North Carolina has established itself as one of the fastest-growing data center markets in the US Southeast, with multiple hyperscale projects under active construction or in advanced planning phases. Amazon broke ground in October 2025 on a data center complex in Richmond County that is expected to span up to 20 buildings of more than 200,000 square feet each at full build-out, targeting completion by 2027 to 2028. Microsoft is also advancing a Catawba County data center expansion, while Meta is expanding its Forest City facility, which is already one of the largest in North America.
The South as a region now accounts for 754 planned data centers alongside 1,209 existing facilities, a 62 percent increase from current totals, according to data from Pew Research and industry tracking organizations. North Carolina's combination of available land, existing fiber infrastructure, and state-level incentive programs has positioned it competitively against Virginia, Georgia, and Texas for hyperscale investment.
North Carolina lawmakers advanced legislation in 2025 requiring hyperscale operators to cover power, water, and infrastructure costs associated with their facilities rather than shifting those costs to existing ratepayers through public utility rate structures. The requirement reflects growing tension between large-scale data center operators and state utility commissions across Southeast markets.
Aligned Data Centers also broke ground on a new facility in the Southeast in the first quarter of 2026, contributing to a record $25.2 billion in US data center construction starts in January 2026 alone. The 20 projects that broke ground in that single month included two projects valued at $10 billion each.
Source: Data Center Knowledge -- https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/data-center-construction/new-data-center-developments-may-2026