Windy city wired: Chicago’s data centers in bloom

Chicago is the fifth-largest data center market in the US, experiencing rapid growth in recent years, fueled by the AI boom. Chicago’s appeal to data center operators is driven by state tax incentives, competitive power costs, strong connectivity, low natural disaster risk and consistently high demand.
Notable projects underway include 1547’s Midway Technology center in Chicago, Cloud HQ in Mount Prospect, and Iron Mountain in Des Plaines. While much of the data center activity was historically concentrated around O’Hare, new projects have emerged in South Chicago, Hoffman Estates, Grayslake and Aurora.
Chicago's development pipeline has the potential to multiply the market several times over, with more than 5 gigawatts (GW) (5,000 megawatts) of planned capacity announced fueling the pipeline. Leading this expansion is T5 Data Center’s proposed Grayslake campus, the largest in the region, set to deliver 1.2 GW on 300 acres.

May 20, 2025

US-IL-CHDWTN Chicago