Insatiable demand for data centers surged in 2020, with absorption reaching 619.3 megawatts in the United States and 201.2 megawatts in Europe, according to a recent report from JLL.
Despite initial slowing and leasing backlogs amid the pandemic, enterprise colocation demand picked up in the second half of the year.
The construction pipeline reached near-record levels in 2020, with 611.3 megawatts under construction in the United States. Northern Virginia alone has 326 megawatts under construction — an increase of more than 400 percent since 2019 — and in Europe, 83 megawatts of new supply was added to Frankfurt inventory in 2020. The market currently leads the region with 117.8 megawatts under construction.
According to the report, M&A activity and operator investment also remain robust.