Internet Data Center Locations: Markets, Hubs, and Largest Facilities

Synergy Research Group counted more than 10,000 operational data centers worldwide as of early 2026, with another 600+ facilities under construction or in planning stages.

Internet data center locations shape everything from the streaming speed of your Netflix queue to the latency of a global financial trade.

The largest clusters sit in Northern Virginia, Dallas, Chicago, Phoenix, and Silicon Valley across the United States, with fast-growing hubs in Dublin, Frankfurt, Singapore, and São Paulo serving international demand.

This guide covers the top U.S. and global data center markets, the largest operating and planned facilities by megawatt capacity, a regional breakdown across South America, Europe, and Asia, and the site selection factors that determine where the next wave of data centers gets built.

Overview of data centers and market drivers

A data center is a physical facility that houses the servers, storage systems, and networking equipment that power the internet, cloud computing, enterprise applications, and AI workloads.

Every email, video call, social media post, and online transaction passes through at least one data center before it reaches you.

Three forces are driving record expansion of internet data center locations in 2026.

First, artificial intelligence training and inference require massive amounts of computing power.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that global data center electricity demand will double between 2024 and 2030, reaching over 1,000 terawatt-hours per year.

Second, cloud migration continues to accelerate, with Gartner forecasting worldwide public cloud spending to reach $723 billion in 2025, up 21% from 2024.

Third, digital sovereignty regulations in the EU, India, and parts of Asia require organizations to store data within national borders, creating demand for new facilities in markets that previously had little capacity.

Location matters because of latency, the time it takes data to travel between a user and a server.

A data center 50 miles from the end user delivers a round-trip response in roughly 1-2 milliseconds.

A data center on another continent can take 100-200 milliseconds.

For financial trading, online gaming, and real-time AI applications, that difference is enormous.

Businesses choose data center locations based on proximity to customers, access to reliable power, network connectivity, land costs, tax incentives, and natural disaster risk.

Top U.S. data center markets

The United States hosts more data center capacity than any other country on earth, accounting for roughly 40% of all hyperscale data centers globally according to Synergy Research Group’s 2025 count.

Markets are ranked below by a combination of total operational capacity in megawatts, the number of facilities, and the volume of new construction.

CBRE’s 2025 North America Data Center Trends report tracks the following markets as the most active in the country.

Note that ranking criteria vary by source: some rank by total inventory in megawatts, others by absorption or new supply.

The table below uses CBRE’s primary market inventory data combined with Cushman & Wakefield’s Global Data Center Market Comparison.

Market	Est. Operational Capacity (MW)	Key Employers	Why It Ranks
Northern Virginia	4,500+	Amazon (AWS), Microsoft, Google, Equinix, Digital Realty, QTS	Largest data center market on the planet. Ashburn alone carries 35%+ of U.S. internet traffic
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX	2,000+	CyrusOne, DataBank, Compass, Flexential, T5	Low power costs, no state income tax, central U.S. location
Phoenix/Mesa, AZ	1,500+	Microsoft, Google, Meta, Aligned Data Centers, Stream Data Centers	Abundant land, solar power potential, low natural disaster risk
Chicago, IL	1,200+	Digital Realty, Equinix, DataBank, QTS	Major network hub, central location, diverse fiber routes
Silicon Valley, CA	1,000+	Equinix, Vantage Data Centers, CoreSite, Digital Realty	Highest interconnection density in the western U.S.
Atlanta, GA	800+	QTS, Switch, DataBank, Google	Southeast network hub, growing corporate base, low power costs
Northern New Jersey	800+	Equinix, Digital Realty, CyrusOne, CoreSite	Proximity to New York financial markets, dense fiber infrastructure
Columbus, OH	500+	Amazon (AWS), Google, Meta, QTS	Central Ohio has cheap power, low land costs, and sits near major fiber routes
Portland, OR	400+	Amazon, Google, Flexential, Vantage Data Centers	Hydroelectric power, mild climate reduces cooling costs
Seattle, WA	350+	Microsoft, Amazon, Sabey Data Centers, Vantage	Pacific Rim connectivity, skilled tech workforce, hydroelectric power
Salt Lake City, UT	300+	Aligned Data Centers, Novva, C7 Data Centers	Low energy costs, cool climate, growing tech sector

These figures come from a combination of CBRE’s 2025 data center market reports, Cushman & Wakefield’s 2024 Global Data Center Market Comparison, and company earnings reports from Equinix, Digital Realty, and QTS.

