Description
The US data centre colocation market continues to show consistent growth in operational supply, based on significant demand for capacity from hyperscale cloud and driven by the rapid increases in AI adoption on cloud infrastructure platforms and the building of AI training sites. This lends to data centre colocation environments that can easily connect to the cloud and facilities that host hyperscale workloads. Most US markets are seeing this need for capacity. There is some speculation that this is leading to an overbuild situation, but there is reasonable assurance this is not the case. Hyperscalers continue to report demand levels exceeding supply, utilities are reporting exponential load growth driven by data centre and hyperscale demand, and many planned developments and expansion plans are typically fully or almost fully leased before being built out. As of 2025, Structure Research is tracking 15.3GW of operational capacity, 12.9GW of under development capacity and 55.8GW of land banked capacity in the US colocation data centre market.
Utility providers all across the country are reporting large connection requests and increased pipeline attributable to data centre demand. With challenges surrounding power availability, adequate transmission infrastructure and customer rate increases, utilities are implementing strategies in attempts to mitigate future issues and ensure the largest users (i.e. data centres) are supporting the grid. Many utility providers, like AEP, PacifiCorp and Dominion Energy, are proposing or have added higher rates for new ‘large-load’ class customers, including data centres. Utility providers are also adding penalties to customers that fail to use all of the requested capacity, or making customers pay for at least 85% of the capacity that is requested upfront. These policies are put in place to deter speculative requests and ensure the longevity of the utility infrastructure as more is built out to keep up with data centre requests.
With the continued growth of data centres in the US, communities and regulators have grown more wary of new data centre developments in their locales. Many markets across the country have seen data centre projects get cancelled or rejected during the approval phases due to local pushback. County policy makers have been implementing policies restricting where data centres can develop or mandated more requirements for approval processes. Some jurisdictions have passed moratoriums on data centre construction and approvals. Still, data centre developers are continuing to push through, working with local communities on their concerns and following the necessary procedures for approvals.
This report analyses the US colocation capacity in terms of the current operational supply and the pipeline on a national and market level. The analysis also provides deeper insights on the dynamics and trends in key tier-1 and notable emerging tier-2 markets. A comparison of the GPU segment to the rest of the colocation market is also provided to show the development of the emerging neocloud market as a number of cryptomining companies redeploy their existing compute capability to shift and adopt AI workloads in the US. The US Data Centre Markets report provides the most comprehensive dataset on the US data centre colocation market and is an indispensable resource for any service provider, investor or end user looking to understand and project the future of the US market or find a service provider.
