Central Ohio has quietly become one of the most important data center regions in the country. In the exurb of New Albany, just northeast of Columbus, the four largest cloud and AI companies in the world have bought thousands of acres and built dozens of campuses, and Meta is finishing the world’s first data center designed to draw more than a gigawatt of power. They call it the Silicon Heartland. Here is the 2026 picture of a market being built almost entirely for the AI era, and what a build-out this large and this new means for the equipment that will eventually retire.
TL;DR
Columbus is a top-tier emerging US data center market, built around the New Albany hyperscale cluster and defined by AI-driven growth. The metro-level essentials:
- Columbus is a major and fast-rising data center market. The metro hosts on the order of 160 data centers, is on track to become the second-largest hub in the Great Lakes region after Chicago, and is one of the country’s premier emerging markets.
- New Albany is the epicenter. The exurb northeast of Columbus is Ohio’s data center hub, where Google, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft together own more than 5,000 acres, with Amazon alone holding nearly 39 percent of the market’s land.
- Meta’s Prometheus is a landmark. In New Albany, Meta is completing Prometheus, reported as the world’s first data center designed to require over 1 GW of power, a purpose-built AI-training campus and a blueprint for next-generation AI hardware.
- Cheap power, land, and incentives are the engine. Columbus drew hyperscale demand with affordable power from a diversified PJM grid, abundant land, generous tax incentives, a central US location for connectivity, and low natural-disaster risk.
- Growth is straining communities. Ohio’s data center share of state energy consumption is projected to roughly double (from about 5.3 to 10.9 percent) in four years, and the boom has sparked real debate over energy costs, water use, and who benefits.
The metro-specific angle for infrastructure operators: Columbus is building an enormous base of brand-new, AI-era hyperscale capacity right now, dominated by GPU-dense AI-training infrastructure. Like other explosive-growth markets, that build-out is a future retirement wave in the making, and because Columbus skews so heavily toward cutting-edge AI training, its eventual retirement stream will be unusually concentrated in high-value, high-density hardware. The disposition need is being created today, on a delay.
Why Columbus Became a Data Center Market
Columbus was not an obvious data center hub a decade ago. Its rise is a case study in where hyperscale demand goes when it seeks cheap power, open land, and welcoming policy in the AI era.
The Power and Land Advantage
Central Ohio offered the fundamentals hyperscalers need at a scale and price the coastal markets could not match. The region sits in the PJM interconnection territory with roughly 35 GW of Ohio-based generation and a diverse fuel mix, providing affordable, available power. It offered abundant, developable land in the exurbs around Columbus, and it carries low exposure to major natural disasters, no significant earthquake, hurricane, or tornado risk, which matters for facilities that must run continuously. As established markets like Northern Virginia hit power constraints, Ohio’s combination of cheap power and open land made it a natural overflow destination, and then a primary target in its own right.
The Incentive and Policy Advantage
Ohio actively courted the industry. The state offers generous tax incentives, including data center sales-tax exemptions, and New Albany went so far as to create a dedicated data center business park to concentrate development. Local governments in New Albany and the Columbus suburbs have been notably welcoming, with data centers permitted in industrial and commercial zones and no statewide moratorium of the kind that has appeared in other markets. State leadership has openly promoted Ohio as the tech capital of the Midwest. That policy posture, combining incentives, zoning clarity, and political support, gave operators the speed and certainty they prize.
The Connectivity and Location Advantage
Columbus sits centrally in the United States, giving it excellent nationwide network reach, and it has grown into a genuine fiber hub, anchored by carrier-neutral facilities like the Cologix campus and supported by strong connectivity across Ohio’s metros. That central location makes Columbus well-suited to serve as a distribution and interconnection point for national digital infrastructure, complementing the raw hyperscale capacity in the exurbs with real network density downtown.
