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Texas is poised to become the world’s largest market for data centers by 2030, a report from global investment management firm JLL reveals.
By Brad Randall, Broadband Communities
A new report from global commercial real estate and investment management company JLL says Texas is set to dethrone Virginia by 2030 as the globe’s leading data center market.
The revelation, gathered from JLL’s data center report for North America, comes as the sector continues to mature with increasingly complex transaction structures, according to JLL.
A summary of the report, published on the company’s website, says vacancy in the North American data center market remains “locked at a record low 1%.”
The report also said over half of the new data center construction volume is in frontier markets, which excludes areas like Dallas-Fort Worth, Northern Virginia, and Silicon Valley.
“Texas alone accounts for 6.5 (gigawatts) GW of capacity under construction, supporting projections that the state could overtake Virginia as the largest global data center market by 2030,” the report’s summary stated.
Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Ohio were also listed as states capitalizing on land availability and “business-friendly operating environments,” where data center construction is booming.
In total, the report also says 64% of the market’s new construction pipeline now extends beyond traditional mature markets.
Andy Cvengros, executive managing director and co-lead of U.S. data center markets for JLL, says the data center sector has entered “hyperdrive.”
“Record-low vacancy sustained over two consecutive years provides compelling evidence against bubble concerns, especially when nearly all our massive construction pipeline is already pre-committed by investment-grade tenants,” Cvengros said. “This structural change is driven by hyperscale and AI demand and development headwinds that will likely keep vacancy near zero for the next several years.”
Data centers will be top of mind at Connected America
Key figures in the U.S. data center sector will take the stage at Connected America this April in Texas to discuss topics like who is driving data center growth and why.
The topic also will be among several key themes of the conference, scheduled for April 14-15 at the Irving Convention Center in Dallas.
Speakers like Tim Ayers, the managing director of Gravity Path Partners, will join colleagues from Cisco Systems, FiberLight, and ERCOT to investigate what next-generation networks need to look like to support AI workloads.
They’ll also examine how CSPs are leveraging edge computing to enable AI applications, and the importance of building future-proof networks.
Attendees can review the full conference agenda for Connected America 2026 online.