Northern Virginia data center market

Northern Virginia is the single largest data center market on earth.

The Loudoun County Economic Development Authority reports that Data Center Alley, centered on Ashburn, Virginia, hosts more than 300 data centers and carries over 70% of the world’s internet traffic through its fiber networks.

JLL’s 2025 Data Center Outlook estimates that Northern Virginia’s total operational capacity exceeds 4,500 megawatts, with another 2,000+ MW under construction.

Several factors created this concentration. MAE-East, one of the internet’s original exchange points, was established in Tysons Corner, Virginia in 1992.

That early network presence attracted internet service providers, who attracted content companies, who attracted cloud providers.

Dominion Energy provides relatively cheap and reliable electricity, with commercial rates in the $0.06-0.08/kWh range.

Virginia’s data center tax exemptions, introduced in 2009 and expanded multiple times since, remove sales and use tax on data center equipment purchases over certain investment thresholds.

Amazon Web Services operates its US-East-1 region out of Northern Virginia, the company’s largest and oldest cloud region.

Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and nearly every major cloud and colocation provider maintains significant presence in the market.

Equinix alone operates more than 30 data centers in the D.C. metro area. Digital Realty, QTS (a Blackstone portfolio company), CoreSite, and Vantage Data Centers all have major campuses in Loudoun and Prince William counties.

If you are looking for data center work, Northern Virginia is the highest-concentration job market in the world for this industry.

You can explore open roles in our data center jobs in Northern Virginia guide or check salary benchmarks in our data center technician salary in Northern Virginia breakdown.

Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay Area data centers

Silicon Valley and the broader San Francisco Bay Area represent the west coast hub for data center interconnection.

Equinix’s SV1-SV11 campus in San Jose is one of the most interconnected data center clusters in the world, with direct access to more than 200 network providers and 8 major internet exchange points (IXPs).

The Bay Area’s data center market is unique because it is driven by interconnection and peering, not raw capacity.

Companies locate here to be physically close to the servers of their cloud providers, SaaS vendors, and business partners.

Coresite’s SV7 facility in Santa Clara and Digital Realty’s campus in Sunnyvale serve a similar function: connecting enterprises to cloud on-ramps.

San Francisco itself hosts a smaller but significant cluster of data centers that serve the city’s financial district and tech companies.

The 365 Main facility at 365 Main Street in San Francisco is one of the Bay Area’s most established carrier hotels.

The trade-off is cost. Real estate in Santa Clara County runs $40-60 per square foot for industrial space compared to $8-15 per square foot in markets like Phoenix or Columbus.

Power costs in California average $0.15-0.20/kWh, roughly double what operators pay in Virginia or Texas.

These cost pressures have pushed new large-scale construction to cheaper markets, with Silicon Valley increasingly serving as a connectivity hub rather than a capacity hub.

Other major U.S. data center markets

Several markets beyond the top five are growing rapidly and deserve attention from anyone tracking internet data center locations across the United States.

Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas benefits from low power costs (averaging $0.07-0.09/kWh), no state income tax, central U.S. geography, and a business-friendly regulatory environment.

CyrusOne, DataBank, Compass Datacenters, and Flexential all operate major campuses.

Texas added more than 500 MW of new data center capacity in 2024 alone according to CBRE.

You can find more detail in our data center jobs in Dallas, Texas guide.

