10 Biggest U.S. Data Center Hubs (2026 Update for Low-Latency Hosting)

If you run an app, a SaaS product, a game, or any data-heavy business, where you put your servers isn’t just a nerdy detail—it hits latency, uptime, and your monthly bill.
This guide walks through the 10 biggest U.S. data center locations, what each market is good at, and how they affect your hosting, colocation, and cloud strategy.
By the end, you’ll know which data center markets fit your use case and how to balance coverage, performance, and cost without overcomplicating your infrastructure.

At a Glance: Biggest U.S. Data Center Markets

Let’s start with the “map in your head” version:

• Northern Virginia – “Data Center Alley,” 300+ facilities, ~3,945 MW of power, insane connectivity, relatively low power costs.

• Phoenix – Fast-growing alternative to California, 100+ sites, ~1,380 MW, good pricing, low natural-disaster risk.

• Silicon Valley – High cost, high connectivity, and deep tech talent; still a core West Coast data center market.

• Dallas–Fort Worth – Central U.S. hub with ~1,600+ MW, strong power pricing, and national connectivity.

• Chicago – Midwest backbone, big financial presence, strong fiber and power reliability.

• Atlanta – Exploding capacity, strong power grid, and growing role in Southeast infrastructure.

• Washington, D.C. & Washington State – Government, research, and ultra-connected campuses.

• New York / New Jersey (Tri-State) – Financial heart, tight on space but huge in low-latency trading and media.

• Miami – Gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean.

• Los Angeles – Gateway to Asia-Pacific and entertainment/media traffic.

If “the cloud” feels abstract, these are the physical neighborhoods where a lot of it actually lives.

Why These U.S. Data Center Hubs Matter

When you choose a data center location, you’re really choosing:

• How fast users see your site or app.

• How likely you are to hit power or network issues.

• How much you burn every month on power, space, and bandwidth.

• How easy it is to grow into new regions later.

The U.S. data center industry has built these massive clusters to handle cloud computing, AI, streaming, and IoT workloads at scale. Instead of building your own bunker full of servers, you tap into these markets through colocation, cloud, or dedicated server hosting.

Let’s walk through the 10 biggest hubs and what they’re actually good for in everyday terms.

1. Northern Virginia: America’s Data Center Capital

If U.S. data centers had a “final boss,” it would be Northern Virginia.

Scale and Power

• Over 300 data center facilities across Loudoun, Prince William, and Fairfax counties.

• About 3,945 MW of commissioned multi-tenant power—multiple times larger than most other markets.

• Loudoun County (Ashburn, Sterling) is the heart of “Data Center Alley.”

This is where a huge chunk of global internet traffic actually passes through every day.

Why Everyone Builds Here

• Network: Direct access to major long-haul and subsea cables, including transatlantic routes.

• Power: Competitive commercial rates (roughly $0.06–$0.08 per kWh), delivered by utilities like Dominion Energy and NOVEC.

• Incentives: Tax breaks on data center equipment make big builds more attractive.

• Location: Close to Washington, D.C., which matters for government, defense, and big enterprises.

Who’s Here

You’ll find:

• Hyperscalers like AWS, Microsoft, Google.

• Big colocation and connectivity players like Equinix, Digital Realty, CoreSite, QTS.

If you need ultra-low latency to East Coast users or government networks, Northern Virginia is usually first on the list.

2. Phoenix: Desert Alternative With Serious Momentum

Phoenix quietly became the second-largest U.S. data center market. No big beaches, but plenty of power and land.

Capacity and Costs

• 100+ data centers across Phoenix, Chandler, Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale, Goodyear, and Glendale.

• Around 1,380 MW of commissioned multi-tenant power.

• Power costs typically around $0.065–$0.075 per kWh, which is attractive for power-hungry workloads.

Arizona Public Service (APS) and Salt River Project (SRP) handle most of the electricity, and both push renewable options pretty hard.

Why People Choose Phoenix

• Low natural-disaster risk compared to parts of California.

• Solid connectivity, including major carrier and cloud on-ramps in downtown Phoenix.

