America’s data center buildout is increasingly concentrated in a handful of states as AI demand drives a new wave of digital infrastructure investment. Texas and Virginia alone account for far more projects under construction than most of the country combined.

This map shows the number of data centers currently under construction in each U.S. state as of March 2026, based on data from Aterio.

Data Centers Under Construction by U.S. State, 2026

Texas leads data construction by a narrow margin, but the bigger story is how sharply development clusters around states with access to land, power, connectivity, and favorable permitting.

U.S. data center capacity is set to expand rapidly as artificial intelligence drives a new wave of infrastructure demand. Meeting that demand will require enormous investment in power, land, and construction, and the buildout is already well underway. Big Tech is expected to spend $700 billion on AI data centers this year alone, helping accelerate projects across a small number of key states.

Texas leads the nation with 140 data centers under construction, narrowly ahead of Virginia with 136. They are the only two states with more than 100 projects underway as of March 2026, putting them well ahead of the rest of the country.

After those two, there is a sharp drop to Georgia at 56 and Ohio at 51. That gap highlights just how concentrated the current buildout is, with most states seeing only modest activity. In fact, 12 states have no data centers under construction at all, while another 11 have fewer than five.

Virginia’s strength is centered in Northern Virginia’s “Data Center Alley,” one of the world’s most important internet hubs. The region’s dense fiber connectivity, established cloud presence, and proximity to major population and enterprise centers have helped attract operators including Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft.

A huge portion of global internet traffic passes through the region, which is only set to grow as more data centers are established.

Clashes With Communities

The same factors attracting data center developers, especially access to power and land, are also creating new bottlenecks.

In fast-growing markets, the surge in electricity demand is beginning to test grid capacity and raise questions about how quickly utilities can keep pace. In Texas, developers have created levels of demand that could be impossible to meet.

The boom has also sparked resistance in some communities near proposed sites. In rural Georgia, for instance, residents cite widespread concerns about sound, light, and environmental pollution. In addition, one resident says a data center has caused her private well to run dry; data centers are water-intensive operations because they use water for cooling.

As a result, policymakers in some states and municipalities are considering tighter rules on future development, ranging from stricter environmental reviews to temporary pauses on new projects.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-americas-data-center-construction-boom/