Chicago, Illinois is the Midwest’s primary network hub.

The city’s 350 East Cermak Road facility, operated by Digital Realty, is one of the largest carrier hotels in the world at 1.1 million square feet.

Chicago benefits from a central location that reduces latency to both coasts and diverse fiber routes from multiple providers.

Our data center jobs in Chicago guide covers the local hiring landscape.

Phoenix and Mesa, Arizona are among the fastest-growing data center markets in the country.

Aligned Data Centers, Stream Data Centers, Microsoft, Google, and Meta have all announced or completed major campus builds in the area.

Mesa alone has approved over 1,000 MW of planned data center development.

The dry desert climate reduces cooling costs, and Arizona’s solar energy resources support sustainability commitments.

Explore current openings in our data center jobs in Phoenix guide.

Atlanta, Georgia serves as the Southeast’s data center hub.

QTS operates its massive Suwanee campus in the metro area, and Switch opened its Atlanta facility in 2022.

Google announced a $1 billion+ investment in data center infrastructure in Georgia.

Our data center jobs in Atlanta guide breaks down that market.

Columbus, Ohio has emerged as a Midwest data center hotspot.

Amazon, Google, and Meta have collectively committed billions of dollars to data center campuses in central Ohio, drawn by cheap power from American Electric Power, available land, and proximity to fiber routes connecting the East Coast to Chicago.

Indiana is another rising market, with Google committing $2 billion to data center construction in the state.

Low power costs and available land in suburban Indianapolis make it attractive for large-scale builds.

Iowa deserves mention as a growing location for hyperscale builds. Meta operates a massive campus in Altoona, Iowa, and Microsoft and Google both have significant presence in the state.

Iowa’s wind energy production (the state generates over 60% of its electricity from wind) and low land costs make it a natural fit for operators prioritizing sustainability and low operating costs.

The pattern across the eastern and western United States is clear.

Eastern markets like Northern Virginia, Northern New Jersey, and Atlanta dominate for connectivity and financial services workloads where low latency to major population centers matters.

Western markets like Phoenix, Oregon, and Salt Lake City attract large-scale builds where cheap power and available land matter more than proximity to users.

The Midwest, including Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, and Indiana, splits the difference: good connectivity, reasonable power costs, and a central location that keeps latency manageable to both coasts.

Largest data centers and campuses

The largest internet data center locations are measured in megawatts of IT power capacity.

A single megawatt powers roughly 400-500 standard server racks, so a large data center rated at 200 MW can house 80,000 to 100,000 racks.

The industry classifies data centers as “hyperscale” when they exceed 5,000 servers and 10,000 square feet according to Synergy Research Group, but the biggest campuses are orders of magnitude larger.

Largest operating data centers

Facility	Location	Capacity (MW)	Developer/Operator
The Citadel Campus	Tahoe Reno, NV	650+	Switch
Lakeside Technology Center	Chicago, IL	200+	Digital Realty
QTS Ashburn Mega Data Center	Ashburn, VA	200+	QTS (Blackstone)
Microsoft San Antonio Campus	San Antonio, TX	150+	Microsoft
Equinix SV Campus	San Jose, CA	130+	Equinix
CyrusOne Chandler Campus	Chandler, AZ	120+	CyrusOne
Aligned SLC Campus	Salt Lake City, UT	100+	Aligned Data Centers
Meta Prineville Campus	Prineville, OR	100+	Meta
Google The Dalles Campus	The Dalles, OR	100+	Google
CoreSite VA Campus	Reston, VA	90+	CoreSite

Capacity figures are approximate and based on public filings, company announcements, and CBRE/JLL market reports.

Many operators do not disclose exact capacity figures.

Largest planned data centers

The pipeline of planned facilities is staggering. Several projects announced in 2025 and 2026 will dwarf anything currently operating.