• Plenty of space for large campuses and future expansion.

• Tax benefits and lower real estate costs compared to coastal cities.

Who’s Here

Operators include:

• Digital Realty, phoenixNAP, CyrusOne, Iron Mountain, Flexential, Comarch, Prime Data Centers and others.

If you like West Coast coverage but don’t love West Coast pricing, Phoenix is an obvious candidate.

3. Silicon Valley: High Cost, High Connectivity

Silicon Valley isn’t cheap, but it still matters a lot for data center hosting.

What Makes It Special

• Nearly 150 data centers spread across places like San José, Sunnyvale, and Palo Alto.

• Direct cloud on-ramps, plenty of IXPs, and dense fiber routes.

• You get short hops to major tech HQs, which can simplify hybrid cloud and private interconnects.

Who’s Here

You’ll run into:

• Equinix, CoreSite, and other neutral colocation providers.

• Infrastructure builders like Cupertino Electric, hardware manufacturers like Supermicro, and chip/network heavyweights like Broadcom.

When Silicon Valley Makes Sense

• You’re a Bay Area company and want everything nearby.

• You need super-tight latency to other West Coast infrastructure.

• You’re okay paying more for the convenience and connectivity.

For global reach, you’ll usually pair Silicon Valley with cheaper backup or expansion sites like Phoenix or Dallas.

4. Dallas–Fort Worth: Central, Connected, and Cost-Efficient

Dallas is the “middle of the map” workhorse in the U.S. data center market.

Scale and Power

• Capacity grew from about 710 MW in 2020 to nearly 1,650 MW by mid‑2024.

• Served mostly by the ERCOT grid, with power costs often around $0.05–$0.065 per kWh.

That independent Texas grid is a big part of the story: lots of power, plenty of renewables, and competitive pricing.

Why Dallas Works

• Central U.S. location, good for coast-to-coast latency.

• Major connectivity hub at the Infomart carrier hotel in downtown Dallas.

• Long-haul fiber routes crossing the region.

• Business-friendly taxes and real estate.

Who’s Here

Some of the big names:

• CyrusOne, DataBank, Cologix, Flexential, Zayo Group, Compass Datacenters, QTS Realty Trust.

If you want one U.S. region that gives you decent latency to both coasts without breaking the bank, Dallas is often the go-to.

5. Chicago: The Midwest Backbone

Chicago is where a lot of Midwest and financial traffic meets.

Capacity and Reach

• Around 130 data center facilities in Chicago, Elk Grove Village, Franklin Park, Aurora, and nearby suburbs.

• Roughly 1,120 MW of multi-tenant power.

It’s smack in the middle of major East–West fiber routes.

Connectivity and Power

• Multiple IXPs and long-haul fiber systems converge here.

• Landmarks like 350 East Cermak Road are famous carrier hotels and connectivity hubs.

• Power from providers like ComEd at roughly $0.06–$0.07 per kWh.

• Bonus: tax incentives and relatively affordable industrial real estate.

Who’s Here

Chicago hosts:

• Rackspace Technology, ServerCentral Turing Group (SCTG), Cyxtera, Lumen Technologies, Element Critical, and many more.

If your users are spread across the Midwest or you’re dealing with finance, logistics, or manufacturing, Chicago is a natural anchor point.

6. Atlanta: A Southeast Market in Hyper-Growth

Atlanta has quietly jumped into the top tier of U.S. data center markets.

How Big Is It?

• Over 80 data centers with around 1,065 MW of power.

• The 56 Marietta Street building is a key carrier hub, stacked with hundreds of network providers.

In 2024, Atlanta added over 700 MW of new capacity in a single year—serious growth.

Why Atlanta Is Hot

• Low natural-disaster risk compared with coastal markets.

• Competitive power costs, often $0.05–$0.06 per kWh, mostly from Georgia Power.

• Strong transportation infrastructure and a large skilled workforce.

• Good stepping stone for serving users in the Southeast.

Who’s Here

Operators include:

• Switch, Cyxtera, Sungard AS, DC Blox, H5 Data Centers, and others.

