CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD REPORT RANKS DALLAS NUMBER ONE PRIMARY DATA CENTRE MARKET IN THE WORLD
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CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD REPORT RANKS DALLAS NUMBER ONE PRIMARY DATA CENTRE MARKET IN THE WORLD
Cushman & Wakefield’ s 2026 Global Data Centre Market
Comparison report finds development pipelines surging worldwide as operators expand beyond traditional hubs. Dallas takes the lead as the number one primary data centre market in the world, with Texas considered an AI infrastructure hub of growing importance.
G lobal data centre markets are entering a new phase of expansion defined not simply by growth, but by increasingly strategic and selective development, according to Cushman & Wakefield’ s 2026 Global Data Centre Market Comparison report. For the first time, Dallas ranked as the number one primary data centre market in the world, followed by Atlanta( 2), Virginia( 3), Columbus( 4) and Johor( 5). Austin-San Antonio and West Texas led the secondary and tertiary market rankings, underscoring Texas’ growing importance as a large-scale AI infrastructure hub.
Driven by accelerating AI adoption, cloud computing demand and digital infrastructure investment, global capacity under construction approached 31.7 gigawatts( GW) in 2025, more than doubling from 12.5GW reported in the prior edition of the report. At the same time, developers, occupiers and investors are facing intensifying constraints tied to power availability, land use, permitting timelines and growing regulatory scrutiny.
“ The global data centre industry has entered a period of managed growth,” said John McWilliams, Head of Data Centre Insights at Cushman & Wakefield.“ Demand fundamentals remain extraordinarily strong, but the industry is no longer operating in an environment of unconstrained expansion. Power delivery timelines, land availability, community sentiment and regulation are now playing a much larger role in determining where and how data centres get built.”
Americas continue to dominate global development activity
The Americas remain the centre of global data centre development activity, accounting for approximately 80 % of all capacity currently under construction worldwide. Virginia maintained its position as the world’ s largest data centre market, with 11.3GW of operational capacity, while Texas emerged as one of the industry’ s fastest growing and most scalable regions as large-scale data centre development activity expands into numerous parts of the state.
The report highlights West Texas as a rapidly growing AI infrastructure hub, with 2.9GW currently under construction,
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The report analyses 107 global markets across 24 variables tied to commercial real estate fundamentals, power infrastructure, development activity, regulation and operational risk and provides a more forwardlooking approach to evaluate market dynamics than previous editions. The report also identifies growing divergence between markets able to support longterm AI infrastructure expansion and those facing mounting regulatory, infrastructure or communityrelated barriers to growth.
exceeding the entire amount of capacity underway across the EMEA region.
“ The scale of development occurring across parts of the US is unprecedented from a commercial real estate perspective,” said McWilliams.“ Developers are increasingly prioritising markets that can provide scalable land, reliable power infrastructure and a regulatory environment supportive of long-term expansion.”
Across the Americas, preleasing activity remains exceptionally strong. Approximately 89 % of capacity currently under construction is already pre-committed when hyperscale self-build activity is included, underscoring continued imbalance between supply and demand. The report also notes that planned capacity across the Americas increased more than fourfold year-over-year, rising from 46.1GW in 2024 to 191.3GW by the end of 2025.
Power availability continues to be a defining commercial real estate variable
According to the report, access to power has remained one of the defining variables shaping global data centre development strategy.
Globally, average power delivery timelines for new large-load requests now stand at 4.4 years, with timelines extending to approximately five years across both the Americas and EMEA.
As a result, developers are increasingly pursuing powered land opportunities, integrating private generation into projects and expanding into secondary and tertiary markets where infrastructure constraints may be less severe.
“ The industry’ s focus has shifted from simply securing land to securing deliverable power,” said McWilliams.“ That dynamic is fundamentally reshaping data centre real estate strategy worldwide.” �
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