The Data Center Capacity Crunch Continues
JLL Report: 92% of Data Center Projects Are Fully Pre-Leased Before Delivery
Hyperscale data center operators say they are capacity constrained because data center construction can’t keep pace with AI demand. That appears unlikely to change anytime soon.
The North American wholesale data center market has reached new levels of scarcity, with vacancy rates at a record-low 1% for the second consecutive year, according to JLL’s Year-End 2025 North America Data Center Report.
JLL says an insatiable demand for generative AI and cloud services has effectively exhausted available inventory, reshaping the geography of digital infrastructure.
With 92% of the massive 35-gigawatt (GW) construction pipeline already pre-committed, the industry is now defined by long-term capacity reservations made years before construction commences.
That trend is poised to continue through 2026 and well beyond. The four largest hyperscalers - Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services and Meta - say they expect to invest up to $630 billion in capital expenditures in 2026, a 62 percent increase from the record $388 billion in 2025 spending.
This presents a huge supply-and-demand imbalance in an already constrained market, as JLL notes.
