Developers have pre-leased 95% of the more than 765 megawatts of data center capacity under construction in DFW, according to a new CBRE report. [Photo: Adobe Stock]
Demand for data centers in Dallas-Fort Worth continues to sizzle.
Developers have already pre-leased 95% of the more than 765 megawatts of capacity under construction here, according to a new report from Dallas-based commercial real estate services company CBRE. The report says developers plan another 3.7 gigawatts of greenfield development but haven’t begun construction.
The report covered the first half of 2026 and points to robust demand from AI providers and hyperscale data centers, which support massive amounts of data processing and storage.
DFW’s ascent
The numbers tell the tale: Dallas-Fort Worth is capitalizing on the data center industry.
DFW held a 13% share of the primary U.S. data center market in the first half of this year, the report said. North Texas trailed Northern Virginia’s 41% share and Atlanta’s 17%.
As of August, Data Center Map counted 143 existing, 29 under-construction and 44 planned data centers in DFW. Nearly 13 gigawatts of capacity fill the North Texas data center pipeline.
DFW’s data center inventory exceeded 1,400 megawatts in the first half of 2026, CBRE said. That’s up from more than 563 megawatts in the same period last year. The first-half vacancy rate sat at 2.8%.
Total under-construction inventory in DFW soared 81% from the first half of 2025 to the first half of 2026, the report said.
A report published in August by commercial real estate services provider Cushman & Wakefield ranked DFW as the world’s top data center market. A recent report from Cushman & Wakefield’s competitor, JLL, crowned Texas the top data market in North America. The Lone Star State shot past longtime frontrunner Virginia to grab the North American title.
Hefty development costs
Amid accelerating demand for data centers in DFW, prices for “powered land” continue to rise, the CBRE report said. Powered land for a data center comes equipped with grid connections, allotted power capacity and signed utility deals before a developer breaks ground.
“Demand for sites with capacity below 75 MW has increased, driven by large power-load restrictions,” the report said.
Escalating land prices contribute to the expense of developing a data center. Construction-industry publication Buildermuse said it costs $1,000 to $1,500 per square foot to build a data center in North Texas.
An April report from Sam Houston State University’s Institute for Homeland Security looked at owner-occupied data centers in Texas. The report found they average nearly 233,000 square feet. At the top end of Buildermuse’s range, a typical owner-occupied data center in Texas would cost nearly $350 million to build.
The Sam Houston State report estimated about 475 data centers operate across the state. However, estimates vary widely from source to source.
Power surge
Demand for power changes the data center math in DFW.
Securing a data center’s spot in a utility queue is costly. As a result, investors are funding deposits for data center interconnections, the CBRE report said.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, operates the bulk of the state’s electric grid. In a preliminary long-term forecast filed in April, ERCOT projected demand for electricity in its territory, which includes DFW, could climb to 367,790 megawatts by 2032. Among the key drivers: power-hungry data centers. ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas have since said that number is likely inflated, with ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas telling a state Senate committee in late July that a more realistic 2032 figure is closer to 175,000 megawatts.
Either projection is a significant increase from current levels. ERCOT hit an all-time peak demand of 91,089 megawatts on July 22. ERCOT estimates 1 megawatt of electricity can power about 250 homes during peak periods.
Impact of data centers
An unnamed vice chair of an investment bank, quoted in the 2026 Emerging Trends in Real Estate report from PwC and the Urban Land Institute, put growth of the local and global data center market in perspective: “That great sucking sound? It’s data centers attracting so much capital.”
R E A D N E X T
Two new reports — one from Cushman & Wakefield, another from JLL — put North Texas and the Lone Star State at the center of the global data center boom.
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