North America leads the global data center market, but according to CBRE’s Global Data Center Trends 2026 it isn’t the fastest-growing region and may in fact be suffering from its success. Available capacity is at a record low, power is constraining buildouts, and zoning and entitlement timelines are stretching in every one of its four biggest markets.
Compared to Q1 2025, the North American market saw inventory growth slow down from 43 percent to 33 percent. With vacancy rates at an all-time low across Northern Virginia, Atlanta, Dallas-Ft. Worth, and Chicago, it is becoming clear that the North American market cannot keep pace with demand for digital infrastructure.
One of the constraints in the market is power. Despite boasting a net absorption of 2,236.2 MW, an increase of 34 percent compared to Q1 2025, projects in Atlanta, Dallas-Ft. Worth, and Chicago continue to run into power problems, be that grid interconnection, power delivery hiccups, or utilities imposing stricter rules for large-load customers such as data center operators.
High demand and limited supply mean rental prices are increasing in the market. In Northern Virginia, for instance, the monthly rental rate for 250-to-500 per kW of power for IT loads sits in the range of US$ 190 to US$ 235. While not the highest in the world it does highlight how demand and capacity are out of sync.
“Across the top four markets, aggregate average asking rents grew by single digits year-over-year. Chicago had the highest increase of 14.7 percent and Atlanta rose by 2 percent, while Dallas-Ft. Worth asking rents were unchanged,” CBRE writes.
The biggest markets are running out of room
In Northern Virginia, operators face power supply challenges but, despite this the market saw net absorption rise to 1,148.3 MW, the greatest absorption increase of any market since CBRE began publishing its global data center report in 2023. Vacancy at facilities fell from 0.8 percent to 0.3 percent, the lowest in the region. This highlights the demand from hyperscalers, neoclouds, and AI startups.
Northern Virginia’s crown is in danger, however, as zoning and entitlement obstacles constrain expansion.
The market with space, albeit not much of it, is Chicago, where vacancy sits at 2.2 percent compared to a rate of 3.1 percent in Q1 2025. This decrease in vacancy highlights demand from hyperscalers, AI, enterprise, and financial services companies. The market saw inventory increase by 249.2 MW between Q1 2025 and Q1 2026, bringing the total inventory to 910.6 MW on the back of this increased demand.
Similarly, in Atlanta, inventory increased 14.5 percent to reach a total of 1,465.2 MW as hyperscale and AI companies looked to take advantage of the market’s proximity to fiber routes and, perhaps more importantly, the availability of land. However, CBRE notes that a power utility in the state has thrown a curveball at the market.
“Georgia Power’s bid to protect existing ratepayers by imposing stricter rules and financial guarantees for large-load customers is extending development timelines,” CBRE’s report reads.
Dallas-Ft. Worth is now the third-largest colocation market in North America. Inventory increased to 1,249.4 MW and 716.7 MW of data center capacity is currently under construction. Demand for this infrastructure is palpable given that 88 percent of this capacity has been pre-leased.
The markets with room to build
With the four biggest markets being incapable of keeping up with demand, the report highlights two emerging markets in North America. Data center demand in Tennessee reached 18 percent of the market’s industrial load in 2025 with this set to double to more than 6 GW by 2030. Combined with ample land, competitive incentives and fiber connectivity that is improving constantly, the state may be the site of a data center explosion in the coming years.
The same can be said for West Texas, which has strong energy resources and land availability.
“In the past 24 months, purpose-built data centers for AI training have capitalized on the market’s land and power availability. This infrastructure momentum, combined with flexible bring-your-own-power options, is supporting the expansion of wholesale colocation and single-tenant campuses, setting up West Texas for increased wholesale supply and absorption in 2026,” writes CBRE.
North America’s lead is not in question. Its ability to build against it is. Availability across the top four markets is at an all-time low, and the constraint is power. Chicago’s delivery timelines now run to 2032 or later, and Dallas-Ft. Worth’s interconnection queue has not moved in a year. CBRE expects that bottleneck to hold US supply down through 2030 and push pricing to record highs. The demand hasn’t gone away. It’s just shifting to the emerging markets in Tennessee and West Texas, where the power is.