With vacancy near 0%, virtually all absorption is the result of preleasing. A market’s ability to capture new requirements relies heavily on the development pipeline in that region and the amount of capacity that remains available for lease. 

Some data center development has been moving into secondary and tertiary markets in search of power, lower costs and speed to market. This is particularly true for hyperscale projects. However, emerging markets are only capturing a fraction of colocation demand. JLL’s market data continues to demonstrate that colocation demand is concentrated in core markets.

In the first half of 2025, 50% of absorption was recorded in two markets: Northern Virginia (647 MW) and Dallas (575 MW). Rounding out the top 5 markets for absorption in H1 were Chicago (368 MW), Austin/San Antonio (291 MW) and Atlanta (150 MW).