Cushman & Wakefield, ranks DFW as the world’s No. 1 data center market based on 24 metrics. [Image: Adobe Stock]
Dallas-Fort Worth now reigns as the king of the global data center market, a new report shows.
[Graphic: DI Studio]
The report, published by commercial real estate services provider Cushman & Wakefield, ranks DFW as the world’s No. 1 data center market based on 24 metrics. Four of the key metrics are: under-construction data center capacity as measured by megawatts, land availability, power availability and market size.
Estimates of the number of existing data centers in DFW vary within a range of roughly 230 to 270. Developers are building or planning dozens more.
Atlanta and Virginia follow DFW in the Cushman & Wakefield report’s ranking of top-tier data center markets. Austin-San Antonio tops the ranking of second-tier markets and West Texas lands at No. 2 among third-tier markets. Houston appears at No. 3 among top-tier markets, and the Panhandle at No. 8 among third-tier markets. Altogether, Cushman & Wakefield researchers evaluated 107 global data center markets.
Texas challenges Virginia’s data center crown
Boasting five highly ranked data center markets, Texas is experiencing an explosion of data center activity. Long anchored by the DFW market, “the state is growing at a pace that could soon bring total installed capacity in line with — and potentially beyond — that of Virginia,” the Cushman & Wakefield report said.
A new report from commercial real estate services provider JLL takes a slightly different view, anointing Texas the top data center market in North America. Texas eclipsed longtime frontrunner Virginia based on the level of existing and under-construction data center inventory in the state as measured by gigawatt capacity. A gigawatt equals 1 billion watts.
Northern Virginia, home to dozens of Washington, D.C., suburbs, is the epicenter of that state’s data center market. Virginia remains the world’s largest data center market based on the amount of installed capacity.
Before the JLL report came out, Cushman & Wakefield said Texas was “on track to become ‘the next Virginia.’ A pro‑business posture, independent grid, land availability, and incentive flexibility position Texas favorably.”
Demand outpaces supply
The biggest wave of new data centers in DFW’s history came along in the first half of 2026 as “demand continues to outpace deliveries,” JLL said. Here’s a look at the region’s numbers:
- Total existing inventory: 4,587 megawatts of current capacity
- First-half lease absorption: 2,297 megawatts of capacity
- First-half completions: 2,164 megawatts of capacity
- Data centers under construction: 3,202 megawatts of capacity
- Vacancy rate: Less than 1%
DFW’s development pipeline continues to extend into suburban counties, JLL said, as data center operators chase land and power availability.
Data center operators based in North Texas include Aligned Data Centers, Compass Datacenters, CyrusOne, Skybox Datacenters, and Stream Data Centers.
Data center surge boosts North Texas leasing
Further evidence of the DFW data center boom: On a year-over-year basis, industrial leasing tied to data centers more than doubled in 2025, JLL said. Additionally, tenants connected to data centers drove 22% of DFW industrial leasing last year.
DFW also fares well when it comes to data center construction costs. Among 19 U.S. markets analyzed by Cushman & Wakefield, DFW and Austin tied for the second-lowest construction cost per megawatt last year, ranging from $9.4 million to $12.1 million.
With DFW and Texas behind the wheel, “the data center sector has officially entered hyperdrive,” Andy Cvengros, executive managing director at JLL and co-leader of its U.S. data center markets team, said in a statement earlier this year. “Record-low vacancy sustained over two consecutive years provides compelling evidence against bubble concerns, especially when nearly all [of the] massive construction pipeline is already pre-committed by investment-grade tenants.”
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