Project	Location	Planned Capacity (MW)	Developer	Expected Online
Stargate (Phase 1)	Abilene, TX	1,200+	Oracle, SoftBank, OpenAI, MGX	2026-2028
Microsoft Eagle Mountain	Eagle Mountain, UT	500+	Microsoft	2027-2028
Meta Gallatin Campus Expansion	Gallatin, TN	400+	Meta	2026-2027
Google Columbus Expansion	Columbus, OH	400+	Google	2026-2028
QTS Irving Campus	Irving, TX	300+	QTS (Blackstone)	2026-2027
Aligned Ashburn Campus	Ashburn, VA	250+	Aligned Data Centers	2026

The $500 billion Stargate initiative, announced in January 2025 by Oracle, SoftBank, OpenAI, and MGX, represents the single largest data center investment in history.

Its initial 1,200+ MW campus in Abilene, Texas will be one of the largest purpose-built data center projects ever constructed, with plans to expand far beyond that over time.

Projects with unusual scale or timelines include Meta’s proposed 4,000+ acre hyperscale campus in Richland Parish, Louisiana, which could eventually reach over 1 gigawatt of capacity if fully built out.

That would make it the largest single data center campus in the world by a wide margin.

How many data centers: counts and capacity

Counting internet data center locations precisely is tricky because definitions vary.

The numbers below use the most commonly cited industry sources and distinguish between total facilities and hyperscale facilities.

Total operating data centers globally: Synergy Research Group tracks more than 10,000 data centers worldwide with at least 1 MW of IT capacity.

Smaller facilities (server closets, edge sites) push the total count much higher, but those are not typically counted as commercial data centers.

Planned data center projects: DatacenterHawk and DC Byte track over 600 data center projects currently under construction or in advanced planning globally as of Q1 2026.

Total operating capacity: 451 Research (S&P Global Market Intelligence) estimates total global data center capacity at approximately 45-50 gigawatts of IT load as of 2025.

That number is expected to reach 70-80 GW by 2030.

Planned capacity: JLL’s 2025 Data Center Outlook identifies more than 25 GW of announced data center capacity in the global pipeline, with the largest share concentrated in the United States, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Unique developers: More than 500 unique data center developers and operators are active globally according to Synergy Research Group.

The market remains fragmented outside the hyperscale segment, with hundreds of regional and single-facility operators alongside the major players.

Equinix operates 260+ data centers in 72 metros across 33 countries, making it the largest colocation provider by revenue and facility count. Digital Realty controls over 300 facilities in 50+ metros worldwide.

QTS, Vantage Data Centers, CyrusOne, and CoreSite round out the major North American players, with each company operating multiple campuses across key U.S. markets.

On the hyperscale side, the three largest cloud providers, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, collectively operate or lease capacity in hundreds of data centers globally. AWS alone runs more than 100 availability zones across 33 geographic regions.

Microsoft Azure operates across 60+ regions in more than 140 countries.

Google Cloud runs 40+ regions and 120+ zones. These three companies, along with Meta, Oracle, and Apple, account for the majority of new hyperscale capacity under construction worldwide.

The significance of these numbers for professionals is clear: more data centers means more jobs in construction, commissioning, operations, and engineering across every region.

The Uptime Institute’s 2024 Global Data Center Survey estimates the industry will need 300,000+ new workers by 2027 to staff both existing and planned facilities.

Global map and regional locations

Internet data center locations span more than 60 countries, but capacity is heavily concentrated in a handful of regions.

North America accounts for roughly 40% of global hyperscale capacity, Europe about 25%, and Asia-Pacific another 25%, with the remainder spread across Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.

Interactive data center maps are available from several sources. Cloudscene maintains a database of over 8,600 data centers across 135 countries, searchable by location, provider, and connectivity.

DatacenterHawk tracks North American markets with detailed supply and demand data.

The Uptime Institute’s data center map focuses on certified facilities worldwide.

Baxtel and Data Center Map provide free global directories where you can explore facilities by region.

