Saturday, May 23, 2026

31.7 GW Under Construction. Five-Year Power Timelines Decide Who Builds It.

Self-supply mandates, water disclosure bills, and local moratoria all landed in the same week, and the developers clearing them share one trait: they arrived with anchor tenants, secured generation, and visible workforce commitments before the first hearing. The 31.7 GW under construction today belongs to whoever can prove a five-year power path; everyone else is bidding on stranded sites.

Today's Lead

Dallas just unseated Northern Virginia as the world's top primary data center market in Cushman & Wakefield's 2025 Global Data Center Market Comparison, with capacity under construction reaching 31.7 GW, more than double the prior edition's 12.5 GW. Power availability has decisively overtaken latency as the dominant site-selection variable, and Texas now owns the top three US growth tiers: Dallas, Austin-San Antonio, and West Texas.

The window is real but not infinite. Average large-load power delivery timelines stretch to five years across the Americas, and every other state in today's briefing is writing rules that will reshape who gets to build.

[1]

Power

The self-supply standard hardens from Missouri to North Carolina

Google's $15 billion Montgomery County, Missouri commitment runs entirely through Missouri SB4: Google funds its own electricity and partners with Ameren on more than 1 GW of new generation, paired with a $20 million Energy Impact Fund for local utility bills. North Carolina's House Energy committee advanced SB 730 the same week, requiring large data centers to fund their own generation or pay full interconnection costs, with 78.2% of Carolina Journal-polled voters backing the self-supply mandate. Ohio SB 294 takes a different route, proposing a 50% capacity factor threshold that would effectively bar new solar and wind from serving the state's 77 in-development projects.

Self-supplied or long-contracted power isn't a competitive edge anymore; it's the floor. Developers showing up with anchor tenants, secured generation, and a credible benefit-sharing instrument will clear permitting in states writing these rules. Those banking on ratepayer cross-subsidy will find the math hostile in every jurisdiction on today's list.

[2]·[3]·[4]·[5]

Water

Disclosure is the new permit

Rep. Chip Roy filed the Public Oversight of Water and Energy Reporting Act Friday, requiring DOE and EPA to track water and energy consumption at data centers qualifying for expedited permitting under EO 14318 (loads above 100 MW). Roy cited University of Texas research projecting data center water use could hit 9% of Texas's statewide supply by 2040, up from roughly 1% today. Wisconsin researchers at UW-Milwaukee's Center for Water Policy published a legislative model the same week, anchored on Lawrence Berkeley figures showing 17 billion gallons of direct US data center water use in 2023 and 211 billion gallons including indirect electricity-driven consumption. A Marquette poll found 70% of Wisconsinites believe large data center costs outweigh benefits, with water cited most.

Developers who front-load water offset agreements, closed-loop or air-cooling specifications, and baseline consumption data will permit faster than competitors defending opacity retroactively. Google's Montgomery County air-cooling spec is the template; the litigation against the adjacent AWS approval is the warning.

[6]·[7]·[8]·[9]

Politics

Moratoria, carve-outs, and the ground game

Oklahoma City's council voted 7-2 to exempt facilities up to 75 MW from its moratorium, plus named carve-outs for Scale Datacenters (Cerebras) and Rack59 after CEO Trevor Francis brought several hundred employees and $250 million in 12-month investment to city hall. Nodaway County, Missouri commissioners are hunting for a legally defensible moratorium they may not have authority to impose. Congressional pressure is intensifying: Hawley-Blumenthal pushing rate protection, Sanders-AOC calling for a moratorium, and House Energy Subcommittee Chairman Robert Latta acknowledging generation must scale fast. In Texas, Red Oak approved 800 acres of agricultural rezoning while Hill County imposed a moratorium the same month.

The OKC outcome tells the story: organized capital and visible workforce commitments move councils; quiet permitting doesn't. Developers who show up with payroll, benefit-sharing, and rulemaking participation shape the exemptions. The ones who don't inherit whatever rules the loudest opposition writes.

[10]·[11]

Sources we cited

11 articles across 11 publishers · 242 reviewed today

[1]Datacenter Knowledge
Texas Powers Past Virginia in Global Data Center Rankings
May 22, 2026·Dallas, West Texas, and Austin-San Antonio climbed Cushman’s global rankings as AI infrastructure chases power and land. Dallas has overtak…
[2]Broadband Breakfast
Google Bets $15 Billion on Missouri Data Center
May 22, 2026·The investment comes as a nearby Amazon project faces a lawsuit over transparency. WASHINGTON, May 22, 2026 – A $15 billion Google data cen…
[3]Carolina Journal
Bill proposes data center regulations, ratepayer safeguards
May 22, 2026·Listen to this story (5 minutes) A new House proposal would impose new limits on large data centers in North Carolina while adding ratepaye…
[4]reflector.com
Lawmakers consider data center restrictions
May 23, 2026·The state legislative building in Raleigh. The North Carolina House Energy and Public Utilities Committee voted Wednesday to advance a bill…
[5]Circle of Blue
Ohio Needs Power For Its Data Centers. Lawmakers Want to Redefine ‘Clean Energy’ to Get It
May 21, 2026·Ohio is the Great Lakes region’s leader in new data center developments. These sites are projected to account for one-fourth of the state’s…
[6]FOX 7 Austin
Roy files legislation to track data center water, power use
May 22, 2026·GARLAND, TEXAS - MARCH 4: Construction workers wire electricity lines in Dallas TX4 data center's mechanical galley under construction at th…
[7]WPR
How much water do AI data centers really use? Wisconsin researchers look for answers.
May 21, 2026·Data centers are a hot topic in communities all over the state as tech companies look to site these energy-intensive projects in places with…
[8]Urban Milwaukee
Wisconsin Researchers Probe AI Data Centers’ Thirst For Water
May 21, 2026·UWM’s Center for Water Policy maps hidden water and energy costs as hyperscale projects spread. Data centers are a hot topic in communities…
[9]Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Your AI chatbot is polluting my backyard
May 21, 2026·By Paul Aversa | Voices of Tomorrow | May 21, 2026 Data centers under construction in the Potomac River watershed in Gainesville, Virginia.…
[10]Oklahoma City Free Press
City Council’s data center exemptions raise questions of favoritism
May 22, 2026·- City Council voted Tuesday to amend their moratorium on new data centers in OKC, allowing facilities using up to 75 megawatts of electrici…
[11]The Maryville Forum
Walk: County looking at options for data center moratorium
May 22, 2026·More than 100 people attended an informational meeting held at the Salem Church near Barnard on Thursday evening to discuss opposition to th…

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