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October 2026 study

Developers behind the data center pipeline

61 named developers stand behind 95 of the 109 projects in our nine trackers, and 40 of them have one project each. Amazon has the most at 6. The projects that are actually under construction belong mostly to established data center operators, and the projects that get blocked belong mostly to everyone else.

Czarina Tabayoyong, founder of Critical Path Hiring

By Czarina Tabayoyong, Founder, Critical Path Hiring. Former Amazon, AWS and Google recruiter.

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Findings

  • Established operators hold 45 of 109 projects and 18 of the 23 under construction. Hyperscalers building for themselves hold 13 projects, 3 of them under construction, with 5 still proposed.
  • Developers outside those two groups, 33 funds, landowners and first-time developers, hold 37 projects. 17 of the 37 were stalled, denied or withdrawn (46%). Established operators lost 7 of 45 (16%) and hyperscalers 2 of 13.
  • Only 21 developers appear more than once, and together they hold 55 projects. Amazon leads with 6, in Northern Virginia, Columbus, San Antonio.
  • 14 of 109 projects name no developer in the public record, 6 of them proposed. Of the 37 other-developer projects, 9 state a capacity, against 18 of 45 for established operators.

By developer type

  • Blocked
  • Not blocked
Tracked data center projects by developer type, blocked against not blockedHyperscalers building for themselves: 2 blocked, 11 not blocked; Established data center operators: 7 blocked, 38 not blocked; Other developers, funds and landowners: 17 blocked, 20 not blocked; Developer not named in the record: 5 blocked, 9 not blocked02040Hyperscalers building for themselves: 2 of 13 blockedHyperscalers13Established data center operators: 7 of 45 blockedOperators45Other developers, funds and landowners: 17 of 37 blockedOther developers37Developer not named in the record: 5 of 14 blockedNot named14
Blocked means stalled, denied or withdrawn, as coded in the pushback study. Not blocked covers proposed, approved and under construction.
Developer typeDevelopersProjectsUnder constructionApproved or under constructionProposedBlockedStated MW
Hyperscalers building for themselves4133652 of 131,000 (1 state one)
Established data center operators24451828107 of 455,776 (18 state one)
Other developers, funds and landowners3337213717 of 374,497 (9 state one)
Developer not named in the record140365 of 14548 (2 state one)

Hyperscalers are Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Google building their own campuses. Established operators are companies whose business is developing and running data centers for tenants. Other developers are land companies, investment funds, energy developers and first-time entrants.

Repeat developers

  • Blocked
  • Not blocked
Tracked projects per repeat developer, blocked against not blockedAmazon: 2 blocked, 4 not blocked, 3 markets; CyrusOne: 0 blocked, 4 not blocked, 2 markets; Microsoft: 0 blocked, 4 not blocked, 3 markets; PowerHouse Data Centers: 1 blocked, 2 not blocked, 2 markets; Stack Infrastructure: 0 blocked, 3 not blocked, 3 markets; Tract: 1 blocked, 2 not blocked, 2 markets; Aligned Data Centers: 2 blocked, 1 not blocked, 2 markets; EdgeConneX: 2 blocked, 1 not blocked, 2 markets; Meta: 0 blocked, 2 not blocked, 2 markets; DC BLOX: 0 blocked, 2 not blocked, 1 markets; Prime Data Centers: 0 blocked, 2 not blocked, 2 markets; EdgeCore: 0 blocked, 2 not blocked, 2 markets; Stream Data Centers: 1 blocked, 1 not blocked, 2 markets; Novva Data Centers: 0 blocked, 2 not blocked, 2 markets; Flexential: 0 blocked, 2 not blocked, 2 markets; Cologix: 0 blocked, 2 not blocked, 1 markets; Equinix: 0 blocked, 2 not blocked, 2 markets; QTS: 0 blocked, 2 not blocked, 2 markets; Starwood Capital Group: 0 blocked, 2 not blocked, 1 markets; Vantage Data Centers: 0 blocked, 2 not blocked, 2 markets; White Rose Partners: 2 blocked, 0 not blocked, 2 markets0246Amazon: 2 of 6 blocked across Northern Virginia, Columbus, San AntonioAmazon6CyrusOne: 0 of 4 blocked across Dallas-Fort Worth, San AntonioCyrusOne4Microsoft: 0 of 4 blocked across Atlanta, Columbus, San AntonioMicrosoft4PowerHouse Data Centers: 1 of 3 blocked across Dallas-Fort Worth, ChicagoPowerHouse Data Centers3Stack Infrastructure: 0 of 3 blocked across Northern Virginia, Dallas-Fort Worth, HillsboroStack Infrastructure3Tract: 1 of 3 blocked across Phoenix, Salt Lake CityTract3Aligned Data Centers: 2 of 3 blocked across Columbus, HillsboroAligned Data Centers3EdgeConneX: 2 of 3 blocked across Atlanta, ColumbusEdgeConneX3Meta: 0 of 2 blocked across Columbus, Salt Lake CityMeta2DC BLOX: 0 of 2 blocked across AtlantaDC BLOX2Prime Data Centers: 0 of 2 blocked across Dallas-Fort Worth, PhoenixPrime Data Centers2EdgeCore: 0 of 2 blocked across Northern Virginia, PhoenixEdgeCore2Stream Data Centers: 1 of 2 blocked across Columbus, San AntonioStream Data Centers2Novva Data Centers: 0 of 2 blocked across Phoenix, Salt Lake CityNovva Data Centers2Flexential: 0 of 2 blocked across Dallas-Fort Worth, HillsboroFlexential2Cologix: 0 of 2 blocked across ColumbusCologix2Equinix: 0 of 2 blocked across Northern Virginia, ChicagoEquinix2QTS: 0 of 2 blocked across Atlanta, Salt Lake CityQTS2Starwood Capital Group: 0 of 2 blocked across Northern VirginiaStarwood Capital Group2Vantage Data Centers: 0 of 2 blocked across Columbus, San AntonioVantage Data Centers2White Rose Partners: 2 of 2 blocked across Dallas-Fort Worth, ChicagoWhite Rose Partners2
Developers with two or more tracked projects. The table below adds markets, construction status and stated MW.
DeveloperTypeProjectsMarketsUnder constructionBlockedStated MW
AmazonHyperscalers6Northern Virginia, Columbus, San Antonio02
CyrusOneEstablished4Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio1070
MicrosoftHyperscalers4Atlanta, Columbus, San Antonio10
PowerHouse Data CentersEstablished3Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago112,100
Stack InfrastructureEstablished3Northern Virginia, Dallas-Fort Worth, Hillsboro101,121
TractOther3Phoenix, Salt Lake City01400
Aligned Data CentersEstablished3Columbus, Hillsboro12308
EdgeConneXEstablished3Atlanta, Columbus02
MetaHyperscalers2Columbus, Salt Lake City101,000
DC BLOXEstablished2Atlanta20354
Prime Data CentersEstablished2Dallas-Fort Worth, Phoenix20240
EdgeCoreEstablished2Northern Virginia, Phoenix00216
Stream Data CentersEstablished2Columbus, San Antonio11200
Novva Data CentersEstablished2Phoenix, Salt Lake City10175
FlexentialEstablished2Dallas-Fort Worth, Hillsboro00135
CologixEstablished2Columbus20
EquinixEstablished2Northern Virginia, Chicago00
QTSEstablished2Atlanta, Salt Lake City10
Starwood Capital GroupOther2Northern Virginia00
Vantage Data CentersEstablished2Columbus, San Antonio10
White Rose PartnersOther2Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago02

