The Geography of the Data Center Boom
The data center construction map in 2026 looks nothing like it did five years ago. While Northern Virginia still dominates with a staggering 2.3 gigawatts of capacity either under construction or in advanced permitting, the industry has fragmented across at least 15 states in response to power constraints, land availability, and shifting tax incentive packages. For general contractors, MEP firms, and specialty trades, understanding where these projects are landing is not academic — it determines where to position crews, where to bid, and where the next three to five years of backlog will come from.
This tracker covers every major data center construction project in the United States as of early 2026, organized by state. We define "major" as projects exceeding 100,000 square feet or 20 megawatts of IT load capacity. Smaller edge deployments and colocation expansions are excluded unless they represent part of a larger campus buildout.
The numbers are striking. According to CBRE's latest data center market report, there are currently over 5.2 gigawatts of new data center capacity under construction nationwide, with another 8.1 gigawatts in various stages of planning and permitting. That translates to roughly $32 billion to $36 billion in construction spending for 2026 alone — a figure that would have seemed absurd even two years ago.
Virginia — Still the Undisputed King
Virginia remains the center of gravity for U.S. data center construction, and it is not particularly close. The state hosts approximately 2.3 gigawatts of capacity either under construction or in advanced permitting as of Q1 2026, concentrated primarily in two Northern Virginia counties that have become synonymous with the industry.
Loudoun County
Loudoun County has been called "Data Center Alley" for more than a decade, and the nickname remains accurate. The county currently hosts over 30 million square feet of operational data center space, with another estimated 8 to 10 million square feet in active construction. Major projects include:
- Amazon Web Services is building out its Loudoun County campus with three new facilities totaling approximately 1.2 million square feet. The project is expected to draw 180 megawatts at full buildout, with construction timelines extending through 2028.
- Microsoft has permits for a 900,000-square-foot campus expansion in eastern Loudoun, part of the company's broader $14 billion domestic data center investment program. Site preparation began in late 2025 with vertical construction underway.
- Google is expanding its existing Loudoun presence with two new buildings totaling roughly 600,000 square feet and 90 megawatts of capacity.
- Equinix continues its Ashburn campus expansion with its DC-17 and DC-18 facilities, adding approximately 400,000 square feet of colocation space.
The county's Board of Supervisors has become increasingly cautious about new approvals, imposing stricter noise ordinances and setback requirements in 2025 that have slowed some permitting timelines by three to six months. But the fundamental economics — proximity to fiber routes, existing utility infrastructure, and an established ecosystem of contractors and vendors — continue to attract investment.
Prince William County
Prince William County has emerged as Loudoun's overflow market, with several massive campus developments underway. The most significant is the QTS Realty campus at the former Innovation Technology Park, which at full buildout will deliver over 500 megawatts of IT capacity across 4 million-plus square feet. The first phase is already operational, with phases two through five in various stages of construction.
Amazon's HQ2 adjacent data center campus in Prince William is also progressing, with three buildings either completed or under construction and another four in permitting.
Power Constraints
The elephant in Virginia's data center room is power. Dominion Energy has publicly stated that it cannot meet current interconnection requests with existing generation and transmission capacity. The utility's integrated resource plan calls for 3 to 7 years of lead time for major transmission upgrades — a timeline that is fundamentally incompatible with the speed at which hyperscale operators want to build. This power constraint is the single biggest factor pushing data center construction into new states.
Texas — The Clear Number Two
Texas has solidified its position as the second-largest data center construction market in the country, driven by relatively abundant and inexpensive power, business-friendly permitting, and the absence of state income tax. The state currently has approximately 800 megawatts of capacity under construction, with another 1.5 gigawatts in planning.
Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex
DFW remains the primary Texas data center market, with significant construction activity concentrated in the suburbs of Garland, Allen, Plano, and Red Oak. CyrusOne (now part of KKR's portfolio) is building a massive 300-megawatt campus in Red Oak, south of Dallas, with the first phase delivered in late 2025. Digital Realty continues to expand its Richardson campus.
San Antonio
San Antonio has quietly become one of the fastest-growing data center markets in the country, leveraging cheap power from CPS Energy (the nation's largest municipally owned electric utility) and proximity to the military and government installations that drive classified computing demand. Microsoft has a major campus expansion underway, and new entrants including Compass Datacenters have broken ground on greenfield sites.
Austin
Austin's data center growth has been more modest, constrained by the same power and water challenges facing the city's broader growth. However, Meta's Austin-area campus continues to expand, and several colocation operators have announced new builds.
Temple and Midlothian
Meta's $800 million data center campus near Temple, Texas represents one of the largest single-project investments in the state. The 900,000-square-foot facility is under construction with a target completion of late 2027. Google's Midlothian facility, south of Dallas, is also in active construction, representing the company's first major Texas data center investment.
Tax Incentives
Texas's Chapter 313 tax incentive program (and its replacement, Chapter 403) has been a significant factor in attracting data center investment, offering property tax abatements worth hundreds of millions over the life of a project. The state legislature has signaled continued support for data center incentives, which is keeping Texas competitive against emerging markets.
Georgia — Atlanta's Quiet Rise
Georgia has moved aggressively into data center construction, with the Atlanta metro area now ranking among the top five U.S. markets. The state approved the Georgia Data Center Tax Exemption in 2018, which exempts qualifying equipment from sales tax, and that incentive has proven highly effective.
QTS, Switch, and Google all have major projects underway in the Atlanta metro area. Google's $600 million expansion of its Douglas County campus is the most prominent, but the real story is the volume of mid-size colocation builds — 20 to 50 megawatt facilities — that are filling in around the major campuses. Georgia Power's relatively shorter interconnection timelines compared to Virginia have been a key selling point.
