Bisnow’s First Draft Live is a weekly series featuring live conversations about the critical stories impacting the commercial real estate industry right now — from market volatility and economic uncertainty to the growing influence of artificial intelligence. First Draft Live is a companion to The First Draft, Bisnow’s daily, flagship CRE newsletter. Register here to get The First Draft in your inbox. Subscribe to First Draft Live on Apple and Spotify, or scroll down to view in your browser.
The rise of artificial intelligence is pushing data centers to their limits. Calls for bigger, denser facilities are increasing, tenant power requirements are doubling in many markets and rents are soaring, but it’s not enough to meet the needs of today’s market or tomorrow’s users.
How can we keep up the momentum of the data center boom? We were joined by Bisnow National Data Center Reporter Dan Rabb, who broke down the sector’s most urgent challenges, including:
- Why even fully capitalized developers are struggling to get power to shovel-ready sites.
- How hyperscale tenants are reshaping leases — demanding more power, control and flexibility.
- Where political backlash and community opposition are slowing down growth.
- Why the structure of the U.S. power grid makes reform and infrastructure expansion difficult.
“It’s a lot different situation than it was five to seven years ago,” Rabb said.
A developer looking to build a data center in a hot corridor may find itself staring down a waitlist of seven years to get power.
“First of all, you’re one of 50 developers who’s asking for that same sort of thing,” Rabb said. “And the utility, who’s legally obligated to fulfill those requests, is looking at this queue of gigawatts of power everyone is asking for. It’s way, way more than they can possibly fill.”