For enterprise site evaluation, downloading a CSV from these providers allows you to sort facilities by coordinates, operator, capacity, and certification level.

Key attributes to filter on include total capacity in megawatts, redundancy tier (Tier II, III, or IV per Uptime Institute standards), network carriers present, distance to the nearest fiber backbone, and access to renewable energy.

Organizations with customers spread across multiple regions often deploy across 3-5 locations to keep latency low for every user population, a strategy that hyperscalers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google use extensively with their dozens of global cloud regions.

Region	Est. % of Global Capacity	Top Markets	Growth Drivers
North America	~40%	Northern Virginia, Dallas, Phoenix, Chicago, Silicon Valley, Seattle	AI buildout, cloud expansion, Stargate initiative
Europe	~25%	Dublin, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, London, Paris (FLAP-D markets)	Digital sovereignty, GDPR compliance, corporate cloud adoption
Asia-Pacific	~25%	Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Mumbai, Hong Kong	Population growth, mobile-first economies, government digitization
Latin America	~5%	São Paulo, Santiago, Bogotá, Mexico City	Cloud adoption, undersea cable landings, nearshoring
Middle East & Africa	~5%	Dubai, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Riyadh, Tel Aviv	Government smart city initiatives, new subsea cables

South America data centers

Latin America’s data center market is growing faster than any other developing region, with CBRE’s 2025 report identifying São Paulo, Brazil as the largest market by capacity, followed by Santiago, Chile, and Bogotá, Colombia.

Brazil is the dominant South American market.

São Paulo hosts the region’s densest cluster of data centers, with Equinix, Digital Realty (via Ascenty), ODATA, and Scala Data Centers all operating major facilities.

Brazil’s data center capacity exceeded 500 MW in 2025 according to Arizton Advisory.

The EllaLink subsea cable connecting São Paulo directly to Lisbon, Portugal reduces latency for European enterprises with Latin American customers.

Colombia is South America’s fastest-growing secondary market.

Bogotá has attracted investment from Equinix, EdgeConneX, and local operator GTD.

The country’s strategic location as a landing point for undersea cables connecting North and South America makes it a natural hub.

Colombia’s data center market grew by 30%+ year-over-year in 2024 according to Arizton.

Chile benefits from cool climate conditions, renewable energy availability (the country generates over 30% of electricity from solar and wind), and a stable business environment.

Santiago is the third-largest data center market in South America, with Google, Ascenty, and GTD operating facilities.

Mexico sits at the border of North and Latin America and is increasingly important.

Querétaro and Mexico City are the primary markets, with new builds from Equinix, KIO Networks, and EdgeConneX.

Nearshoring trends, as manufacturers move supply chains closer to the U.S., are driving additional demand for local data infrastructure.

Europe, Asia, and other regions

European data center locations are dominated by the FLAP-D markets: Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin.

These five metro areas account for the majority of European colocation and hyperscale capacity.

Dublin, Ireland is a particularly important market because it hosts the European headquarters of Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and many other U.S. tech companies.

Ireland’s corporate tax rates and EU membership make it a natural home for data serving European customers.

Frankfurt, Germany is the continent’s interconnection hub, similar to Ashburn’s role in the U.S.

The DE-CIX Frankfurt internet exchange is the largest IXP in the world by peak traffic.

Amsterdam and the broader Netherlands market benefit from the AMS-IX exchange, one of the world’s busiest peering points, and a favorable energy tax structure that has attracted significant investment from NTT, Equinix, and Digital Realty.

Emerging European markets include the Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway), which attract operators with low energy costs from hydroelectric and wind power, cool climates that reduce cooling costs, and strong sustainability credentials.

Microsoft, Google, and Meta have all built or announced data centers in Denmark and Sweden. Denmark in particular has become a magnet for hyperscale campuses: Apple’s Viborg data center and Google’s Fredericia facility both run on renewable energy.

Asian data center hubs are concentrated in Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Mumbai, and Sydney.