If you’re building out coverage across the East and Southeast, Atlanta pairs well with Northern Virginia and Miami.

7. Washington, D.C. and Washington State: Policy Meets Scale

This region is a bit of a split personality: government-heavy D.C. on one side, hyperscale campuses in Washington State on the other.

Washington, D.C. Metro

• Nearly 100 data centers in and around D.C.

• Extremely interconnected region with dense fiber and peering options.

• Popular for organizations needing secure, low-latency links to federal agencies, NGOs, and global institutions.

Costs are higher, but if you must be close to D.C., there’s not really a substitute.

Washington State

• Home to big sites like Microsoft’s Columbia Data Center in Quincy, which was once the largest in the world.

• Data center growth has doubled sector employment since 2018.

• Heavy use of hydroelectric power, which helps with energy pricing but also raises environmental and grid-planning questions.

The state is actively studying the environmental impact of all this growth, so expect more policy and sustainability requirements over time.

8. New York / New Jersey (Tri-State): Financial Heartbeat

If speed to Wall Street or major media networks matters, this region is hard to ignore.

Market Snapshot

• Over 130–145 data centers across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

• Vacancy rates are low (around 6.5% in many submarkets), and new capacity is constantly in demand.

• Power costs are higher than in places like Texas or Arizona:

  • New York: about $0.14–$0.16 per kWh

  • New Jersey: about $0.10–$0.12 per kWh

Why People Still Pay the Premium

• Ultra-low latency to financial exchanges and trading platforms.

• Direct access to transatlantic cabling and global fiber networks.

• Lower natural-disaster risk than some coastal peers.

• Space in markets like Secaucus, Piscataway, Orangeburg can be cheaper than Manhattan itself.

Connectivity Hubs and Players

Key hubs include:

• 60 Hudson Street and 111 8th Avenue in Manhattan (Digital Realty).

• Equinix NY2/NY4/NY5/NY6 in Secaucus, New Jersey.

Notable operators:

• Telehouse America, running NYIIX, one of the region’s biggest internet exchanges.

• Sabey Data Centers, with large-scale space at 375 Pearl Street.

If your business is finance-heavy, media-heavy, or simply needs immediate access to the New York metro, this is where you go—despite the sticker shock.

9. Miami: Gateway to Latin America

Miami isn’t just beaches and conferences—it’s a serious global data center gateway.

Why Miami Matters

• Acts as a bridge between the U.S., Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe.

• Home to landmarks like NAP of the Americas, a 750,000 sq. ft. facility with 160+ carriers and strong subsea cable connectivity.

• Key landing point for systems like ARCOS‑1, tying into Latin American routes.

Business and Infrastructure Perks

• PortMiami and Miami International Airport (MIA) support fast logistics for hardware and operations.

• No inventory or unitary taxes and relatively low state corporate tax rates.

• Multiple foreign trade zones (FTZs) and competitive energy costs.

If you want low-latency access into Latin America without building directly in multiple countries on day one, Miami is usually step one.

10. Los Angeles: West Coast Gateway to Asia-Pacific

Los Angeles backs a lot of streaming, gaming, and entertainment traffic headed across the Pacific.

Market Basics

• Over 65 data centers in LA, Burbank, El Segundo, Irvine, and nearby cities.

• More than 220 MW of multi-tenant power, mostly from Southern California Edison.

• Power costs sit in the higher bracket, often $0.14–$0.18 per kWh.

The One Wilshire Effect

• One Wilshire at 624 S Grand Avenue is one of the most interconnected buildings in the U.S.

• It’s a crucial peering point for transpacific traffic and a major hub for both U.S. and international carriers.

Who’s Here

Key names:

• Telehouse America, operating the 626W site and LAIIX internet exchange.

• CoreSite (LA1 and related sites).

• Leaseweb, along with many other cloud and hosting providers.

Yes, real estate and power are expensive. But if you care about low latency to West Coast users and Asia-Pacific, LA is still hard to beat.

Biggest Single Data Centers in the U.S.

