Executive summary
The U.S. AI data-center buildout continues to be defined by one binding constraint: power. As of Oct 12, 2026, we track 1,547 data-center facilities mapped from OpenStreetMap across 46 states, 472.9 GW of total U.S. grid demand across 7 ISO/RTO markets (~67% of U.S. load; data centers are a growing share, not the whole), and 592 data-center–related legislative items across 45 states plus 58 federal. On the frontier, Epoch AI tracks 93 leading-edge data centers totaling roughly 13.8 GW of power.
Geographic concentration remains extreme: Virginia leads with 342 mapped facilities, and the top five states account for the bulk of activity. The leading generation source on the grid right now is Natural Gas at 37.2%. Policy is the emerging variable — moratoriums, zoning, and ratepayer-impact bills are rising across states as communities weigh the load growth.
Facilities & geography
Top states by mapped data-center facilities (OpenStreetMap, ODbL):
| State | Facilities | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Virginia | 342 | 22.1% |
| Texas | 140 | 9.0% |
| Oregon | 133 | 8.6% |
| California | 111 | 7.2% |
| Ohio | 90 | 5.8% |
| Washington | 65 | 4.2% |
| Arizona | 61 | 3.9% |
| Iowa | 59 | 3.8% |
| Illinois | 51 | 3.3% |
| New Jersey | 48 | 3.1% |
Power & grid demand
Live electricity demand by ISO/RTO (EIA), totaling 472.9 GW across 7 markets. The California ISO daily peak is roughly 27.1 GW.
| ISO / RTO | Demand (GW) |
|---|---|
| PJM | 90.2 |
| MISO | 79.7 |
| ERCOT | 58.6 |
| SPP | 35.2 |
| CAISO | 24.9 |
| NYISO | 15.4 |
| ISO-NE | 10.5 |
U.S. generation mix (share of output):
| Source | Share |
|---|---|
| Natural Gas | 37.2% |
| Nuclear | 17.9% |
| Wind | 17.4% |
| Coal | 14.7% |
| Solar | 6% |
| Hydro | 4.6% |
| Other | 2.2% |
Policy landscape
592 tracked data-center bills across 45 states and 58 federal items (LegiScan, CC BY). States with the most activity:
| State | Tracked bills |
|---|---|
| Michigan | 49 |
| Pennsylvania | 47 |
| Virginia | 42 |
| New Jersey | 41 |
| Minnesota | 32 |
| Illinois | 25 |
| New York | 22 |
| Tennessee | 19 |
Capital & companies
Recent tracked deals, financings, and PPAs:
| Company | Event | Date |
|---|---|---|
| — | Orcadian Energy terminates data center agreement for North Sea gas field - re… | 2026-10-12 |
| — | Serverfarm tops out first data center at Arkansas campus | 2026-10-12 |
| Hyperscale Data | Hyperscale Data plans Patriot BTC subsidiary for Bitcoin mining business | 2026-10-11 |
| — | ‘Never seen anything quite like it’: How rural Pennsylvania’s $165 million da… | 2026-10-11 |
| GE Vernova | GE Vernova (GEV) Just Turned AI Data Centers Into A $5 Billion Order Tailwind | 2026-10-10 |
| — | Senate probe accuses Big Tech of misleading public on AI data centers — massi… | 2026-10-10 |
| Schneider Electric | Wärtsilä, Schneider Electric, and Stanley Consultants launch coordinated appr… | 2026-10-10 |
| Schneider Electric | Sponsored: Wärtsilä, Schneider Electric, and Stanley Consultants launch coord… | 2026-10-10 |
Recent SEC filings referencing data centers (EDGAR):
| Company | Form | Date |
|---|---|---|
| MICRON TECHNOLOGY INC MU | 10-K | 2026-10-09 |
| Applied Digital Corp. APLD | 8-K | 2026-10-07 |
| Applied Digital Corp. APLD | 10-Q | 2026-10-07 |
| AIB Data Centers Inc. AIB | 8-K | 2026-10-07 |
| TERAWULF INC. WULF | 8-K | 2026-10-05 |
| AIB Data Centers Inc. AIB | 8-K | 2026-10-01 |
| SharonAI Holdings Inc. | 8-K | 2026-10-01 |
| Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co | 8-K | 2026-09-30 |
Frontier compute
The largest known frontier data centers by reported power capacity (Epoch AI, CC BY 4.0); Epoch also tracks 3,626 notable AI models:
| Facility | Operator | MW | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colossus 2 | xAI | 946 | United States |
| Anthropic-Amazon New Carlisle | Amazon | 910 | United States |
| Microsoft Fairwater Atlanta | Microsoft | 636 | United States |
| DayOne Nusajaya | — | 473 | Malaysia |
| Meta Prometheus | Meta | 471 | United States |
| DayOne Kempas | — | 422 | Malaysia |
| OpenAI Stargate Abilene | Oracle | 421 | United States |
| Microsoft Fairwater Wisconsin | Microsoft | 369 | United States |
| Google Pryor (North) | 368 | United States | |
| Colossus 1 | xAI | 340 | United States |
Methodology & sources
This report is generated from the same data behind the live dashboards, aggregated from available public sources and proprietary data feeds: facility locations from OpenStreetMap (ODbL); electricity demand and generation mix from the U.S. EIA; legislation from LegiScan (CC BY); deals, equities, and SEC filings via market-data and EDGAR feeds; and frontier-compute figures from Epoch AI (CC BY 4.0). Figures reflect the data as of Oct 12, 2026 and update as the underlying sources refresh. See the full methodology. This report is informational only and not investment advice — see our disclaimer.