The Columbus Submarkets
Columbus data center activity concentrates heavily in the New Albany hyperscale cluster, with interconnection and enterprise capacity closer to the city.
| Submarket | Profile |
|---|---|
| New Albany (the hyperscale epicenter) | Ohio’s data center hub and the heart of the market, a wealthy Franklin County exurb northeast of Columbus where Google, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft have built dozens of campuses on thousands of acres, including Meta’s gigawatt-scale Prometheus and Google’s New Albany campus. A dedicated data center business park anchors it |
| Downtown Columbus (interconnection) | The network-dense core, anchored by carrier-neutral facilities like the Cologix Columbus campus (COL1, COL2, COL4), serving connectivity, enterprise, and cloud on-ramp needs |
| Dublin and the northwest suburbs | Enterprise and colocation capacity serving the regional corporate base |
| Greater central Ohio (Millersport, Licking County, and beyond) | The expansion frontier, where new hyperscale campuses from operators like Vantage are extending development further out as New Albany fills, with major builds across the surrounding counties |
The pattern is a clear split between the hyperscale exurbs (New Albany and the expanding central-Ohio frontier, where the enormous AI and cloud campuses are built on cheap land and power) and the interconnection core (downtown Columbus, where the fiber and network density concentrate). New Albany is the gravitational center: the concentration of hyperscale landowners there, with the four largest tech companies holding thousands of acres, makes it one of the densest hyperscale land positions in the country.
The Scale of the Growth
Columbus’s numbers reflect a market that has moved from emerging to genuinely major in a remarkably short time, driven by AI.
The consistent findings across market research:
- The metro hosts roughly 160 data centers across dozens of providers, and Ohio statewide has more than 100 operational facilities with another 77 slated by 2030, propelling Columbus toward becoming the second-largest data center hub in the Great Lakes region after Chicago.
- The four largest hyperscalers own more than 5,000 acres in central Ohio, with Amazon the largest landowner at nearly 39 percent of the market’s data center acreage, a land position that guarantees years of future development.
- Meta’s Prometheus campus in New Albany is a gigawatt-scale landmark, reported as the world’s first data center designed to require more than 1 GW of power, purpose-built for AI training with high-density GPU clusters and specialized cooling, backed by a large investment and using unconventional structures to manage the power density.
- The build-out is accelerating with new entrants. Beyond the four giants, developers including Vantage, QTS, EdgeConneX, Edged Energy, and Aligned are building or converting facilities across the region, and additional hyperscalers are reportedly evaluating Ohio.
The defining characteristic is that Columbus is being built primarily for the AI era, by the largest operators, at genuinely enormous scale. The land banking that hyperscalers undertook starting around 2023 laid the groundwork for years of development, and the arrival of gigawatt-scale AI-training campuses like Prometheus marks Columbus as not just a cloud market but a frontier of AI-training infrastructure specifically.
Who’s Building in Columbus
Columbus’s operator roster is led by the hyperscale giants, with a growing layer of wholesale developers and interconnection providers:
| Category | Operators Active in Columbus |
|---|---|
| Hyperscale / cloud | Amazon Web Services (the largest landowner), Google (the New Albany campus), Meta (the gigawatt-scale Prometheus AI-training campus), and Microsoft, all major central-Ohio landowners |
| Wholesale / developers | Vantage Data Centers (a large campus near Columbus), QTS (New Albany), EdgeConneX (a New Albany warehouse conversion), Edged Energy, and Aligned Datacenters, extending capacity across the region |
| Interconnection / colocation | Cologix (the carrier-neutral Columbus campus anchoring downtown interconnection) and colocation providers serving enterprise and connectivity needs |
The demand mix is dominated by hyperscale and AI: the largest cloud and AI operators are the primary force, building campuses to train and serve next-generation AI models, joined by a wave of wholesale REITs and developers. This is a market whose growth is overwhelmingly driven by the AI buildout, with New Albany functioning as a concentrated AI-training and cloud hub.
The Tensions of Explosive Growth
Columbus’s rapid rise has brought real friction, and an honest picture of the market has to include the debate now surrounding it. These tensions are shaping the market’s future and its politics.