Indiana — The Biggest Surprise
Indiana has emerged as perhaps the most surprising data center construction market of 2026. Microsoft's announcement of a $3.3 billion data center campus in central Indiana sent shockwaves through the industry, and the state has since attracted additional investment from Google and Meta.
Microsoft's Indiana campus, located near Indianapolis, will ultimately deliver over 400 megawatts of IT capacity across multiple buildings. The company has committed to hiring 2,000 construction workers at peak, and has partnered with local unions and technical schools to train workers in the specialized trades required for data center construction.
Google's $2 billion investment in Fort Wayne represents another massive project for a state that had virtually no hyperscale data center presence five years ago. The project is taking advantage of Indiana's comparatively low electricity rates (averaging $0.08 to $0.10 per kWh for industrial users) and the state's aggressive economic development incentives.
Indiana's emergence illustrates a broader trend: the data center industry is being forced to look beyond traditional markets as power and land constraints limit growth in Virginia, Dallas, and other established hubs. States that can offer reliable power, reasonable permitting timelines, and competitive incentives are winning projects that would have gone to Virginia by default three years ago.
Ohio — Steady Growth
Ohio has built a solid data center market centered on Columbus and the surrounding suburbs. Amazon Web Services operates a significant campus in the Columbus area, and several colocation operators have expanded in the market. The state's competitive electricity rates and central location (providing low-latency connectivity to much of the eastern U.S.) make it an attractive option.
New Albany, just northeast of Columbus, has become particularly active, with Google and Meta both exploring campus-scale developments. Ohio's data center-specific tax incentive program, enacted in 2022, provides property tax exemptions for qualifying facilities and has helped the state attract investment.
Other States to Watch
Arizona
The Phoenix metro area remains a strong data center market, though water concerns have become a more prominent factor in permitting decisions. Despite this, major projects from Microsoft, Meta, and several colocation operators continue to advance. Mesa, Chandler, and Goodyear are the primary construction zones.
South Carolina
South Carolina has attracted significant data center investment, leveraging cheap power and aggressive state incentives. Google's Berkeley County campus is one of the largest projects in the Southeast.
Nevada
The Reno-Sparks area continues to attract data center construction, with Switch's Citadel Campus representing one of the largest data center developments in the western United States.
Oregon
Hillsboro and Prineville remain active data center construction markets, though Oregon's data center tax incentive program has faced political challenges.
Nebraska
Meta's Papillion campus expansion represents a significant investment in a market that offers some of the cheapest electricity in the country and virtually unlimited water for cooling.
The Permitting and Timeline Picture
Understanding where data centers are being built is only half the story. The other half is how long it takes to get them built, and that timeline varies dramatically by state.
In Virginia, the combination of utility interconnection delays, increasingly restrictive local zoning, and community opposition has pushed project timelines to 24 to 36 months from permit application to energized facility. In some cases, the utility interconnection alone takes longer than the entire construction program.
Texas projects generally move faster, with typical timelines of 18 to 24 months, benefiting from less restrictive local permitting and a utility environment that, while not without challenges, moves more quickly than Virginia.
The Midwest states — Indiana, Ohio, Iowa — offer perhaps the fastest timelines, with some projects reporting permit-to-completion timelines of 14 to 20 months. This speed advantage is a significant factor in these states' growing appeal to hyperscale operators who are under intense pressure to bring capacity online quickly.
Arizona remains competitive on timeline despite water-related permitting scrutiny, with most projects completing in 18 to 24 months. Georgia and South Carolina fall in a similar range, with supportive regulatory environments that facilitate relatively smooth permitting processes.
For contractors, these timeline differences affect everything from mobilization planning to workforce allocation. A project in Indiana that needs to go from groundbreaking to commissioning in 16 months creates very different staffing and sequencing challenges than a Virginia project with a 30-month timeline.
What This Means for Contractors
For construction firms evaluating where to position resources, several trends are clear from this state-by-state analysis.
First, Virginia is still the largest market but the most competitive, with established MEP firms and general contractors already deeply embedded. Breaking into the Virginia data center market as a new entrant is exceptionally difficult.
Second, the emerging markets — Indiana, Ohio, Georgia, and parts of Texas — offer better opportunities for firms willing to relocate crews and establish local presence. The demand for electricians, pipefitters, and controls technicians in these markets is outpacing local supply, which creates openings.
Third, power availability is becoming the primary site selection driver, which means data center construction is following cheap, available electricity. States and utilities that can offer firm power commitments on reasonable timelines are winning projects.
Fourth, the scale of these projects means they affect local construction markets far beyond the data center industry. A 200-megawatt campus buildout with 3,000 workers at peak will tighten labor markets for every other commercial project in a 50-mile radius.
For a broader view of construction spending trends across all sectors, see our 2026 construction spending forecast, which places data center investment in the context of the $2.1 trillion total market. And for more on the workforce challenges these projects face, see our analysis of the construction workforce gap.
The Bottom Line
The geographic diversification of data center construction is the most significant trend in commercial construction today. What was once a Virginia-plus-a-few-others market has become a truly national industry, with major projects breaking ground in states that had no hyperscale presence just a few years ago. For the construction industry, this creates both opportunity and challenge — opportunity in the form of massive project backlogs, and challenge in the form of a specialized workforce that needs to scale dramatically to meet demand.
This tracker will be updated quarterly as new projects are announced, permitted, and broken ground. The pace of change in this market is fast enough that the 2026 map will look meaningfully different from the 2025 map, and early movers — both developers and contractors — will capture disproportionate value.
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