Beyond the big markets, a few individual data center campuses are so large they’re almost their own category.

• Switch TAHOE RENO 1 (Nevada) – The largest single facility in the U.S., over 1.3 million sq. ft., part of the Citadel Campus that may surpass 7.2 million sq. ft..

• The Citadel Campus (Nevada) – Massive multi-building campus operated by Switch, designed for hyperscale cloud and enterprise workloads.

• The Core Campus (Las Vegas, Nevada) – Another Switch Inc. complex with around 11 data centers totaling over 2 million sq. ft.

• NAP of the Americas (Miami, Florida) – About 750,000 sq. ft., a key hub for Latin America–U.S. traffic.

• Google’s Data Center in The Dalles (Oregon) – One of Google’s larger sites, roughly the size of two football fields, tied into hydroelectric power and surplus fiber.

If you’re running very large workloads, these are the types of facilities that sit behind your cloud provider’s “region” labels.

How Many Data Centers Are in the U.S.?

As of around 2025:

• The U.S. has roughly 2,500–2,600 data centers.

• Virginia (especially Northern Virginia) is the densest cluster, often called the data center capital of the world.

• Loudoun County alone handles a huge percentage of global internet traffic on a daily basis.

This number keeps climbing thanks to AI training clusters, edge locations, and continued cloud growth.

5 Flagship Data Centers Worth Knowing

You don’t need to memorize every facility name, but these five come up a lot in infrastructure conversations.

1. Equinix DA1 (Ashburn, Virginia)

• Around 147,600 sq. ft. of facility space.

• Over 290 network connections and 450+ enterprises on-site.

• High redundancy, 99.999% uptime targets, and deep cloud ecosystem.

If you want to be plugged into the heart of Ashburn’s interconnection fabric, DA1 is one of the places you’ll hear about.

2. Equinix NY4 (Secaucus, New Jersey)

• About 151,772 sq. ft. and 18.5 MW of critical power.

• Ultra-low-latency paths to New York financial markets and exchanges.

• Highly certified environment (including security and compliance frameworks).

Many trading firms and financial platforms treat NY4 as non-negotiable infrastructure.

3. CoreSite LA1 (Los Angeles, California)

• Roughly 149,000 sq. ft. and 15 MW of power.

• Located in One Wilshire, with access to 300+ global networks.

• Strong Asia-Pacific connectivity and easy scaling across other LA CoreSite sites.

If you’re pushing content into APAC from the U.S., LA1 is often on the path.

4. Equinix MI1 (Miami, Florida)

• Approximately 750,000 sq. ft. of hardened data center space.

• Built to withstand Category 5 hurricanes, with reinforced construction.

• Deep connectivity into Latin America and the Caribbean.

For companies entering Latin American markets, MI1 is a common starting point.

5. Digital Realty 350 E Cermak (Chicago, Illinois)

• Around 1.1 million sq. ft. and about 109 MW of power.

• Multi-carrier hub with strong colocation and interconnection options.

• Serves cloud providers, large enterprises, and media/financial workloads.

Think of it as one of the Midwest’s main digital crossroads.

What Are Tier 1 Data Centers?

Tier 1 is the entry level of data center design, based on the Uptime Institute’s tier system.

A Tier 1 data center:

• Has basic dedicated site infrastructure (power, cooling, UPS) for IT equipment.

• Uses single-capacity components, with one path for power and cooling.

• Targets about 99.671% uptime, which still means roughly 28.8 hours of downtime per year.

By comparison, Tier 3 and Tier 4 designs add more redundancy and higher availability targets. For mission-critical workloads, you’re usually looking at Tier 3 or above.

Choosing the Right U.S. Data Center Location

All these markets sound great on paper, but how do you pick? A simple way to think about it:

• Where are your users?
  
  

  • East Coast heavy? Start with Northern Virginia, New York/New Jersey, Atlanta.

  • West Coast and APAC? Look at Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, Phoenix.

  • Latin America focus? Miami almost always makes the list.

• What’s your budget?
  
  

  • If power cost is a big deal, Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta usually beat New York or LA.

