Data centers in North Carolina are extensively contributing to positioning the state as one of the United States' evolving data center hubs. The state’s data center market is expanding with massive upcoming data center projects, such as Digital Realty’s Charlotte Data Center Campus and Amazon’s massive data center complex in the Research Triangle.
Supported by large-scale investments, the region is attracting major players like Microsoft, Google, and AWS, who are collectively investing billions in the state’s digital infrastructure. In this blog, we’ll explore the upcoming data center projects across North Carolina as of 2026.
*List of Top Upcoming Data Centers in North Carolina
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*Amazon Data Center Complex:
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The Amazon Data Center Complex developed by Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a massive multi-building hyperscale data center campus, which is expected to be one of AWS's largest campuses in the southeastern US. The data center broke ground on 31st October 2025 and is expected to have 20 buildings at full build-out, each building likely to span more than 200,000 sq. ft.
The data center will be located near the Sherwood H Smith Jr energy complex and a power plant with a capacity of 2.24 GW operated by Duke Energy.
The project is expected to receive tax breaks from Richmond County in the form of a 50% property tax reduction and a 65% personal property tax relief over 20 years. The full build-out is expected by 2027-2028.
*Digital Realty's 400 MW Charlotte Data Center Campus:
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Digital Realty announced its plans for a massive 400 MW campus in Charlotte, North Carolina, back in April 2025. The company, through its subsidiary Digital Moores Chapel LLC, filed a rezoning request of 156 acres from I-2 (CD) (general industrial, conditional) to I-2 (CD) SPA (general industrial, conditional, site plan amendment) to allow for a data center development, which was reviewed and approved by the government of the City of Charlotte in May 2025.
The proposed site plan includes 3 million square feet (278,709 sqm) for telecommunications and data storage uses, built out over two phases. Building 1 is set to span 570,880 sq ft (53,036 sqm) per floor, while Building 2 would span 785,480 sq ft (72,973 sqm) per floor.
Both buildings together will deliver an IT load of 400 MW. The project is currently in planning, with construction expected to begin soon.
*ESS Tarboro Data Center Project:
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In August 2025, ESS (Energy Storage Solutions), a subsidiary of North Carolina Renewable Energy, LLC, announced its plans to build a massive 300 MW data center and energy storage project in Tarboro, North Carolina. The company submitted an application to the Town of Tarboro in Edgecombe County. The project will feature more than 50 acres on the south side of Anaconda Road, between McNair Road and Western Boulevard.
The project is announced with an investment of USD 6.4 billion and will be built in eight phases and is a part of the ESS USD 19.2 billion investment. The Tarboro project will not be connected to the grid; instead, it will generate energy through a nearby natural gas transmission line situated 4,000 feet from the project site, which will store the energy generated using battery storage.
The Tarboro data center project will include three projects, with the first two being 25 MW data centers and the third being a 50 MW mobile data center. Plans for building a substation on-site are anticipated.
The local Piedmont Natural Gas Company will supply the required natural gas to meet the project needs. Another 115kV line intersects with this project that runs along the side of this property.
The local Tarboro Electric Substation is approximately one mile down, along with the existing 120MW ac/180MW dc Solar Project is approximately one mile in the opposite direction down the same transmission lines. Dominion Power has transmission lines of 230 kV and 115kV that will be connected to the project.
*Statesville Data Center:
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The Statesville Data Center was proposed in October 2025 by the Statesville City Council, which will span 350 acres of land along Stamey Farm Road and Hickory Highway. The data center would consist of five data center buildings and a substation. Each data center building will span around 270,000 sq ft (25,083 sqm) of space. Each building will be equipped with an air cooling system to reduce water usage.
The power for the data center will be supplied from a substation belonging to Duke Energy located nearby, and Compass Datacentres has submitted an application for the site plan. The project is currently in the announced stage.
*Microsoft Catawba County Data Center Expansion:
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Microsoft is constructing a USD 1 billion data center in Catawba County. The project was initially announced by Microsoft in 2022 with an investment of USD 1 billion for building four data center buildings. The project sites include Conover's Lyle Creek Campus, Project Agate, Hickory's Project Pine, Star Project and Stover data center, and Maiden's Project Yoga and Boyd farms.
The expansion began with the construction of Lyle Creek data center, with Hickory's two sites following in July 2024 and July 2025. The Lyle Creek data center, located in Conover on Highway 16, is under construction, which is expected to continue for 18-24 months.
*PowerHouse Charlotte Data Center:
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PowerHouse Data Centers, a division of American Real Estate Partners (AREP), a U.S.-based data center developer, is developing the PowerHouse Charlotte. This data center is located on University City Boulevard, Charlotte, NC. Spread across a 122-acre site, it is planned as five 2-story data center buildings with up to 1.5 million square feet.
The entitlements design was submitted in Q3 2024, its construction began in Q1 2025, and is expected to be completed by Q4 2027. The power delivery from the project is anticipated from Q2 2027 with a capacity of 300 MW, which can be expanded to 400 MW in the future.
*Kingsboro Net Zero Data Center Campus:
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Energy Storage Solutions LLC is building the Kingsboro Net Zero Data Center Campus, with a capacity of 300 MW AC/1200MWh BESS energy generation and storage system.
The project will be built behind the meter and generate energy production via a natural gas "green" generation system, which will store the energy generated within a BESS (Energy Storage) system. The local Piedmont Natural Gas Company will supply the required natural gas to meet the project's needs.
Dominion Power has transmission lines of 115kV that will be connected to the project. The project will be built in 8 phases with an investment of USD 6.4 billion, which is part of the ESS USD 19.2 billion investment.
*Fayetteville Data Center Project:
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Energy Storage Solutions is building the Fayetteville Data Center Project as a Net Zero Data Center Campus, with a capacity of 300 MW AC/1200MWh BESS energy generation and
storage system. The project will be built behind the meter and generate its energy production via a natural gas "green" generation system, which will store the energy generated within a BESS (Energy Storage) system.
The project will be built behind the meter and generate its energy production via a natural gas "green" generation system, which will store the energy generated within a BESS (Energy Storage) system. There exists a large natural gas transmission line that will be connected to the site, and the project will consist of four projects with 25 MW AC AI Data Centers, and four projects will be 50 MW AC Mobile Data Centers.
The local Piedmont Natural Gas Company will supply the required natural gas to meet the project needs. A 115kV line that intersects with this project site will also support the data center. The project is located off Dunn Road in Cumberland County, North Carolina, and will be powered by PWC (Fayetteville Utilities) also has a 69kV Line running along Dunn Road, and Duke Energy's 115kV and 230kV transmission lines adjoining this property. A large fibre Line running north-south along I-95 will also support the data center.
The PWC Electric Substation, approximately 2½ miles down, is also expected to support the data center with plans to build an on-site substation. The project will be built in 8 phases with an investment of USD 6.4 billion, which is a part of ESS's USD 19.2 billion investment in North Carolina.
*Conclusion:
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Data Center Construction in North Carolina has seen a spike in recent years, driven by cloud and artificial intelligence providers. Major upcoming projects such as Amazon's Data Center Complex in Richmond County, Charlotte Data Center Campus, and Statesville Data Center show that North Carolina is a major growing hub for data centres in the US. With tech giants investing billions and regional infrastructure expanding rapidly, North Carolina is positioning itself as one of the country’s leading hubs for next-generation data centers.
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