America’s Trillion-Dollar Data Center Race Has A New Frontrunner

The state best positioned to cash in on the data center boom depends on who’s measuring, while a growing backlash over power, water, and incentives shadows the whole race.

Virginia is in prime position in the trillion-dollar artificial intelligence arms race, according to one data center company.

Texas-based TRG Datacenters crowned Virginia the state best positioned for an AI infrastructure boom, awarding it a perfect 100 on the company’s “readiness index.” The ranking comes as spending on AI infrastructure could top $3 trillion by 2030.

Virginia already hosts seven large AI data center sites with 1,085 megawatts of capacity. That’s more than Georgia, New York, and Oregon combined, according to TRG’s August study.

Ohio grabbed second place with a score of 88.2, followed by Tennessee, Georgia, and Texas. South Carolina, Mississippi, New York, Oregon, and Indiana rounded out the top 10.

The company graded 24 states on capacity, how much of each state’s electricity the facilities consume, carbon emissions, and how many sites sit in areas already short on water.

Ohio led in capacity, with 1,410 megawatts, and none of its sites are in high water-stress zones. Tennessee is close behind at 1,373 megawatts and boasts the most large sites, a whopping 13. But nearly 59% of them sit in water-stressed areas, which helps explain why Texas finished fifth.

Other entities see it differently.

CNBC’s 2026 Top States for Business rankings, published in July, put Ohio first for infrastructure with Virginia second, Illinois third, and Indiana fourth. CNBC found that Virginia can deliver more power for computing than any other state, and has over 600 data centers. But CNBC warned that the state’s grid is strained and that a backlash among the public is growing. Some localities are considering outright bans.

In Ohio, SoftBank is building what has been billed as the world’s largest data center in Pike County. It will be powered by a gas plant and 18 small nuclear reactors.

Meanwhile, regulatory tech firm Labrynth, as reported by Yahoo Finance in May, crowned Texas No. 1, followed by Oregon, Illinois, Florida, and Georgia. Virginia barely made the list, finishing in 10th place.

Commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield has named Dallas the world’s top primary data center market. Texas’ grid operator, ERCOT, expects data centers alone to need more than 22,000 megawatts by 2030.

TechNewsWorld reported in April that Synergy Research Group found Texas and the Midwest held one-third of the nation’s operational hyperscale capacity by the end of 2025. Those areas are on track to claim more than half of new capacity in the next few years. Even TRG’s own earlier “AI Superpower Index” put Texas on top.

Yet Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller called for a statewide pause on big data center projects, according to Yahoo Finance. CNBC reported that Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker froze new data center incentive deals starting July 1, and New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul also placed a one-year moratorium on the construction of large-scale data centers. Arizona also suspended its sales-tax breaks for the facilities for three years. Arizona rated a paltry 1 out of 4 on water availability.

More from this network:
Domains for Sale · GOTPeople.org · TheDSAPlatform · The Truth About Socialism

Donate to GOTPeople.org