The Energy Strain
The scale of the build-out is straining Ohio’s energy system and its ratepayers. Data centers’ share of state electricity consumption is projected to roughly double, from about 5.3 percent to 10.9 percent, within four years, and hyperscale AI facilities each consume as much power as a small city, running continuously to train models. Analysts note Ohio may need to purchase power from other states to keep up, likely raising energy costs for residents. The debate over who should bear the cost of serving these facilities, the operators or the broader ratepayer base, is now a central political question, echoing similar fights in other fast-growing markets.
The Water Question
Cooling water has become a visible concern. Google’s New Albany facility has been reported to use hundreds of millions of gallons of water annually, and while operators point to water-replenishment efforts and note the tradeoff between water cooling and higher electricity use, the sheer volume relative to ordinary civic uses has drawn scrutiny. Ohio’s regulation of water withdrawals and the Great Lakes Compact’s restrictions on large diversions add a regulatory dimension to how the industry’s cooling needs are managed.
The Community Benefit Debate
There is genuine debate over how much the boom benefits local communities. Data centers generate substantial construction employment and property-tax revenue, but they are not labor-intensive once operational, and critics have argued that the combination of tax exemptions, rising energy prices, and environmental impacts means communities bear costs while the largest benefits flow to distant corporations. Supporters counter that the investment, tax base, and infrastructure development are significant. This tension, between economic development and community cost, is unresolved and increasingly shapes local approvals and state policy.
What the Columbus Build-Out Means for Infrastructure Retirement
Columbus’s retirement profile is distinctive, and it follows directly from the fact that this is a very new market being built at enormous scale for the AI era. Like Atlanta, Columbus is less a legacy retirement market today and more a builder of a large future retirement wave.
The Future Retirement Wave, AI-Concentrated
Nearly all of the capacity being built in Columbus is new, and an unusually large share of it is purpose-built AI-training infrastructure: GPU-dense campuses like Prometheus, designed specifically for the high-density hardware that runs generative AI. That hardware refreshes on a compressed three-to-four-year cycle. The implication is that the enormous volume of AI infrastructure being energized in central Ohio in 2026 and the following years becomes an enormous volume of retiring, high-value AI hardware in the late 2020s and early 2030s. Because Columbus skews so heavily toward cutting-edge AI training rather than general-purpose cloud or legacy enterprise, its future retirement stream will be unusually concentrated in exactly the high-value, fast-depreciating GPU and AI hardware where disposition expertise matters most.
The High-Value Recovery Opportunity
The AI-training concentration means Columbus’s eventual retirement stream carries significant residual value, if it is captured before generational decay. GPU and AI-fabric hardware retains meaningful worth in the secondary market when handled quickly and knowledgeably, and it loses value fast as newer generations arrive. For operators building AI-training campuses in Columbus now, the disposition of that hardware at refresh is not a trivial back-office task, it is a material value question, and one that arrives on a predictable schedule tied to the refresh cycle.
The Data-Sensitivity and Scale Considerations
AI-training infrastructure often carries elevated data-handling requirements, and the sheer scale of the Columbus build-out means that when refresh cycles arrive, the volume of hardware moving at once will be substantial. That combination rewards a disposition partner able to handle large-volume decommissioning with certified data destruction, serialized chain-of-custody, and informed asset recovery, at the scale a gigawatt-class market generates.
The metro-specific implications, applied to Columbus’s AI-frontier character:
- The retirement wave is coming, and it is AI-heavy. Columbus operators are building a future disposition need concentrated in high-value GPU and AI hardware, and planning for it now is prudent.
- Recovery value will be high. The AI-training skew means future retirements carry significant residual value, rewarding expert asset recovery.
- Scale and data sensitivity matter. A gigawatt-class market generates large-volume retirements with elevated data-handling needs, rewarding a partner who can operate at that scale.
Columbus is building the AI-training heartland of the Midwest at extraordinary speed, and in doing so it is building a large, high-value future retirement wave. The operators who plan for that disposition now will be positioned to capture its value when the refresh cycle arrives.
Frequently Asked Questions
How big is the Columbus data center market?
