Atlanta Data Centers hit Peak as Growth Slows

Metro Atlanta’s data center frenzy hit a record high in 2025, but signs of a plateau are emerging as construction growth slows, reflecting the limits of the region’s AI-driven expansion.

The Atlanta area had nearly 3,968 megawatts of data center capacity under construction last year, up 15 percent from 2024, according to real estate services firm CBRE. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that data center capacity keeps the city trailing only Northern Virginia in U.S. market size and marks a sharp rise from sixth place just three years ago.

CBRE’s data show the pace of construction has begun to ebb. After a half-year record in late 2024, activity fell in the first six months of 2025 before bouncing back in the second half. Yet, the final six months of the year still came in about 4 percent below the same period a year earlier. Nationwide, server farm construction also slowed slightly, the first year-on-year decline since pandemic-impacted 2020.

Despite the hiccup, Atlanta remains the country’s top market for data center space under construction, with more underway than currently operational — a unique distinction among major hubs. Analysts credit the region’s versatile digital infrastructure, capable of supporting both hyperscale centers and smaller carrier hubs, which keeps demand strong not only from AI but also from cloud computing operators, according to the publication. Vacancy remains just 2 percent, compared with 25 percent in offices and roughly 10 percent in industrial properties, even after 460 megawatts of new capacity came online in the latter half of 2025.

Georgia Power, the state’s largest utility, cut its late-2028 electricity forecast for committed data center customers by 900 megawatts, citing some of the sector’s bottlenecks, the outlet reported. Yet the utility is moving ahead with a 10,000-megawatt generation expansion approved last December, aimed predominantly at data centers.

Mike Lash, senior vice president of CBRE Data Center Solutions, told the outlet that physical constraints in the process of building data centers are a separate issue from demand for them. Pat Lynch, CBRE’s executive managing director, noted that power and supply chain shortages are enforcing a power-first site selection strategy.

— Eric Weilbacher