The other 40 named developers have one tracked project each. They are listed in the CSV and on each market tracker.

Hiring impact

Construction and commissioning hiring in these nine markets runs through the established operators and their contractors. 18 of the 23 sites under construction are theirs. A recruiter or contractor who wants the next twelve months of work calls CyrusOne, Stack, PowerHouse, Prime, DC BLOX, Cologix, QTS, Vantage, Aligned and the firms they hire, and the employer directory lists which of them are posting commissioning roles.

Hyperscaler announcements make the headlines and most of them are still proposals: 5 of 13. Meta's New Albany campus is the one hyperscaler project in the set with a stated capacity under construction.

A project from a fund, landowner or first-time developer carries the pushback risk. Nearly half of them in the set have been stopped, so a staffing plan built on one of those sites should wait for the vote. Our pushback study has the record for each.

Method and limits

  • Developer: the company named as developer or applicant in the public record behind each tracker row. Where a hyperscaler is the end user but an operator is building, the operator is credited.
  • Types are our grouping. Tract is counted as an other developer because it sells powered land and does not operate data centers. Rowan Digital Infrastructure is counted as an operator.
  • Blocked follows the pushback study's coding: stage Stalled or Cancelled in the tracker.
  • Stated MW uses the same figures as the labor gap and pushback labor pages; most proposed projects state none.
  • Nine markets, 109 projects. A developer's national footprint is larger than what appears here.

Download the data as CSV.

Questions

Which companies are building the most data centers?
No single developer holds much of the pipeline we track. Amazon has the most projects at 6 of 109. 61 named developers share 95 projects, and 40 of them have one project each. Of the 23 projects under construction, 18 belong to established data center operators, 3 to hyperscalers building for themselves and 2 to other developers.
Which data center developers get blocked most often?
In our October 2026 trackers, 17 of 37 projects from developers outside the established operators and hyperscalers were stalled, denied or withdrawn (46%), against 7 of 45 for established operators (16%) and 2 of 13 for hyperscalers (15%).

Related

Pushback study

Which tracked projects were stalled, denied or withdrawn, who stopped them and how.

Hyperscaler jobs index

Open data center roles at Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta and Oracle, by state and role type.

U.S. project tracker

Every tracked project across nine markets, by stage, with sources.

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Czarina Tabayoyong, founder of Critical Path Hiring

Czarina Tabayoyong

Founder and principal recruiter, Critical Path Hiring. Czarina recruits commissioning, MEP, power and critical facilities people for data center builds. She previously recruited cloud and data center architecture talent at AWS Professional Services, and PMO and project delivery talent for hyperscale data center campuses in Texas and Virginia.

More about Czarina · LinkedIn