Atlanta’s data center market isn’t just growing fast. It’s unprecedented

The size of data centers is typically measured by the power they consume. The net amount of leased data center space in Atlanta increased by 706 megawatts in 2024, 56% more than Northern Virginia during the same year.

Nearly 2,160 megawatts worth of data center development is under construction across metro Atlanta, more than double the area’s amount of existing space. That’s roughly equal to the maximum electricity output of both of Plant Vogtle’s two new nuclear reactors. No other major market in the U.S. comes close to matching that projected wave of computer server farms.

The mammoth size of these facilities and their strain on utility grids and local water supplies have sparked concern in communities.

Developers often describe the demand for more space as “insatiable” because everything from artificial intelligence to smartphone applications needs storage space. Because of a combination of relatively cheap land, available electricity, government tax incentives and fiber infrastructure, Atlanta has cemented itself as the new darling of the data center industry, supplanting a power-strained Northern Virginia market that historically has been the epicenter of computer storage.

“The surge highlights the growing demand for data center space in the surrounding region,” CBRE’s report said of Atlanta. Hyperscalers, effectively large campuses of data centers, are “pouring record amounts of capital into data centers, spurred by the rapid growth of AI.”

Tech giants including Google, Microsoft and Meta operate mammoth data center campuses in metro Atlanta. In January, Amazon announced $11 billion in new data center capacity in metro Atlanta, and Microsoft scooped up hundreds of acres in south Fulton County last year to expand its data center footprint, including a $1.8 billion campus in Union City.

The bulk of those projects will take years to come to fruition, but it highlights the exponential growth Atlanta is poised to see. Since the beginning of 2023, the amount of data center capacity under construction in the Atlanta area has roughly doubled every six months, according to CBRE.

Metro Atlanta’s data center boom has drawn the attention of state legislators, who are taking a close look at the facilities’ enormous electricity demands.

A bill that would require Georgia Power, the state’s largest electric utility, to charge data centers for costs “substantially related to” serving the facilities, or that “would not have been incurred” otherwise cleared a state Senate committee last week. Consumer advocates have argued the legislation, Senate Bill 34, is needed to protect the utility’s residential customers from being saddled with infrastructure costs from serving data centers.

Georgia Power has forecast a sharp increase in demand for its electricity in the coming years and company executives have attributed more than 80% of it to expected load growth from data centers. The company is already laying the groundwork to serve them by building new power plants, costly transmission lines and more.

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Georgia Power is opposed to SB 34, arguing recent changes to the company’s rules and contracts for data centers do enough already to ensure their costs aren’t shifted to residents and businesses. Data center industry groups have also spoken against the measure.

It’s not clear whether the bill will get a vote from the full Senate before March 6, known as Crossover Day. Any legislation that hasn’t passed at least one chamber by that deadline is typically considered “dead” for the session.

Last year, lawmakers voted to repeal a lucrative tax break for the biggest server farms, though Gov. Brian Kemp vetoed the measure.

Even though Atlanta leads the country in the amount of data center space under construction, new projects are joining the pipeline at an unprecedented pace. From 2023 to 2024, data center construction activity nearly tripled in Atlanta, the most of any major market by a large margin.

Given the demands of the digital age, industry experts don’t expect that trend to reverse.

“Despite record construction activity, the data center market will struggle to keep pace with demand, leading to higher utilization rates in existing facilities and tighter vacancy rates,” CBRE’s report said.