For a decade, the data center land grab was a race for fiber and f-tax abatements. In 2026, it is a race for electrons. The single largest constraint on new capacity is no longer capital or land — it is the ability to secure firm power on a timeline that matters to a hyperscaler.
The queue is the market
Utilities across the top ten U.S. markets are reporting interconnection queues that stretch beyond five years. That timeline is fundamentally incompatible with AI-driven demand, which is measured in quarters, not decades.
Whoever controls power controls the pipeline. Everything else is negotiable.
The result is a quiet migration of capital toward secondary and tertiary markets where power is available today, even if the ecosystem is thinner.
What to watch
Behind-the-meter generation, nuclear SMR partnerships, and long-term power purchase agreements are moving from footnotes to headline terms in every major transaction.
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