- Vacancies plum when data centers are struggling to match an unprecedented demand
- Northern Virginia dominates capacity while new markets are growing at an explosive pace
- Developers Rush Projects, yet 73% of the new capacity is already released
Data centers are becoming the backbone of digital infrastructure with vacancies in North America now at a constant of 2.3%, New Jll Research has claimed.
Despite the inventory reaching 15.5 GW in mid -2025, the absorption rate continues to surpass the available capacity.
This discrepancy is driven by increasing dependence on AI, digital transformation and cloud storage services that have created a supply class in both established and new markets.
Demand is rising faster than the supply
JLL claims that North America could see as much as $ 1 trillion in the development of new data center by 2030.
“There was a significant increase in the amount of capital that was deployed in data center projects under construction or reached stabilization in the first half of 2025 compared to the previous year,” said Carl Beardsley, senior CEO, Data Center Manager, JLL Capital Markets.
“We see the development with long -term leasing contracts that achieve up to 85% loans for costs from senior providers on competitive spans … North America could see $ 1 trillion data center development between 2025 and 2030.”
More than 100 GW Colocation and Hyperscale capacity is also expected to break the soil or come online within the next five years.
Although the construction is rushed to meet the rising demand, 73% of these projects are published, leaving limited flexibility for companies seeking new space.
Northern Virginia leads with a planned 5.9 GW, followed by Phoenix of 4.2 GW, Dallas-Fort Worth of 3.9 GW and LAS Vegas/Reno of 3.5 GW.
Secondary markets also experience significant growth. Columbus has expanded 1,800% since 2020, while Austin/San Antonio has grown 500% from a smaller base in the same period.
This spread reflects developers seeking new opportunities as established hubs are struggling with power limits and rising costs.
“The days of build-it-and-do-be-come are long away. What we are seeing now is the ‘Commit-Turn-It’s-built-or-ou-Won’T-BET-IN,'” said Matt Lakeek, Division President, US Data Center Work Dynamics and The Lead of Jlls Data Center Project Development and Services.
Power accessibility has become the defining challenge for the development of data center, as the average commercial electricity rates have increased almost 30% since 2020 and reaches 9.7 cents per year. Kilowatt-time.
Developers are increasingly targeting areas such as Salt Lake City and Denver, where the rates remain below the national average.
Still, the waiting time for grid connections is now about four years that delay projects and slow down the pace where supply can meet demand.
Industrial analysts claim that power is now “the new property” with access to affordable and reliable energy that dictates where capacity can expand.
“The power has become the new property. With a vacancy effective of 0%, almost all absorption is the result of equalization with delivery times extending over 12 months,” said Andrew Batson, head of American data center research at Jll.
“The market has grown with a remarkable 20% CAG since 2017, and our development of developmental piping data suggests that this pace will continue through 2030, with Colocation Market potentially expanding to 42 GW capacity.”
This bottleneck can prevent speculative superstructure, but also ensures that deficiency will continue for years.
Via HPC pipeline
