by Jeff Sheehan, on Mar 10, 2026 7:00:04 AM
Site Selection Group released its latest white paper, The Unprecedented Expansion of Data Centers: How AI-Era Data Center Trends Shape Site Selection Strategy, examining the infrastructure forces reshaping data center development and site selection across the United States.
Driven by artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and cloud-based digital infrastructure, the data center sector is experiencing a once-in-a-generation expansion. Hyperscale AI facilities, colocation campuses, and distributed edge deployments now form the backbone of the modern digital economy. This growth is not cyclical or speculative; it is structural, comparable in scale to the industrial transformations that reshaped the American economy in earlier eras.
As demand accelerates, power capacity, grid resilience, land availability, and regulatory certainty are emerging as the defining constraints that determine which regions can support the next generation of AI infrastructure. Data center development is increasingly tied not only to economic opportunity, but also to national competitiveness and security.
The white paper explores where development capacity is expanding, what distinguishes truly infrastructure-ready markets, and how proactive policy alignment and infrastructure investment will shape America’s ability to lead in the AI era.
“Data center site selection is now fundamentally infrastructure-driven,” said Jeffrey A. Sheehan, Senior Vice President of Site Selection Group. “Speed-to-power, grid certainty, and long-term scalability are the critical determinants of success in this unprecedented expansion and central to strengthening America’s leadership in artificial intelligence.”
