Georgia and Pennsylvania Emerge as Data Center Leaders

Georgia and Pennsylvania, September 4, 2025

News Summary

Georgia and Pennsylvania have rapidly become influential markets for data centers in the US, collectively boasting around 27.5 gigawatts of data center capacity. As digital infrastructure expands, both states are seeing significant growth in IT loads, with Georgia expected to reach 19 GW by 2025 and Pennsylvania to hit 7.8 GW. Investment trends reflect this boom, with major players committing billions to support the evolving market, alongside the challenges posed by local opposition to expanding data center operations.

Georgia and Pennsylvania Become Leading Markets for Data Centers

Georgia and Pennsylvania have emerged as significant players in the growing data center market in the United States, with a collective data center supply of approximately 27.5 gigawatts (GW). Positioned along the eastern coast, both states are rapidly expanding their digital infrastructure to meet the increasing demand for data processing and storage.

Projected Growth in IT Load

In Georgia, the total IT load is expected to surge from a mere 1.6 GW in 2021 to around 19 GW by 2025. This notable growth can be attributed to the state’s numerous advantages including abundant land, a favorable tax structure, and competitive power pricing. Conversely, Pennsylvania’s IT load is anticipated to grow from 231 megawatts (MW) in 2021 to an impressive 7.8 GW by 2025, showcasing a robust demand for data services.

Colocation Market Demand

Colocation services, where businesses can rent space for servers and other computing hardware, represent a significant portion of the IT load in both states. Georgia’s colocation market is notably larger than Pennsylvania’s, although the demand in Georgia accounts for about 60% of its total IT load, which is comparatively less than Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, the colocation market is largely driven by wholesale colocation services.

Investment Trends

A major turn in Pennsylvania’s data center landscape occurred this year when various data center and energy firms, including prominent entities like Blackstone and Energy Capital Partners, announced a commitment to invest $90 billion in the state’s digital infrastructure. Additionally, Pennsylvania has seen substantial planned growth in its wholesale colocation segment, which is projected to rise from 2 MW in early-stage plans to around 3 GW by 2025.

Georgia has also seen remarkable investments, especially from major tech player Amazon, which made an $11 billion investment for data infrastructure in the state early in the year and later secured 1,000 acres of land for future data center development.

Regional Data Center Hubs

Atlanta stands out as the biggest data center hub in Georgia. On the other hand, Pennsylvania features two prominent hubs located in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Despite Georgia’s head start, Pennsylvania’s hyperscale market is also on the rise, with early-stage projects increasing to 616 MW by 2025.

Energy Resources and Local Challenges

Both states have unique infrastructures powering their energy consumption. Georgia heavily relies on natural gas (41%) and nuclear (34%), while Pennsylvania’s energy source leans even more towards natural gas (64%) and nuclear (28%). However, they face increasing local opposition against data center projects. As of July 2025, Georgia even enacted a statewide moratorium on large projects due to local concerns regarding power constraints.

Pennsylvania developers have also faced challenges, as strong local opposition has impacted progress for projects like Data Centric LLC’s initiatives.

New Developments

CoreWeave, a New York-based AI hyperscaler, has created excitement by announcing a potential $6 billion investment to construct a data center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This facility aims for an initial capacity of 100 MW, expandable to 300 MW, and is anticipated to yield around 600 jobs during construction.

Furthermore, Google is set to invest $25 billion in Pennsylvania’s PJM Interconnection power grid over the next two years, ensuring the state’s continued growth in its data center capabilities.

Conclusion

The expansion of data centers in both Georgia and Pennsylvania highlights these states’ critical roles in supporting the growing technology landscape. As demand for data services continues to escalate, investments and development in these regions are sure to stimulate further economic growth and technological advancement.

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Additional Resources

• Data Center Dynamics: Georgia and Pennsylvania See Dramatic Data Center Market Growth
• Construction Dive: Turner & Wohlsen Pennsylvania Data Center
• Axios: Pennsylvania Data Center Job Growth
• Power Magazine: PPL & Blackstone Launch Major Venture
• AI Magazine: CoreWeave Commits $6 Billion to New AI Data Centre
• Wikipedia: Data Center
• Google Search: Data Centers in Georgia and Pennsylvania
• Google Scholar: Data Centers in USA
• Encyclopedia Britannica: Data Centers
• Google News: Data Centers Georgia Pennsylvania

Author: RISadlog