Global data center supply grew across all regions year-over-year in the first quarter of 2026, but demand continues to outstrip supply, and rental rates and construction costs have risen considerably, according to a commercial real estate services firm, CBRE.

CBRE’s annual Global Data Center Trends report found that Latin America led inventory growth at 41.3 percent, with North America taking second place at 33 percent.

Despite extraordinary growth delivering new supply, demand from AI startups, neoclouds, and hyperscalers have ensured vacancy rates maintain lows, and in certain US states, such as Northern Virginia and Atlanta, vacancy rates have dropped to record lows of 0.3 percent and one percent, respectively.

Power availability and grid constraints are curbing development timelines in established hubs and core markets, while public opposition is also limiting supply, CBRE said.

As demand continues to outstrip supply, rental rates and construction costs are rising considerably worldwide, with Frankfurt and Singapore seeing the highest rates in Europe and Asia-Pacific, respectively.

Meanwhile, several emerging markets are driving growth in underdeveloped regions, such as Querétaro, Mexico, which saw 450 percent inventory growth.

North America

In North America’s core four data center markets, Northern Virginia, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Chicago, CBRE recorded an inventory increase of 33 percent year-over-year. However, the real estate services firm noted that this was slower growth than the previous recorded period, where inventory rose 43 percent.

While Northern Virginia remains the biggest data center market in the world, adding another 1.13GW of capacity year-over-year, Dallas-Fort Worth jumped two spots to become North America’s third-largest market, with an inventory increase of 43.7 percent, translating to 379.9MW. Chicago, meanwhile, took fourth place from Phoenix.

Vacancy rates in the region have reached all-time lows, despite inventory increases. Atlanta saw the steepest vacancy rate declines, falling from 3.6 percent to one percent year-over-year. Meanwhile, Northern Virginia’s vacancy rate declined to an extremely tight 0.3 percent in Q1 from 0.8 percent.

Net absorption, which is the change in occupied space – or, in a data center’s case, power capacity – over a specific period, calculated as the difference between newly leased capacity and newly vacated capacity, rose by 34 percent year-over-year in North America to 2.23GW. Within this, Northern Virginia reached a new high for absorption of 1.14GW.

Rental rates in North America increased more moderately than over the previous period, the highest increase being in Chicago at a 14.7 percent increase, whose rates ranged from $200 to $230 per kW/month, followed by Northern Virginia at $190 to $235. Atlanta’s rates rose by two percent, and Dallas-Ft. Worth remained unchanged.

Availability declined across the top four North American markets to an all-time low. CBRE said this was due to power procurement constraints, with available supply rising by just 1.4MW year-over-year in Dallas-Ft Worth, and declining in the other three markets.

Europe

New supply across Europe’s primary data center markets rose by 18.9 percent year-on-year in Q1 2026.

CBRE said that the growth, noted in Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, and Paris, was driven by AI and hyperscale demand.

Frankfurt saw supply grow by 23 percent year-on-year, the strongest of the cohort, followed by London, which saw 21 percent growth.

Amsterdam saw the lowest growth of the four markets, at just over 11 percent year-on-year. CBRE said this was due to power limitations and restrictions on developments above 70MW, with building shifting away from established city hubs.

This was also reflected in Frankfurt and Paris, where development shifted to areas with better land and power availability.

Net absorption totaled 218MW in Frankfurt and 208MW in London. CBRE said this was driven by hyperscalers and neocloud providers.

Despite an overall net absorption of 90 percent year-on-year to 572MW, CBRE said availability remains low, with Frankfurt and London seeing low vacancy rates of 5 percent and 8.6 percent, respectively.

Outside of the core European markets, CBRE said that data center markets, such as Lisbon, are emerging. Though the Portuguese capital still has just over 50MW of supply, it is drawing interest from developers due to its competitive renewable energy costs and power availability. CBRE forecasts capacity in Lisbon could reach 500MW by 2030.

APAC

In the Asia-Pacific region, inventory increased by 13.4 percent year-over-year across CBRE’s identified core markets, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Sydney.

Despite constraints on power availability, construction cost, and regulation, hyperscale and AI demand supported APAC’s growth, with neocloud providers becoming a key demand source across the region.

Vacancy rates in APAC overall remained at 7 percent. Singapore held APAC’s lowest vacancy rate at just 2 percent, which CBRE said was due to limited greenfield supply opportunities. Sydney was next at 4.5 percent, then Tokyo at 6 percent. Hong Kong had the highest vacancy rate at 18 percent, but this was down from 28 percent in the previous recorded period.

Net absorption across the four markets increased to 608.9MW in Q1, with demand mostly in Sydney and Tokyo.

Rental rates in the region remained stable, with average rents in Singapore, Tokyo, and Sydney sitting at $403 per kW/month, $280, and $188, respectively. Rates in Hong Kong rose to $295 per kW/month from $270 in the previous period.

Availability in APAC fell by 43 percent year-over-year, with fragmented availability stopping large-scale deployments. Space that was made available was “absorbed aggressively,” CBRE said.

Latin America

Inventory in Latin America, as measured across its four largest markets, São Paulo, Querétaro, Santiago, and Bogotá, jumped by 41.3 percent year-over-year to 1.04GW.

Querétaro saw an enormous increase of 450.2 percent to 298.2MW due to hyperscale and AI deployments, but São Paulo remained the largest market with 536.7MW. Santiago and Bogotá saw increases to 165.8MW and 44.3MW, respectively.

Vacancy rates in these four key markets are a more mixed picture, with Santiago holding the lowest rate at 3.3 percent, while São Paulo, Querétaro, and Bogotá sat at 9.6 percent, 10.6 percent, and 18.7 percent, respectively.

Net absorption was 270.7MW, but activity was concentrated on Querétaro, with 213MW. São Paulo (39.2MW), Santiago(17.4MW), and Bogotá (1.1MW) followed.

Rental rates in Latin America remained stable, with São Paulo offering the lowest pricing at $130 to $190 per kW/month.

Like the rest of the world, availability in Latin America declined overall, but varied region by region, with Querétaro seeing availability rise to 31.5MW, Santiago remaining at 5.4MW, São Paulo rising slightly to 51.5MW, and Bogotá falling to 8.3MW.