Artificial Intelligence (AI) continued to be a topic of interest in 2024, and demand for data center capacity has grown to reflect that interest over the course of the year. The construction pipeline swelled in the second half of the year, with 6.4GW of capacity underway—most of which has already been leased, as large-scale contiguous live capacity remains scarce. Power constraints remain the top challenge for hyperscale and colocation providers, heavily influencing site selection and driving expansion into less established data center markets across the region. Many regional utility providers have gigawatts of unfulfilled requests for power.
Hyperscale development in the Americas is largely driven by power availability first, with land values and availability second—spurring activity in periphery markets. Occupiers focused on availability and, unlike hyperscale users, are often bound to specific markets.
North America continued its high-growth trajectory, reaching 20GW of operational capacity, with 1.5GW added in H2 2024, bringing the total capacity added for the year to 3.2GW.
Virginia remains the largest data center market globally, with 5.9GW in operation, 1.8GW under construction, and 15.4 GW planned. Following Virginia in operational capacity are other large markets: Portland and Eastern Oregon (2GW), Columbus (1.8GW), Phoenix (1.5GW), Dallas (1.4GW), and Chicago (1.2GW), all of which have seen continued activity despite varying power availability limitations.
With power and component lead times constraining delivery of new supply, vacancy region-wide is currently at 4.9%, driving 83% of deliveries to be preleased and placing upward pressure on lease rates.
Interest in large-scale power availabilities, plentiful land and less strict latency requirements for AI has driven hyperscalers and operators to expand into historically peripheral markets like Indianapolis, Kansas City, Reno, Charlotte, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Montgomery, and other outlying areas.
Key markets featured in this reportinclude:
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