Top US Data Center Markets by City

The top data center markets in the US by existing capacity are Northern Virginia, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Phoenix and Chicago, according to CBRE’s Q2 2026 market figures. Northern Virginia is still the largest by a wide margin, but Atlanta now has more capacity under construction than any other North American market.

Texas as a whole, including Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin/San Antonio, is where the biggest share of new capacity is going. Our US data center map tracks the large projects one by one, from announcement to opening.

This post is part of our data center statistics series. Below, we rank the markets using the latest public broker reports, then walk through each of Apollo’s priority cities and what the numbers mean for hiring.

What are the largest data center markets in the US?

CBRE tracks eight primary North American markets. Ranked by inventory (the megawatts of colocation capacity already built), here is how they stood at the end of Q2 2026.

Two things stand out. First, available capacity is tiny everywhere. Across all eight markets, less than 150 MW was open to lease, and Hillsboro had just 1.1 MW. Second, the gap between Northern Virginia and the rest is huge. Northern Virginia alone has more inventory than Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth combined.

JLL measures the market differently and counts more capacity, including hyperscaler-owned campuses. By its count, Northern Virginia has “nearly 7 GW of inventory,” and it remains “the world’s largest single data center market” (JLL, August 2026). Numbers from different brokers are not interchangeable, so we keep each figure tied to its source.

Which data center markets have the most capacity under construction?

Inventory tells you where the industry has been. The construction pipeline tells you where the jobs are going. Across CBRE’s primary markets, under-construction capacity rose 24.8% in H1 2026 to a record 7,481.1 MW, and primary market supply grew 33.7% year over year to 10,903 MW (CBRE, 2026).

The broader picture is even bigger. JLL counts more than 66 GW under construction across North America, with 77% of it in “frontier” markets outside the traditional hubs (JLL, Midyear 2026). Cushman & Wakefield counts 37.7 GW under construction across the Americas, with a 91.7% precommitment rate, on top of 50.3 GW already operating (Cushman & Wakefield, H1 2026).

In other words, a lot of the new building is happening in places that have never had a large data center workforce. That matters for anyone trying to staff these sites.

How big is the Atlanta data center market?

Atlanta is the fastest-rising market in the country. According to CBRE, Atlanta “emerged as North America’s most active construction market for the first time,” with 2,882 MW under construction in H1 2026, a 52.3% jump from a year earlier. That puts it ahead of Northern Virginia on new construction (CBRE, 2026).

Atlanta already ranks second on inventory, with 1,803.2 MW built and 29.5 MW available at the end of Q2 2026 (CBRE, 2026). Demand is keeping pace: JLL reports that “Atlanta hit record absorption of 918 MW in just six months” (JLL, 2026). Pricing is moving too. CBRE found that rates for 10+ MW requirements in Atlanta rose 14.5% in H1 2026.

For hiring, that combination is the key point. Nearly 2,900 MW of projects moving toward completion at the same time means Atlanta contractors and operators are all looking for electrical engineers, commissioning agents and critical facilities staff in the same window. Our Atlanta engineering recruiters see this competition in how fast strong candidates receive multiple offers.

How big is the Dallas-Fort Worth data center market?

Dallas-Fort Worth is the third-largest market by inventory, with 1,432.8 MW built and 39.6 MW available at the end of Q2 2026. That was the most available capacity of any primary market, though still small in relative terms (CBRE, 2026).

The pipeline is deep. CBRE reports that “ninety-five percent of the more than 765 MW currently under construction has been preleased,” and that developers have “an additional 3.7 GW of new greenfield development planned but have not started construction” (CBRE Dallas-Ft. Worth, H1 2026). JLL, which counts hyperscale capacity as well, says Dallas-Fort Worth “delivered over 2 GW while absorbing even more” in the first half of 2026.

Texas is the story behind these numbers. JLL reports that Texas “has cemented its position as the state for data centers, with 26 GW of existing and under-construction capacity,” well ahead of Virginia at 13 GW (JLL, 2026). Employers competing for talent in North Texas can work with our Dallas engineering recruiters. For pay by role, employers and campuses, see our Dallas-Fort Worth data center engineer talent map.

How big is the Houston data center market?

Houston is a secondary market, and it is much smaller than Dallas. CBRE’s most recent public Houston profile (H1 2025) reported that a “recent delivery by a single operator increased market vacancy to 19.7%,” and that “15 MW of new capacity is scheduled for delivery by year-end 2026” (CBRE Houston, 2025). CBRE also pointed to continued occupier demand from the oil and gas industry and to multiple behind-the-meter power studies in the market.

So Houston is not a top-five market by capacity. It does have a large energy and industrial engineering base, and many of the power, mechanical and controls skills that data centers need also exist in those sectors. Our Houston engineering recruiters often look at those adjacent industries when data center experience is thin.

How big are the Austin and San Antonio data center markets?

Brokers report Austin and San Antonio together as one market along the I-35 corridor, so there are no reliable public figures for each city on its own. As a combined market, it is growing fast. JLL reports that “Austin/San Antonio completed 1.7 GW and absorbed 796 MW as development extended beyond the urban core along the I-35 corridor” in H1 2026 (JLL, 2026).

