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Data Centres: Boom and Backlash
26MAY

Prime breaks ground on 240 MW Phoenix

2 min read
11:34UTC

Prime Data Centers broke ground on three of five buildings at a 240 MW Phoenix campus on 22 May, with three buildings pre-leased to an undisclosed hyperscaler, showing continued build momentum in Sun Belt markets.

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IndustryDeveloping
Key takeaway

Build momentum continues in Sun Belt jurisdictions with cleared planning consent and grid access.

Prime Data Centers broke ground on three of five buildings at a 240 MW campus in Phoenix, Arizona on 22 May, with the three buildings already pre-leased to an undisclosed hyperscaler. 1

The Phoenix start is a Sun Belt data point within the $110.75bn quarterly hyperscaler capex cycle . Pre-leased construction in a cleared-consent jurisdiction shows capital continuing to commit while Virginia's fiscal fight and the moratorium-exposed markets stall elsewhere. The contrast holds the topic's boom-and-backlash tension in a single fortnight: shovels in Arizona, cancellations in Southside Virginia.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

When a data-centre developer breaks ground on buildings that are already leased before a single wall is built, it means a major customer has signed a contract to occupy the space before construction finishes. This is called a pre-leased build, and it is how most large data centres now get financed. Phoenix benefits from Arizona's relatively permissive planning rules, access to large amounts of solar power at competitive prices, and grid-connection timelines of 18-24 months, far shorter than the multi-year queues operators face in Virginia or the PJM region. The 240 MW campus, when complete, will consume as much electricity as a city of roughly 200,000 homes.

What could happen next?
  • Opportunity

    Phoenix, Columbus, and other Sun Belt markets with cleared consent and sub-24-month grid connections are structurally positioned to absorb pipeline redirected from Virginia and moratorium-threatened cities.

Sources:Data Center Dynamics
Mentions:Sabey Data Centers →Virginia →Northern Virginia →Arizona →Loudoun County DC cluster →Prime Data Centers →Phoenix →
First Reported In

Update #4 · Grid wins power to switch off data centres

Data Center Dynamics· 26 May 2026
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Different Perspectives
EdgeConneX in Italy (EU market)
EdgeConneX in Italy (EU market)
EdgeConneX committed €3bn to Italian data-centre capacity starting in 2026, routing capital to a jurisdiction where AI Act and NIS2 mandates create structural demand for EU-resident compute and the government actively attracts investment; Virginia's fiscal standoff and US moratoriums are redirecting pipeline offshore.
Enbridge and Baker Hughes (firmed-power and oilfield-services suppliers)
Enbridge and Baker Hughes (firmed-power and oilfield-services suppliers)
Enbridge committed $1.2bn to Wyoming solar-plus-storage for Meta and Baker Hughes redirected oilfield drilling capacity into enhanced geothermal in New Mexico; both companies are routing capital away from fossil infrastructure into data-centre power procurement at precisely the moment BTM gas became a federal curtailment target.
US federal regulators (DOE and FERC)
US federal regulators (DOE and FERC)
DOE reached for Section 202(c) twice in five months naming the same BTM load class, while FERC rejected PJM's bid to redefine the 20 MW co-located load threshold in April; together they have treated private data-centre generation as a dispatchable grid resource before the permanent RM26-4-000 rule settling its legal status has been written.
European energy regulators and climate advocates
European energy regulators and climate advocates
GE Vernova's 100 GW gas-turbine backlog, driven by AI data-centre demand, puts IEA net-zero pathways under pressure: 15-27 GW of onsite gas is forecast for US data centres by 2030. The Amazon Boardman $20.5m pollution settlement gives environmental litigation a financial template it previously lacked.
Irish Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU)
Irish Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU)
The CRU-compliant Pure DC behind-the-meter template gives operators a replicable European consent pathway outside the UK queue. Ireland's existing hyperscaler density and the CRU framework's behind-the-meter provisions make it the lowest-friction large-load jurisdiction in Europe for 2026 approvals.
Nordic operators (Equinix-CPP-atNorth, Aikido Technologies)
Nordic operators (Equinix-CPP-atNorth, Aikido Technologies)
Equinix's CPP-atNorth acquisition and Aikido's AO60DC floating-wind pilot at METCentre Norway offer hyperscalers a consented, low-carbon supply chain that bypasses both US moratorium risk and European grid queues. Norway's renewable surplus and Fingrid connection windows make the Nordic corridor the clearest alternative supply chain in the current environment.