Singapore is the region’s primary interconnection point, hosting over 70 data centers from providers including Equinix, Digital Realty, ST Telemedia, and Keppel.

Japan’s data center market, centered on Tokyo and Osaka, is Asia’s largest by revenue.

India is the fastest-growing Asian market, with Mumbai, Chennai, and Hyderabad all seeing rapid construction from NTT, CtrlS, and Adani Group.

Taiwan is gaining attention as TSMC’s chip fabrication presence creates secondary demand for data processing nearby.

Singapore has lifted its moratorium on new data center construction with a focus on energy-efficient “green” facilities.

The Middle East market is expanding rapidly. Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh and Jeddah are attracting Microsoft and Oracle investments as part of the country’s Vision 2030 digital transformation program.

Israel has become a secondary Middle East hub, with data center operators building capacity in Tel Aviv and Haifa to serve the country’s large technology sector and growing cloud adoption.

The UAE (Dubai and Abu Dhabi) hosts facilities from Equinix, Khazna Data Centers, and Gulf Data Hub, serving as a regional gateway for enterprises operating across the Middle East and Africa.

A note on capacity measurements: the global data center industry reports power capacity in megawatts (MW), using the metric system standard.

One megawatt equals 1,000 kilowatts.

In the U.S. you will occasionally see facility sizes described in square feet (imperial units), but MW of IT load is the universal standard for comparing capacity across markets.

European and Asian markets report exclusively in metric and imperial conversions are rarely needed for power metrics, only for physical building dimensions where some U.S. operators still use square feet instead of square meters.

Site selection factors for data center location

Choosing where to build a data center involves balancing at least six major factors.

These same factors explain why certain markets dominate and others remain underbuilt.

Connectivity and latency

Every data center needs high-capacity fiber connections to the internet backbone.

Low latency connectivity is the primary reason certain markets dominate: Northern Virginia, Chicago, Frankfurt, and Singapore sit at the intersection of many fiber routes, providing redundancy so that if one path fails, traffic reroutes automatically.

A data center should be within 50 miles of its primary user base for latency-sensitive workloads like financial trading, gaming, and video conferencing.

For cloud storage and batch processing, latency is less critical, which is why some large campuses are built in rural areas with cheap land and power.

Seattle, for example, benefits from strong Pacific Rim connectivity and serves as a low latency gateway to Asian markets through transpacific submarine cables landing in the Pacific Northwest.

Power cost and grid reliability

Electricity is the single largest operating cost for a data center, typically accounting for 40-60% of total operating expenses. Markets with cheap, reliable power attract the most development.

Northern Virginia benefits from Dominion Energy’s rates in the $0.06-0.08/kWh range.

Oregon and Washington offer hydroelectric power at even lower rates.

Texas is competitive at $0.07-0.09/kWh with a deregulated energy market.

Arizona benefits from solar energy potential and rates around $0.08-0.10/kWh.

Grid reliability is equally important: a single hour of downtime at a major data center can cost the operator $300,000 to over $1 million according to the Uptime Institute’s 2024 Annual Outage Analysis.

Regulatory and tax incentives

Many U.S. states and countries offer tax incentives to attract data center investment.

Virginia’s data center tax exemption removes sales and use tax on equipment purchases.

Iowa offers a 100% property tax exemption for qualifying data centers.

Indiana, Ohio, and Georgia have all passed data center incentive legislation.

In Europe, Ireland’s low corporate tax rate and the Netherlands’ favorable energy tax structure have attracted major builds.

Singapore’s government actively recruits data center operators through its Economic Development Board.

Natural hazard and climate risk

Smart operators avoid locations with high risk of earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding, or extreme heat.

Phoenix offers low humidity and no hurricane risk, but extreme heat (115°F+ summers) increases cooling costs.

Oregon has earthquake risk from the Cascadia subduction zone.

The Gulf Coast carries hurricane exposure.

