NAICS 518210 computing infrastructure and data processing obligations

What the $17.1 billion records

USAspending.gov attaches a North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code to most contract actions. Code 518210 is the bucket for computing infrastructure providers, data processing, web hosting, and related services. The $17,147,230,337.71 obligation total on this hub is the sum of those tagged contract actions in the aggregate table SpendingVault reads. It is not a count of servers, data centers, or hosting accounts, and it is not a statement that every cloud invoice in the federal government uses this code.

Five thousand five hundred three awards produced that dollar figure. Dividing obligations by award count yields roughly $3.1 million per award. That average hides a wide mix: some actions are small task orders; others are large hosting or processing vehicles. The industry table does not split those sizes here. Readers who need action-level detail should open the NAICS 518210 industry page, where the underlying award rows remain tied to the same USAspending source.

Because NAICS is assigned on the contract, not on every payment, the same vendor can appear under several codes across different awards. A firm that hosts systems on one contract and writes software on another will show up in 518210 only for the actions tagged to this code. The $17.1 billion therefore measures tagged computing-infrastructure and data-processing contracts, not a vendor's entire federal book of business.

Obligations are not outlays

An obligation is a legal commitment. An outlay is cash leaving the Treasury. USAspending publishes both concepts; this industry total uses obligations. Agencies can obligate money in one period and pay it over several years, de-obligate unused balances, or modify a contract so the recorded commitment moves. A large hosting vehicle can therefore show a high obligation long before the last invoice is paid.

Treating $17.1 billion as money already spent would overstate cash paid to date and understate remaining work on open contracts. The 5,503-award count is likewise an award tally, not a payment count. Modifications, options, and delivery orders can sit inside that count depending on how USAspending rolls actions into awards. The industry page is the place to inspect those rows without converting the headline into a cash-flow statement.

What NAICS 518210 covers — and what it does not

The Census NAICS title for 518210 groups computing infrastructure providers with data processing, web hosting, and related services. Federal contracting officers pick a code when they award work. That choice can follow the principal purpose of the contract rather than every line item. A processing contract that also includes some software development may still land here if 518210 is the selected code.

Codes for computer manufacturing, custom programming, or telecommunications sit nearby in the classification system and are not rolled into this total. Assistance awards — grants, cooperative agreements, and similar instruments — frequently carry no NAICS at all. Those dollars, if they exist, do not appear in this $17.1 billion. The source note on the packet is explicit: NAICS comes from USAspending contract awards.

How to read the industry table

The overlay table for /industries/518210/ lists the same obligation and award aggregates that produced $17.1 billion and 5,503 awards. Use it to compare this code with neighboring industries on the all-industries index. Rank by dollars if the question is scale; rank by award count if the question is how many distinct awards the government tagged to hosting and processing work.

Nothing in the aggregate says which agency awarded the work, which recipient received it, or which fiscal year contributed the most. Those dimensions live on other SpendingVault hubs. This page answers a narrower question: how much contract obligation USAspending attributes to NAICS 518210, and how many awards sit under that tag.

Limits of a single industry code

Industry tagging is a contracting convenience, not a product catalog. Web hosting, batch processing, and infrastructure services can be bought under other codes when the officer judges a different NAICS a better fit. The reverse is also true: some 518210 awards may include ancillary work that a reader would not call hosting. The $17.1 billion should be read as the tagged total, with those caveats attached.

SpendingVault does not adjust USAspending figures or impute missing NAICS on assistance awards. If a later extract revises an award, the industry aggregate will move with the source. Until then, 5,503 awards and $17,147,230,337.71 in obligations are the recorded contract footprint for this code.

Questions

How much has the federal government obligated under NAICS 518210?

USAspending.gov contract awards tagged to NAICS 518210 show $17,147,230,337.71 in obligations across 5,503 awards in the SpendingVault aggregate. That is a contract-industry total, not cash outlays and not a count of grants. Assistance awards often lack NAICS and are outside this sum. Open the industry page for the award rows behind the headline.

Does the $17.1 billion include web hosting grants?

No. The total is built from USAspending contract awards that carry NAICS 518210. Grants and other assistance instruments frequently do not carry a NAICS code, so they are not in this industry aggregate. If hosting or processing was funded as assistance, those dollars would appear on program or recipient pages rather than under this code.

What is the average award size for NAICS 518210?

Dividing $17,147,230,337.71 by 5,503 awards produces about $3.1 million per award. That average is an arithmetic mean, not a typical task-order size. A few large infrastructure vehicles can pull the mean up while many smaller actions sit below it. The industry table does not publish a median in this packet.

Is NAICS 518210 the same as all federal IT spending?

No. Code 518210 covers computing infrastructure providers, data processing, web hosting, and related services on tagged contracts. Software design, computer manufacturing, and telecom services use other NAICS codes. Federal IT also flows through assistance awards that may have no NAICS. The $17.1 billion is the 518210 contract slice only.