favourable end-market dynamics as well as the continued execution of our superior strategy to underpin another year of growth and value creation for our shareholders.”
CRH said it expects full-year net income of $3.9 billion to $4.1 billion in 2026. Mintern predicted that full-year earnings before interest, tax and write offs, a measure of the cash a business generates, would fall between $8.1 billion and $8.5 billion.
He said the group had performed strongly in Ireland last year, along with Scandinavia and other western European countries.
It declared a quarterly dividend of 39 US cents per share, up 5 per cent on the previous year.
The group said it would continue with its share buy back programme, aiming to purchase $300 million worth of its stock during the current quarter.
CRH has returned €10 billion to shareholders since 2018, the company said.
