Top 5 fastest-growing cities for data centers

No. 4: Atlanta

Atlanta is expected to grow capacity by 484% to 3,125 MW—enough to power about 2.6 million homes. Microsoft is investing in incredible $1.8 billion to the region for a massive data center upgrade spanning three facilities and consuming 324 MW. This will effectively double the size of the existing data center infrastructure in the city.

No. 5: Dallas-Fort Worth

Data center capacity is projected to grow by 355% in Dallas-Fort Worth, requiring up to 4,396 MW of energy — enough to power about 3.6 million homes. DFW also stands out for its affordability, ranking seventh among the top 20 metros in land costs for colocation data centers. By contrast, land in Boston is nearly twice as expensive, and in Silicon Valley, prices are 14 times higher than in DFW.

Northern Virginia is the data center capital

Considered the world’s largest data center hub, Northern Virginia continues to lead the U.S. data center industry, with future capacity expected to double that of its nearest competitor, Phoenix.

Here’s a measure of just how massive Northern Virginia is: Once all of the planned data centers are built and running at full capacity, they will have energy requirements equivalent to the amount of electricity needed to power 9.1 million households. That’s more than three times the number of homes in the entire state of Virginia and almost three times the electrical need of New York City.

The only thing that will slow down growth will be finding enough power. Virginia’s power supply must nearly double in the next 15 years to meet rising demand. Dominion Energy estimates that power demand in Virginia is expected to grow by 85% over the next decade and a half.