CBRE noted in its H2 2025 report that Austin–San Antonio had “surpassed the New York Tri-State area in inventory for the first time since CBRE began tracking the market in 2016” (CBRE, H2 2025). That is a notable shift for a market CBRE still classes as secondary.

For employers in Central Texas, our Austin engineering recruiters and San Antonio engineering recruiters work the same I-35 talent pool that these projects draw from. See our Austin and San Antonio data center engineer talent maps.

Recruiter tip: When a market grows this fast, the first shortage is usually not engineers with data center titles. It is people who have commissioned high-voltage electrical and cooling systems anywhere. We widen searches to include utilities, hospitals, semiconductor fabs and heavy industrial plants, then screen for hands-on commissioning and startup work.

How big is the Chicago data center market?

Chicago ranks fifth among primary markets, with 910.6 MW of inventory and 20.0 MW available at the end of Q2 2026 (CBRE, 2026). CBRE says large tech, neocloud and enterprise demand “drove the overall vacancy rate to 2.2%,” and that “no contiguous data center space of 5 MW or more will be available this year” (CBRE Chicago, H1 2026).

Large projects are heading outside the core market, including 1-GW campuses planned in Coal City and Morris, Illinois, according to the same CBRE report. Chicago pricing for 10+ MW requirements rose 9.7% in H1 2026 (CBRE, 2026). Hiring managers working the Illinois market can reach our Chicago engineering recruiters. For pay by role, employers and campuses, see our Chicago data center engineer talent map.

What about Charlotte and Raleigh?

Public data on the Carolinas is limited and older than the figures above. The most recent hard numbers we could verify come from CBRE’s H1 2024 release: the Charlotte/Raleigh market had 55.7 MW of inventory and 113.4 MW under construction, with about 90% of new space preleased (CBRE, 2024). We have not found a 2026 update with city-level megawatt figures.

The direction is clear, though. CBRE’s H1 2025 profile noted that “AWS announced a $10 billion total buildout investment on 800 acres in Hamlet, NC,” and that some power deliveries “won’t occur until mid-2027” (CBRE Charlotte-Raleigh, 2025). JLL lists the Carolinas among the “energy-rich, build-friendly markets” that “have seen massive investment in recent years” (JLL, 2026).

Employers building or operating sites in the region can talk to our Charlotte engineering recruiters or our Raleigh engineering recruiters.

What about Northern Virginia, Phoenix and other established markets?

Northern Virginia

Northern Virginia is still the center of the industry. In H1 2026 it had 4,496.5 MW of inventory, 0.2% vacancy, 467.6 MW of net absorption (the most of any market) and 2,420.2 MW under construction (CBRE, 2026). With so little space available, growth depends on new builds and power delivery.

Phoenix

Phoenix ranks fourth by inventory at 1,069.2 MW (CBRE, 2026). JLL reports that “Phoenix absorbed 442 MW amid 1.7 GW under construction” in H1 2026. CBRE, which counts colocation space only, reported “more than 260 MW of colocation space was absorbed in H1” and noted that Arizona enacted a 36-month moratorium on data center sales tax exemptions (CBRE Phoenix, H1 2026).

Silicon Valley, Hillsboro and New York

Silicon Valley (509.2 MW), Hillsboro, Oregon (491.4 MW) and the New York Tri-State area (190.0 MW) round out CBRE’s primary markets. CBRE reported that 10+ MW asking rates in Silicon Valley and Hillsboro were unchanged in H1 2026, while New York Tri-State rates rose 19% (CBRE, 2026).

Emerging markets

Several markets outside CBRE’s primary list are growing quickly. JLL reports that Columbus “compressed to 0.1% vacancy despite bringing significant new supply online,” and names West Texas, Ohio, Louisiana and the Carolinas as markets that have seen massive investment as power becomes the deciding factor (JLL, 2026).

What do these market trends mean for data center hiring?

Our data center workforce report turns these market totals into a labor estimate: how many construction workers each metro’s pipeline needs at peak, and what share of the local electrician and technician pool that represents.

Every megawatt in these pipelines needs people to design, build, commission and then run it. With vacancy at 1.4% across primary markets and 80.4% of new capacity preleased (CBRE, 2026), tenants are waiting on delivery dates, and an unfilled commissioning or operations role can push those dates back.

A few patterns show up across the markets above:

• Demand for the same roles peaks at the same time. When a market like Atlanta has thousands of megawatts under construction at once, contractors compete for the same electrical engineers and mechanical engineers.
• Frontier sites need relocation or travel. With 77% of the North American pipeline in frontier markets (JLL, 2026), many sites sit far from an established data center workforce.
• Construction roles give way to operations roles. Once a campus is energized, the need shifts to critical facilities engineers and technicians who keep it running. Our guide to what a data center engineer does covers the difference.
• Contract and direct hire both have a place. Commissioning and build phases often suit contract staff, while operations roles are usually direct hire. See our comparison of contract staffing vs. direct hire.

Recruiter tip: In tight markets, the offer process loses more candidates than the search does. Have the hiring manager, the pay range and the interview dates locked in before we start sending resumes, and plan to make a decision within a week of the final interview.

For more on the talent side, see our posts on the data center workforce shortage, how to hire data center engineers and data center construction statistics.

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