CBRE reported H1 2026 North American data center vacancy held at 1.4%, leaving under 1,500 MW available across primary markets, roughly six months of supply. Over 80% of the record 7,481 MW under construction is already preleased, up from 74.3% a year earlier.
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North America data center vacancy stuck at 1.4% with 80% of new capacity preleased
Why this matters for founders
AI and hardware startups needing colocation or GPU capacity should reserve space far ahead and expect preleasing and higher pricing; treat compute real estate as a long-lead procurement item.
Source: CBRE
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