- Power scarcity is redrawing the U.S. data center map—away from old giants, toward the Midwest
- Wisconsin and Missouri are among the new states seeing the most growth
- In small towns, the real fight is on with voters ready to say “no”
The hunt for available power is driving data centers out of traditional hubs in the U.S. and into new territory in the Midwest. This isn’t a minor trend either. Midwestern facilities already constitute a third of all data center capacity in the country and will account for more than half of new capacity coming online in the coming years, Synergy Research Group found.
Fierce has been tracking the emergence of new data center hubs, noting a shift from Tier-1 markets like Northern Virginia to secondary hubs like New Albany, Ohio; Atlanta, Georgia; and Boston, Massachusetts back in 2023. We flagged the shift to mid-and southwestern markets in January of this year, using projections from the Department of Energy.
Synergy, though, is tracking its own pipeline of 803 data center projects, just over half of which are in the U.S. According to its data, the data center hubs gaining market share include well-known targets like Texas and Ohio, as well as Wisconsin, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Indiana and Michigan.
"By a wide margin Texas is the most prominent state in the pipeline. In the Midwest, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan and Missouri will all grow rapidly in importance, as they have attracted multiple major projects from Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and CoreWeave," Synergy wrote in a press release.
Wisconsin in particular has drawn investments from AWS, Microsoft, and OpenAI (with Oracle). AWS, Google and Microsoft have all either started projects in or are eyeing Missouri for new data center builds.
The leading factor behind this push, of course, is power. As Synergy noted, hyperscalers and other data center operators are “seeking out areas where power is more readily available.”
If you have any doubts about just how powerful a motivating force power can be, just look at the fact that OpenAI has paused its Stargate U.K. project thanks in part to high energy costs.
“While established hubs will remain strategically important, the center of gravity for new hyperscale investment is clearly moving elsewhere,” Synergy’s Chief Analyst John Dinsdale wrote.
Backlash grows
But as in other regions, data center projects in the Midwest are running up against staunch opposition from local residents.
Citizens in one Missouri town voted out all four members of its town council, after the council approved a controversial data center project. Meanwhile, Politico reported Wisconsin residents in Port Washington passed an anti-data center referendum that will require city leaders to win voter approval before giving new development projects massive tax breaks.
Similar measures to rein in data center development will be up for a vote later this year in California, Michigan and a second Wisconsin town, Politico noted.