Executive summary
The U.S. AI data-center buildout continues to be defined by one binding constraint: power. As of Aug 14, 2026, we track 1,547 data-center facilities mapped from OpenStreetMap across 46 states, 522 GW of total U.S. grid demand across 7 ISO/RTO markets (~67% of U.S. load; data centers are a growing share, not the whole), and 538 data-center–related legislative items across 45 states plus 40 federal. On the frontier, Epoch AI tracks 82 leading-edge data centers totaling roughly 12.5 GW of power.
Geographic concentration remains extreme: Virginia leads with 342 mapped facilities, and the top five states account for the bulk of activity. The leading generation source on the grid right now is Natural Gas at 44.7%. Policy is the emerging variable — moratoriums, zoning, and ratepayer-impact bills are rising across states as communities weigh the load growth.
Facilities & geography
Top states by mapped data-center facilities (OpenStreetMap, ODbL):
| State | Facilities | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Virginia | 342 | 22.1% |
| Texas | 140 | 9.0% |
| Oregon | 133 | 8.6% |
| California | 111 | 7.2% |
| Ohio | 90 | 5.8% |
| Washington | 65 | 4.2% |
| Arizona | 61 | 3.9% |
| Iowa | 59 | 3.8% |
| Illinois | 51 | 3.3% |
| New Jersey | 48 | 3.1% |
Power & grid demand
Live electricity demand by ISO/RTO (EIA), totaling 522 GW across 7 markets. The California ISO daily peak is roughly 35.4 GW.
| ISO / RTO | Demand (GW) |
|---|---|
| PJM | 99.3 |
| MISO | 84 |
| ERCOT | 66 |
| SPP | 41 |
| CAISO | 28.3 |
| NYISO | 17.3 |
| ISO-NE | 13.3 |
U.S. generation mix (share of output):
| Source | Share |
|---|---|
| Natural Gas | 44.7% |
| Coal | 16.9% |
| Nuclear | 15.3% |
| Wind | 9.1% |
| Solar | 7.1% |
| Hydro | 4.6% |
| Other | 2.2% |
Policy landscape
538 tracked data-center bills across 45 states and 40 federal items (LegiScan, CC BY). States with the most activity:
| State | Tracked bills |
|---|---|
| Virginia | 42 |
| Michigan | 40 |
| Pennsylvania | 34 |
| New Jersey | 34 |
| Minnesota | 31 |
| New York | 25 |
| Illinois | 20 |
| Tennessee | 19 |
Capital & companies
Recent tracked deals, financings, and PPAs:
| Company | Event | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Nvidia | Nvidia’s $500B AI Infrastructure Bet Raises Power Stakes | 2026-08-13 |
| Nebius / Vantage | Nebius to lease data center capacity from Vantage in Newport, Wales | 2026-08-13 |
| — | Form Energy raises $750m to expand West Virginia iron-air battery plant to me… | 2026-08-13 |
| xAI | Elon Musk says xAI will increase data center capacity 7x by 2027 — targeting … | 2026-08-13 |
| — | Former LBNL supercomputing facility in Oakland, California, targeted for 20MW… | 2026-08-12 |
| — | Landmark Dividend acquires data center in Jacksonville, Florida, for $8.1m | 2026-08-12 |
| — | 3.8 GW Load Drop Prompts Potential PJM Data Center Rules | 2026-08-12 |
| — | Bank of America is deploying $250 billion to finance U.S. data centers and en… | 2026-08-12 |
Recent SEC filings referencing data centers (EDGAR):
| Company | Form | Date |
|---|---|---|
| AIB Data Centers Inc. AIB | 10-Q | 2026-08-13 |
| Nano Nuclear Energy Inc. NNE | 8-K | 2026-08-13 |
| Cerebras Systems Inc. CBRS | 8-K | 2026-08-12 |
| Cerebras Systems Inc. CBRS | 10-Q | 2026-08-12 |
| SharonAI Holdings Inc. | S-1 | 2026-08-12 |
| CoreWeave, Inc. CRWV | 10-Q | 2026-08-12 |
| SharonAI Holdings Inc. | S-1/A | 2026-08-11 |
| IRON MOUNTAIN INC IRM | 8-K | 2026-08-05 |
Frontier compute
The largest known frontier data centers by reported power capacity (Epoch AI, CC BY 4.0); Epoch also tracks 3,574 notable AI models:
| Facility | Operator | MW | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colossus 2 | xAI | 946 | United States |
| Anthropic-Amazon New Carlisle | Amazon | 910 | United States |
| Microsoft Fairwater Atlanta | Microsoft | 636 | United States |
| Meta Prometheus | Meta | 562 | United States |
| OpenAI Stargate Abilene | Oracle | 421 | United States |
| Microsoft Fairwater Wisconsin | Microsoft | 369 | United States |
| Colossus 1 | xAI | 340 | United States |
| Google New Albany | 339 | United States | |
| Google Columbus | 303 | United States | |
| Amazon Madison Mega Site | Amazon | 284 | United States |
Methodology & sources
This report is generated from the same data behind the live dashboards, aggregated from available public sources and proprietary data feeds: facility locations from OpenStreetMap (ODbL); electricity demand and generation mix from the U.S. EIA; legislation from LegiScan (CC BY); deals, equities, and SEC filings via market-data and EDGAR feeds; and frontier-compute figures from Epoch AI (CC BY 4.0). Figures reflect the data as of Aug 14, 2026 and update as the underlying sources refresh. See the full methodology. This report is informational only and not investment advice — see our disclaimer.