If you’re looking to rent space in a data center, you might be in for a sticker shocker. That’s a key finding from an extensive report about global data center trends by the CBRE Group, which found that rent increases are driven by steep declines in data center vacancies—which in turn is caused by the rapid rise in AI adoption.
Data center vacancy rates in the top 16 global markets—ranging from the U.S. to Europe to Asia to Latin America—have fallen to a record low of 6.6%, which is down 2.2% year over year.
Data center leasing activity is trending up the most in North America, remarkably so. The level has doubled between Q1 of 2024 and Q1 of 2025, for a total net absorption of 1668.5 MW of data center capacity. Even Europe, never known as a hotbed of tech innovation and growth, had the second highest net absorption in its history, at 300MW. (The year 2023-2024 was the largest in EU data center net absorption, which was almost double that of the previous year.)
Though the report didn’t survey the first six months of 2025, based on the long list of AI sector developments this year, the torrid pace has likely continued, or even increased. Consequently, enterprise businesses are attempting to get ahead of demand. The low level of data center vacancies is causing companies to “lock in space early, leading to historically high net absorption,” the reported noted. The data center sector has started “aggressive preleasing” and has seen the extension of new construction timelines to 2027 and even beyond.
Perhaps the most notable fact about this year’s tight vacancies: this capacity shortage is happening even as all the global regions have seen a growth in inventory, as data center operator have rushed to provide capacity in the face on rising AI-based demand. North American data center capacity has zoomed up 43% since last year—and it’s still not enough.
Atlanta is the standout here, with data center builders having added three times the amount they added in 2024. Northern Virginia, as always, remains the global leader in data center capacity, the state having earned the nickname “Data Center Alley.” (The region’s total data center capacity doubled in a four year stretch between 2018 and 2021, and the area around Ashburn, Virginia has been dubbed the “Dulles Technology Corridor.”)
The fact that even this rapidly growing capacity is getting filled has, of course, led to an increase in prices. The rental price boosts have been notable in key U.S. markets, like Northern Virginia (15%), Chicago (14.7%) and Atlanta (13%). London saw its monthly kW rental costs increase from $160-$195 last year to $180-$215 this year.
Training AI workloads, which takes far more compute power than AI inference, has driven multi-megawatt demand across top markets like Sydney and Tokyo and even second-tier data hubs like Mumbai and Bogata. Data center operators are investing in higher rack density and liquid cooling to keep pace with market demand.
In the wake of expanding competition for scarce data center space, previously little known locations are seeing expansion. In the U.S., these include Des Moines, where multiple large-scale data facilities are being built, and Richmond, which benefits from the major fiber corridors in Northern Virginia. Internationally, up and coming locations include Brussels, which unlike other cities in the region has available scalable power, and Zurich, where demand has grown from cloud vendors catering to enterprise clients.
