How low can colo go, asks JLL, as datacenter vacancy rates near zero

Colocation capacity in North American datacenters has dropped to a record low, with much of the construction pipeline already pre-leased, making this a key brake on growth. Keeping up with demand could take as much as $1 trillion in fresh datacenter builds before the decade is out.

The latest North America Datacenter Report from real estate services biz JLL says that the first half of 2025 saw considerable turbulence, amid reports of hyperscale cloud operators walking away from leasing negotiations. Yet despite this, demand remains red hot.

JLL's report refrains from mentioning AI at all, even though the fear of missing out to rivals in AI development has driven the frenzied increase in infrastructure demand over the past couple of years.

Vacancy in the North American market - a measure of how much capacity is available for leasing – has declined to a new record low of 2.3 percent, with ...