RESEARCH
Global Data Center Construction Hit a 2025 Record -- Trackers Split From 23 to 35 GW, and CBRE Found a Rare Decline
Real estate and analyst firms broadly agree 2025 was an extraordinary year for AI-driven data center construction, but the trackers who actually count gigawatts under construction disagree sharply on the total -- and one of them found the opposite of a record. Cushman & Wakefield puts global capacity under construction at 31.7 GW, more than double 2024's 12.5 GW, while JLL counts a 35 GW pipeline in North America alone and calls the sector 'hyperdrive.' BloombergNEF's global count comes in at just 23.1 GW as of Q3 2025, and CBRE's primary-market tracker shows under-construction capacity actually fell year-over-year for the first time since 2020, citing permitting, zoning, and power-sourcing delays.
Findings
- Cushman & Wakefield's 2026 Global Data Center Market Comparison puts global capacity under construction at 31.7 GW in 2025, more than double the 12.5 GW reported for 2024.
- JLL's North America Data Center Report Year-end 2025 counts a 35 GW construction pipeline in North America alone, describing the sector as having entered 'hyperdrive.'
- BloombergNEF's global tracker puts total under-construction capacity at 23.1 GW as of the end of Q3 2025 (17 GW Americas, 3.2 GW APAC, 2.9 GW EMEA) -- well below both C&W's full-year global figure and JLL's North America-only number.
- CBRE's primary-market tracker for North America shows under-construction capacity fell from 6,350.1 MW at end of 2024 to 5,994.4 MW at end of 2025 -- the first year-over-year decline since 2020, attributed to permitting, zoning, and power-sourcing delays.
Delta Engine result
↔ Divergence Detected — Δ 0.4533 (threshold 0.05)
- BloombergNEF T2 65
- Cushman & Wakefield T0 92
- JLL T0 90
- CBRE T0 58
Evidence quality
avg 32.5 · min 25 · max 55 · spread 30