The Uptime Institute recommends a formal climate risk assessment as part of any site selection process, factoring in 50-year flood plains, seismic zones, and historical weather patterns.

Short site selection checklist

Before committing to a location, operators and their advisors evaluate these criteria:

• Available fiber providers and path diversity (minimum 3 independent carriers)
• Power capacity and utility willingness to serve (can the local grid deliver 100+ MW?)
• Power cost per kWh and historical rate stability
• Tax incentives at state, county, and municipal levels
• Land availability and zoning (is the site already zoned for data center use?)
• Natural hazard exposure (flood zone, seismic zone, tornado alley, hurricane path)
• Proximity to skilled workforce for construction and operations
• Water availability for cooling (especially relevant for evaporative cooling systems)

Maps, tools, and next steps

Several free and paid tools can help you explore internet data center locations interactively.

Cloudscene (cloudscene.com) offers a searchable database of 8,600+ data centers with network provider information.

DatacenterHawk (datacenterhawk.com) tracks North American supply and demand with market-level dashboards. DC Byte (dcbyte.com) provides global market intelligence with detailed capacity and pipeline data. Baxtel (baxtel.com) maps data centers worldwide with basic operator and capacity information.

For enterprise site evaluation, the recommended process is straightforward.

Start by defining your capacity requirements in megawatts and your latency requirements to primary user populations.

Short-list 3-5 markets that meet your connectivity, power, and regulatory criteria.

Tour facilities from at least 2-3 operators in each market.

Compare total cost of ownership across markets, including power, taxes, labor, and connectivity costs.

For sales inquiries or to request a demo of enterprise site evaluation tools, contact data center real estate advisors who specialize in tenant representation for critical infrastructure.

FAQ

Where are most internet data centers located?

Most internet data centers are located in the United States, which hosts roughly 40% of global hyperscale capacity according to Synergy Research Group. The single largest concentration is in Northern Virginia’s Data Center Alley, centered on Ashburn, which carries over 70% of U.S. internet traffic. Other top U.S. markets include Dallas-Fort Worth, Phoenix, Chicago, and Silicon Valley. Globally, the FLAP-D markets (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin) dominate Europe, and Singapore is Asia’s primary hub.

How many data centers are there in the world in 2026?

There are more than 10,000 commercial data centers worldwide with at least 1 MW of IT capacity, according to Synergy Research Group’s 2025-2026 tracking. Over 600 additional facilities are under construction or in advanced planning. Total global data center capacity sits at approximately 45-50 gigawatts, with projections to reach 70-80 GW by 2030 per 451 Research (S&P Global).

What is the largest data center in the world?

The largest operating data center campus by capacity is Switch’s Citadel Campus in Tahoe Reno, Nevada, with over 650 MW of power capacity across multiple buildings. The largest planned project is the Stargate initiative in Abilene, Texas (Oracle, SoftBank, OpenAI, MGX), with an initial phase exceeding 1,200 MW and long-term plans for far greater capacity.

Why is Northern Virginia the biggest data center market?

Northern Virginia became the biggest data center market because of MAE-East, one of the internet’s first exchange points, established in Tysons Corner in 1992. That early network presence attracted ISPs, content companies, and cloud providers over three decades. Cheap and reliable power from Dominion Energy ($0.06-0.08/kWh), Virginia’s data center tax exemptions, and abundant fiber connectivity cemented the region’s lead. Amazon AWS runs its largest cloud region (US-East-1) out of Northern Virginia.

What factors determine where a data center is built?

The six main factors are fiber connectivity and path diversity, power cost and grid reliability, tax incentives, natural hazard risk, proximity to skilled labor, and land availability with appropriate zoning. Power is typically the largest single operating cost at 40-60% of total expenses, making cheap electricity one of the strongest location drivers. Latency requirements determine how close the facility needs to be to its end users, which is why financial services data centers cluster near major cities and large cloud campuses can be built in rural areas with cheaper land.