The data center boom is becoming a boon for owners of U.S. warehouses as businesses contributing to the artificial intelligence build-out are taking down more industrial space.

Industrial leasing posted its most active quarter in four years as data center development has helped reshape demand, according to JLL. There were 202.6M SF of industrial leases signed between July and September, up 38.5% year-over-year and the highest quarterly total since Q3 2022.

Year-to-date leasing has already reached 98.2% of the full-year 2025 total, according to JLL.

Nearly 233M SF of warehouse space has been absorbed this year, more than in all of 2025. The national vacancy rate, at 6.8%, is down 80 basis points from Q3 2025.

Though third-party logistics companies continue to dominate leasing activity, accounting for a 17.9% market share, industries in infrastructure and power, including those that help fuel data center supply chains and aerospace and defense sector growth, have begun to take a bigger piece of the pie.

Construction materials and building fixtures saw 14.7% of leasing, while communications and technology and energy and utilities increased to 7.5% and 4.6%, respectively.

Between Q3 2024 and Q2 2026, data center-adjacent businesses leased 69M SF of large-block warehouse space, according to Savills. This type of leasing made up 10.1% of the total leasing volume in the first half of 2026, concentrated in Dallas, Houston, Austin and the East Bay.

That activity has only expanded as data center construction becomes an increasingly dominant piece of the U.S. economic pie.

New industrial leases have nearly returned to their pandemic-era peak, with the number of companies signing leases for 200K SF or more climbing to 92% of their peak and leases between 50K SF and 199K SF recovered to roughly 90%, according to CoStar's U.S. industrial new lease count index.

These relocations have strengthened data center-heavy markets, including Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin, leading recovery at 97% and 95%, respectively.

With the growth in industrial leasing, the development pipeline is growing to meet the demand. There is 317M SF under construction nationwide, according to JLL, its highest level since Q1 2024.