• What kind of hosting are you using?
  
  

  • Colocation: you care about rack pricing, cross-connects, and power density.

  • Cloud: you’re choosing cloud regions and zones that map to these markets.

  • Dedicated servers / bare metal: you want fast deployment in specific U.S. data center markets without the pain of building your own presence.

A lot of teams don’t want to sign long colocation contracts just to test where their app feels fastest. That’s where quickly deployable dedicated servers can help: spin up in a few hubs, run real-world tests, and then commit.

If you like that “try it first” approach, 👉 you can spin up low-latency dedicated servers with GTHost in major U.S. data center hubs and compare regions like Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York before locking in a big infrastructure decision. Once you know where your users are happiest, you can scale up in those same locations with much more confidence.

FAQs About U.S. Data Center Markets

1. What is a “data center market” in the U.S.?
A data center market is a region that has multiple large-scale data center campuses, plenty of power and fiber, and a mix of colocation providers, cloud hyperscalers, and enterprise operators. Think “Northern Virginia” or “Dallas–Fort Worth,” not just a single building.

2. Which region is the largest U.S. data center market?
Northern Virginia is the clear leader. It has 300+ data centers and nearly 4,000 MW of commissioned power, supporting hyperscalers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Meta.

3. What are the second and third biggest data center hubs?
Phoenix typically ranks second, with 100+ facilities and around 1,380 MW of power. Dallas–Fort Worth is close behind with more than 150 facilities and over 1,100 MW of commissioned power.

4. Which other U.S. regions have large data center clusters?
Beyond the big three, you’ll find major clusters in Atlanta (~1,065 MW), Chicago, Silicon Valley/Northern California, Seattle/Quincy, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York/New Jersey.

5. Why are these specific locations so attractive?
They mix low-ish electricity costs, tax incentives, abundant fiber networks, and access to large user populations. Some, like Quincy in Washington State, also have very cheap hydroelectric power, which is perfect for heavy compute like AI.

6. How is AI changing data center development?
AI training and inference need massive compute, dense power, and lots of cooling. That’s driving a new wave of large data center builds—over 1,200 new facilities have been built or planned since 2010, with hyperscalers expanding in places like Virginia, Texas, Louisiana, and Wisconsin.

7. How much power do U.S. data centers consume?
Together, U.S. data centers consume more than 13 GW of power today, and projections suggest that could climb to around 35 GW by 2030. Northern Virginia alone might need up to 11 GW by the end of the decade.

8. What role do energy and sustainability play?
They’re front and center now. Operators hunt for low-cost, reliable, and increasingly renewable energy—hydro, solar, wind—while balancing grid limits and sustainability targets. Many states are also starting to regulate or study data center energy use more closely.

9. Which U.S. state has the most data centers?
Virginia, especially Northern Virginia, is often called the data center capital of the world. Loudoun County alone routes a huge portion of global internet traffic every day and the state hosts more than 250 data centers.

10. Who is one of the biggest data center builders/operators in the U.S.?
Digital Realty is one of the largest, with more than a hundred facilities across the United States, plus a global footprint.

11. How many data centers are there in the U.S.?
Estimates for 2025 put the U.S. at around 2,600 data centers, making it the country with the most data centers in the world.

12. How many data centers are in North Carolina?
North Carolina hosts several notable sites, including a Google data center in Lenoir that’s been running since 2009. The exact total count isn’t as publicized as markets like Virginia or Texas, but the state plays a growing role in regional infrastructure.

Conclusion

The 10 biggest U.S. data center hubs give you a menu of trade-offs: Northern Virginia for raw scale, Phoenix and Dallas for cost-efficient power, New York and Chicago for financial traffic, Miami and Los Angeles for international routes, and so on. If you want to tap these advantages without building your own colocation footprint from scratch, 👉 GTHost lets you quickly deploy dedicated servers in key U.S. data center markets, which is why GTHost is suitable for teams that need fast, low-friction, multi-region hosting across the biggest data center hubs in the United States. Start in one or two regions, measure real-world latency and stability, and then grow into the rest of the map at your own pace.