Timmons on CNBC: AI, Data Centers and Manufacturing Growth

Manufacturing in the U.S. is seeing “a tremendous amount of activity,” NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons said on CNBC’s “The Exchange”

What’s going on: The industry is on an upswing, with business activity in July exceeding economists’ expectations in New York and Philadelphia surveys—and that’s down to H.R. 1, Timmons told show host Kelly Evans late last month.

• “It was supercharged because of this,” Timmons said, holding up a recent NAM flipbook of 50 manufacturer success stories in 50 states. “Because of the tax reforms of 2017 that were made permanent and strengthened in 2025. And so, so much of what we accomplished in that bill has allowed manufacturers to invest, to hire and to raise wages.”

Success in every state: The collection of manufacturers’ wins from across the U.S. since passage of the 2025 tax law shows how, when combined “with regulatory certainty and energy dominance … you’re really setting the stage for robust growth in manufacturing,” Timmons said.

The data center factor: Artificial intelligence “is supercharging manufacturing, and you’ve got to build out the data centers,” he said.

• While data centers use large amounts of power—about 20% of U.S. energy output every year and growing, according to Timmons—“AI is helping us make our operations far more efficient, much more productive, which means in the long run, that economic growth that you’re talking about can help us drive down the national debt, as well as hire more people and raise wages and create better economic opportunities in communities all across this country.”
• Manufacturers are vital in the construction and operation of those data centers, as they produce the server racks, HVAC systems and electric transformers that are used, Timmons told Evans.

Reasons for optimism: “Broadly speaking, we’re seeing a lot of growth … in durable or nondurable goods—think appliances, think about even textiles. We’re starting to see a bit of growth here in this country, [though] not as much as you might see in other sectors. Certainly metals and machinery are growing,” Timmons said of the broader economic outlook for manufacturing.

• “We’d like to see more machinery being made here in this country because right now, there’s a lot of that being done outside of the United States, but our tax policies will help us attract those investments here in the United States.”