DATA CENTRE PREDICTIONS
DATA CENTRE DILEMMA : AIMING FOR GROWTH IN A POWER-CONSTRAINED MARKET
Jacob Albers , Head of Alternatives Insights , Cushman & Wakefield , reflects on the data centre market in Northern Virginia and the issues set to face the landscape in the new year .
While demand is continuing to grow voraciously for data centre space , the supply of new facilities has barely been able to keep pace – creating one of the most significant challenges facing data-driven companies looking to grow and expand .
While absorption during the first quarter of the year was moderate by recent standards , take-up of available space substantially grew as the year progressed . Many markets across North America continued to see strong preleasing and built-to-suit projects move forward , driven both by continued robust cloud growth as well as emergent demand for the training and inference of Artificial Intelligence models .
Meanwhile , development continued to be constrained by limited power availability , rising land costs and the higher cost of capital . Various markets and utility providers across the country are facing hurdles to satisfy the sizeable demands of large data centre campuses . Major players have correspondingly adjusted their strategies , opting for larger site acreages ( often hundreds of acres ) and power purchase agreements far earlier in the development process . With larger upfront commitments , data centre developers will have greater leeway to phase the development of campuses at their own pace without
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