Columbus is one of the largest and fastest-rising US data center markets. The metro hosts on the order of 160 data centers across dozens of providers, and Ohio statewide has more than 100 operational facilities with another 77 slated by 2030. Columbus is on track to become the second-largest data center hub in the Great Lakes region, after Chicago. Its growth is driven overwhelmingly by hyperscale AI and cloud demand concentrated in the New Albany cluster, where the four largest tech companies own more than 5,000 acres, making central Ohio one of the most significant hyperscale land positions in the country.
Why is New Albany a data center hub?
New Albany, a wealthy exurb northeast of Columbus, became Ohio’s data center hub through a combination of early hyperscale investment, cheap and available power and land, generous incentives, and welcoming local policy. Meta debuted its first Ohio data center there in 2017, and Amazon, Google, and Microsoft followed, converting thousands of undeveloped acres into dozens of campuses. New Albany created a dedicated data center business park to concentrate development, and the four largest tech companies now own more than 5,000 acres in the region combined. That concentration of hyperscale landowners makes New Albany the epicenter of the Columbus market and one of the densest hyperscale clusters in the country.
What is Meta’s Prometheus data center?
Prometheus is a Meta data center campus under construction in New Albany, reported as the world’s first data center designed to require more than 1 gigawatt of power. It is purpose-built as a primary hub for Meta’s AI-training infrastructure, engineered for gigawatt-scale capacity with high-density GPU clusters and specialized cooling, and it uses unconventional structures to manage the extreme power density that large-scale AI training requires. Backed by a major investment, Prometheus is significant both as a landmark of scale and as a blueprint for the kind of high-density, AI-training-specific infrastructure defining the current data center buildout.
Why are data centers being built in Columbus, Ohio?
Columbus attracted data centers through a strong combination of fundamentals: affordable, available power from the PJM grid with roughly 35 GW of Ohio generation and a diverse fuel mix; abundant developable land in the exurbs; generous state tax incentives and a dedicated data center business park in New Albany; a central US location providing excellent nationwide connectivity; low natural-disaster risk; and welcoming local policy with no statewide moratorium. As established markets like Northern Virginia hit power constraints, Ohio’s combination of cheap power, open land, and supportive policy made it a premier overflow and then primary destination for AI-era hyperscale demand.
What companies have data centers in Columbus?
Columbus is dominated by the four largest hyperscalers, all major central-Ohio landowners: Amazon Web Services (the single largest landowner), Google (the New Albany campus), Meta (the gigawatt-scale Prometheus AI-training campus), and Microsoft. A growing layer of wholesale developers includes Vantage Data Centers, QTS, EdgeConneX, Edged Energy, and Aligned Datacenters. Downtown interconnection is anchored by Cologix’s carrier-neutral Columbus campus. The demand is overwhelmingly driven by hyperscale AI and cloud operators, with New Albany functioning as a concentrated AI-training and cloud hub, and additional hyperscalers reportedly evaluating Ohio.
What are the concerns about Columbus data center growth?
The rapid growth has raised genuine concerns. Energy is central: data centers’ share of Ohio’s electricity consumption is projected to roughly double (from about 5.3 to 10.9 percent) within four years, straining the grid and raising the prospect of higher costs for residents, with an active debate over whether operators or ratepayers should bear the cost of serving the facilities. Water use for cooling has drawn scrutiny, with hyperscale facilities consuming hundreds of millions of gallons annually. And there is debate over community benefit, since data centers create construction jobs and tax revenue but are not labor-intensive once operational, leading some critics to argue communities bear costs while benefits flow to distant corporations.
How does the Columbus data center market affect equipment retirement?
Columbus is a new market being built at enormous scale for the AI era, so it is less a legacy retirement market today and more a builder of a large future retirement wave. Nearly all its capacity is new, and an unusually large share is purpose-built AI-training infrastructure (GPU-dense campuses like Prometheus) that refreshes on a three-to-four-year cycle. That means the enormous AI capacity being energized now becomes a large, high-value retirement stream in the late 2020s and early 2030s, concentrated in exactly the fast-depreciating GPU and AI hardware where disposition expertise matters most. The scale and AI-training focus reward planning for large-volume, high-value decommissioning and asset recovery.
