Data Centers

The United States has over 3,525 tracked data center facilities as of 2026, compiled from public records, operator disclosures, and permit filings. Virginia leads with 490 data centers, followed by Texas (419), California (230), Georgia (230), and Illinois (217). Over 1,080 additional data centers are under construction or in active planning.

U.S. data centers consumed approximately 192 TWh of electricity in 2024, about 4.7% of total U.S. electricity — enough to power 18 million homes. This has tripled in the past decade and is projected to reach 464–649 TWh by 2028–2030, driven primarily by AI workloads. A typical enterprise data center uses 10–50 MW, while hyperscale facilities can exceed 100–500 MW. The largest planned facilities — like the Stargate project — will use over 1 GW, enough to power a small city.

Nearly 1,000 data centers are under construction or in active planning across 47 U.S. states, representing tens of gigawatts of new capacity. Texas leads with 188 projects in the pipeline, followed by Virginia (168), Georgia (92), California (58), and Ohio (49).

Artificial Intelligence is the primary driver. Training and running large AI models requires enormous computing power. Cloud providers are racing to build capacity — Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta have collectively announced over $300 billion in U.S. data center investments for 2024–2028. The AI boom has shifted site selection from proximity-to-users to proximity-to-power.

It depends on location. In power-rich areas like West Texas and Indiana, data centers can lower rates by sharing fixed grid costs — Amazon's Indiana project alone is expected to save local households $1 billion over 15 years. In constrained markets like Northern Virginia, rapid growth can strain the grid and push rates higher. Data centers now consume over 25% of Virginia's total electricity.

Think of a data center like a house. Capacity is the size of your electrical panel — a 100 MW data center could use up to 100 MW, but it usually doesn't. Demand is what's actually being used right now — like how many lights and appliances you have on at this moment. That 100 MW facility might only draw 60 MW on a typical day. Consumption is your electric bill — the total electricity used over a month or year. That same facility running at 60 MW around the clock would consume about 526,000 MWh per year, enough electricity to power roughly 50,000 homes.