Net absorption

Methodology

Covers CBRE’s North American PRIMARY data-centre markets only — Northern Virginia, Dallas, Chicago, Phoenix, Silicon Valley and similar. Secondary and tertiary markets are excluded, and they behave differently, so this is not a national vacancy rate. Three measures that answer different questions. VACANCY is what is available now. PRELEASING is what is spoken for before it is built. NET ABSORPTION is capacity actually taken up over a period, which is the cleanest demand signal of the three because it nets out both new supply and move-outs. The striking fact is the combination: vacancy fell to successive record lows (1.9% → 1.6% → 1.4%) WHILE supply grew 36% year on year to 9,432 MW. Demand is outrunning a construction boom, not filling slack. CAVEAT: the small dip in preleasing (79% → 74.3%) should not be read as cooling demand. It is a ratio against a much larger construction denominator, so a lower percentage can still represent more absolute preleased megawatts. Deliberate cross-reference with us-office-vacancy: 21% office vacancy at a record high against 1.4% data-centre vacancy at a record low, in the same market and the same quarter. Re-verified 2026-08-11.