Is Columbus a good market for AI data centers?
Columbus is one of the premier emerging AI data center markets in the country, and increasingly an AI-training frontier specifically. Its build-out is dominated by AI and hyperscale demand, exemplified by Meta’s gigawatt-scale Prometheus AI-training campus, and its combination of affordable power, abundant land, incentives, central connectivity, and low disaster risk suits the large, power-hungry campuses AI training requires. The main caveats are the growing tensions around energy costs, water use, and community impact that accompany the rapid growth. But for AI-training and hyperscale workloads, Columbus has established itself as a major and fast-growing destination.
How does Columbus compare to other data center markets?
Columbus is one of the fastest-rising emerging US markets, comparable to Atlanta and Phoenix as a high-growth, power-and-land-advantaged destination absorbing AI-era demand that established hubs cannot. It is on track to become the second-largest Great Lakes hub after Chicago. What distinguishes Columbus is the extraordinary concentration of hyperscale landowners in New Albany, the four largest tech companies holding thousands of acres, and its emergence as an AI-training frontier specifically, anchored by the gigawatt-scale Prometheus campus. Like other explosive-growth markets, it is building a large future retirement wave, but with an unusually heavy skew toward cutting-edge AI-training hardware.
The Bottom Line
Columbus has become one of the most important emerging data center markets in the country, and increasingly a frontier of AI-training infrastructure specifically. Anchored by the New Albany cluster, where the four largest tech companies own more than 5,000 acres and Meta is completing the world’s first gigawatt-scale data center, central Ohio’s Silicon Heartland was built on affordable power, abundant land, generous incentives, central connectivity, and welcoming policy. It is on track to become the second-largest hub in the Great Lakes region, driven overwhelmingly by the AI buildout. That rapid rise has brought real tensions, over energy costs, water use, and community benefit, that are now shaping the market’s politics and its future.
For infrastructure operators, Columbus presents a distinctive disposition profile. This is a very new market being built at enormous scale, dominated by purpose-built AI-training campuses full of high-density GPU hardware. Like Atlanta, it is less a legacy retirement market than a builder of a large future retirement wave, but with an unusually heavy concentration in exactly the high-value, fast-depreciating AI hardware where disposition expertise matters most. The enormous AI capacity being energized in central Ohio now will refresh on a three-to-four-year cycle, generating a substantial, high-value retirement stream in the late 2020s and early 2030s. The operators building AI-training campuses here today are creating disposition needs that will arrive on schedule, and the ones who plan for that retirement now, with large-volume decommissioning, certified data destruction, and informed asset recovery, will be the ones who capture its value when the wave arrives.
How ROC Telecom Helps
ROC Telecom is an R2v3, RIOS, NIST 800-88, and ITAR-compliant ITAD specialist serving the Columbus and central Ohio market:
- Columbus data center decommissioning with 48-hour rapid-response mobilization, ready for the large-volume AI-hardware refresh wave that the New Albany build-out is setting up
- GPU and AI-training infrastructure asset recovery for the high-density, high-value hardware defining Columbus’s hyperscale campuses, with speed-to-remarketing that protects value against generational decay
- Specialist asset recovery across routing, switching, optical transport, and compute with direct buyer relationships
- NIST 800-88 data destruction with per-asset serialized Certificates of Destruction and full chain-of-custody documentation, at the scale a gigawatt-class market generates
- R2v3 Appendix E materials recovery with in-house dismantling and direct-to-refiner processing
- Mass-balance recovery reporting for the ESG disclosures the region’s hyperscale volumes and community scrutiny demand
15+ years of ITAD experience, $25M+ in client capital recovered, 45M+ pounds diverted from landfill.
Explore our Columbus coverage: Columbus data center ITAD, decommissioning, asset recovery, and recycling.
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