Mexico emerges as key player in US AI infrastructure boom

For decades, when you thought of Mexican exports to the US, you thought of cars. That era just ended. Mexico’s AI infrastructure exports reached a record $105.8 billion from January to May 2026, representing an 84.5% year-on-year surge that, for the first time ever, eclipsed the country’s legendary automotive shipments. Factories assembling servers, networking gear, and other data center hardware are now the beating heart of the Mexican export economy. The nearshoring play that actually worked Global contract manufacturers including Foxconn, Flex, Jabil, and Sanmina have all set up operations in Mexico, assembling AI hardware destined for US hyperscale data center operators. Foreign direct investment in Mexico’s manufacturing sector hit $40.9 billion in the first three quarters of 2025, climbing 15% year-on-year as companies raced to establish production closer to their biggest customer. The US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, laid the groundwork for this shift. But it was the cocktail of pandemic disruptions, rising tariffs on Chinese imports, and the explosive demand for AI compute that turned a slow migration into a stampede. AWS alone has pledged more than $5 billion toward i...