- The vacuums drop while the data centers have trouble corresponding to an unprecedented demand
- Northern Virginia dominates capacity while emerging markets develop at an explosive rate
- Developers rush to projects, but 73% of the new capacity is already preliminary
Data centers are becoming the backbone of digital infrastructure, with vacuration rates in North America now at a lower 2.3%, new JLL searches said.
Despite stocks reaching 15.5 GW in mid-2025, the rate of absorption continues to exceed the available capacity.
This inadequacy is fueled by the increase in dependence on AI, digital transformation and cloud storage services, which have created a supply crisis on established and emerging markets.
Demand increases faster than supply
JLL claims that North America could see up to 1 dollars Billion in the development of the new data center by 2030.
“There has been a significant increase in the quantity of capital deployed in construction center projects under construction or reaching stabilization in the first half of 2025 compared to the previous year,” said Carl Beardsley, principal director general, chief of the data center, JLL Markets.
“We see developments with long -term leases reaching up to 85% cost of senior lenders during competitive spreads … North America could see 1 billion of dollars in data centers between 2025 and 2030.”
In addition, more than 100 GW of roommate and hyperscale capacity should innovate or have been online over the next five years.
Although construction is precipitated to meet growing demand, 73% of these projects are prerequisite, leaving flexibility limited to businesses looking for a new space.
Northern Virginia leads with a planned 5.9 GW, followed by Phoenix at 4.2 GW, Dallas-Fort at 3.9 GW and Las Vegas / Reno at 3.5 GW.
Secondary markets are also experiencing striking growth. Columbus has widened 1,800% since 2020, while Austin / San Antonio increased by 500% on a smaller basis over the same period.
This propagation reflects developers looking for new opportunities while established hubs are fighting with power constraints and costs.
“The days of construction and their will have long been over. What we see now is “as you are built before,” said Matt Landek, president of the division, dynamics of the work of the American data center and responsible for the development and project services of the JLL data center.
Energy availability has become the determining challenge for the development of data centers, as average commercial electricity rates have increased by almost 30% since 2020, reaching 9.7 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Developers are increasingly targeting areas such as Salt Lake City and Denver, where rates remain below the national average.
Despite this, the waiting time for grid connections is now about four years, delaying projects and slowing down the pace to which the supply can meet demand.
Industry analysts argue that power is now “the new real estate”, with access to affordable and reliable dictating energy where capacity can develop.
“Power has become the new property. With an effective vacancy at 0%, almost all absorption is the result of the pre-layout with delivery times extending beyond 12 months, “said Andrew Batson, head of research on the American data center at JLL.
“The market has increased to a CAGR remark by 20% since 2017, and our data on development pipelines suggest that this pace will continue until 2030, the shared market potentially extending to 42 GW of capacity.”
This bottleneck can prevent speculative overdeter, but also guarantees that shortages will persist for years.
Via HPC Wire
