Methodology

How projects are selected, located and sourced.

Coverage and dates

The atlas contains 838 physical sites and 906 projects in 63 countries, from announced projects to operating facilities. A site is a campus or facility; a project is a building, phase or expansion at that site. Several projects can share one site.

The data was updated on 2026-10-27. Its status evidence spans 2024-08-06 to 2026-10-27. Each project keeps its last supported status and evidence date; an Atlas update does not mean every project was rechecked. Retrieval and review dates do not change the evidence date. Sites remain listed as they are completed, open, pause, close or change status.

Records consolidated from the earlier data centre project retain their original sources, dates and location precision. Some use industry reporting and town or region reference points. They are labelled accordingly; consolidation does not make them newly verified observations. Campus figures and individual phases remain separate and must not be added together. Browse projects and multi-site programs.

Coverage follows available public sources and varies across countries and languages. The atlas is not a complete list of data centres worldwide.

Selection criteria

A dated primary source. A company disclosure, government record or regulatory filing identifies the named project and supports its status. New sites need status evidence from the 90 days before the data update. Proposals, permits, physical construction and operation are recorded distinctly. Later reports are checked before adding or updating a record.
A distinct site. Each project is linked to one campus or facility and checked against existing records. Additional buildings, phases and alternative names at the same campus do not increase the site count.
A sourced location. An official boundary, address, published coordinate or named map feature locates the project or its campus. Its scope and precision are recorded. A town or region reference point does not qualify as a precise site location. Inherited records with these points retain their labels while better locations are researched.
Traceable facts. Each status, location and capacity or other recorded detail links to its supporting source. Missing information remains unknown.

The data dictionary describes the published fields and their source requirements.

Project status

Every project records a status, the date the supporting evidence applies to (status_as_of) and its source. Month-only source dates stay in the research notes without an invented day. An expected opening date or the passage of time does not establish completion or operation.

Announced: a dated primary source identifies a proposed project.
Permitted: an authority has issued consent for the data-centre development itself. The record states the decision date and the work covered. A permit application, utility approval, microgrid consent or air permit alone is insufficient.
Under construction: a primary source reports physical work, with the stage recorded where known.
Completed: a primary source reports that construction of the named project is complete. A finished shell alone does not establish completion of the project.
Operational: a primary source confirms that the facility is operating. Completion or commissioning alone does not establish operation.

Announced: A dated primary source identifies the proposed data-centre project. Construction has not been established. 261 projects
Proposed: A proposed development; announcement, permission or physical work is not established. 15 projects
Permitted: Issued consent covers the data-centre development identified in the record. The authority, decision date and approved work are recorded; construction is established separately. 34 projects
Site preparation: A dated authoritative source reported site preparation, such as clearing, grading or enabling works, as of the status date. 17 projects
Clearing: A dated source reported land clearing as of the status date. 1 project
Civil works: A dated authoritative source reported civil works, such as earthworks, drainage, roads or utility connections, as of the status date. 1 project
Foundations: A dated authoritative source reported foundation work as of the status date. 2 projects
Shell: A dated authoritative source reported work on the building shell or structure as of the status date. 14 projects
MEP / electrical: A dated authoritative source reported mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) or electrical installation work as of the status date. 6 projects
Under construction: A dated authoritative source reported that construction was under way, without a more specific stage, as of the status date. 270 projects
Commissioning: A dated authoritative source reported commissioning or testing before operation as of the status date. Not a claim that the facility is operating. 3 projects
Completed: A dated primary source reports construction of the named project complete. Operation is established separately. 19 projects
Operational: A dated primary source confirms that the facility was operating. 221 projects
Expansion: A dated authoritative source reported physical expansion work at an existing facility as of the status date. 1 project
Cancelled: The project was reported as cancelled. 5 projects
Partially operational: Part of the project is operating; this does not establish completion of every phase. 36 projects

The map groups statuses by colour and also shows the exact status in text. A site's colour follows its project with the latest evidence date.

Location precision

54 sites have a polygon or multipolygon; the rest have a point. 5 projects use an official site boundary. A map shape may represent a parcel or campus rather than a particular building. Each record says what its location represents:

Official boundary: An official parcel, cadastral or surveyed boundary of the site or campus.
Campus location: A point or area locating the parent campus, which may contain several projects.
Project location: A point or area locating the named project at the precision of its source.
Site reference point: A reviewed address, parcel or shared-campus reference point.
Locality, county or region reference: A place reference retained from earlier research. It does not locate the facility itself.
Approximate site reference: An approximate position from the cited project record; it has not been independently surveyed.
Host estate: The surrounding industrial estate or business park. Where a correction identifies this broader scope, it is labelled as an exception: the marker does not identify the project's position.

The API and downloads preserve the location's source, method, scope and any stated uncertainty. An unknown accuracy is left unknown. For a polygon, latitude and longitude are a convenient display anchor; use the full geometry for spatial analysis.

Sources

Each source record includes a URL, publisher, title, publication date where known, retrieval time, licence and SHA-256 hash with its scope recorded. For imported references the hash covers the retained factual source record, not the publisher’s web page. The atlas publishes extracted facts and links, rather than redistributing source documents or imagery. See source attribution for applicable terms.

Site pages also link to the Internet Archive's nearest capture. A capture may be unavailable or differ from the material reviewed; the content hash identifies the material described by its hash scope.

Capacity and other details

20 of 906 projects have a normalized power observation. Additional capacity, investment, hardware and timeline details retain their original units, qualifiers and phase scope in project details and the spreadsheet’s separate sheets. Each value keeps its source, date, scope, unit and stage, such as planned or installed. These metrics measure different things:

Critical IT load: power available to IT equipment.
Gross facility power: total facility power, including cooling.
Grid connection: utility connection capacity.
Generation nameplate: on-site generation capacity.

These values should not be added together. Annual energy and PUE are recorded separately. A missing value means unknown, not zero.

Operator, owner, tenant and customer relationships, workloads and operating models require evidence for the named project and scope. Intended workloads are distinguished from operational workloads.

Imagery

Project statuses in the current data come from source reports. No project is marked as independently verified by imagery. Where an imagery review is available, its result is recorded separately from the reported status.

Additions and corrections

Suggest a project with the new-site form, or use the correction form to update a record. Include a dated primary source and a location source. Each site page has a correction link with its identifier filled in.

Accepted changes appear in the next data update. Earlier data files remain unchanged in the data archive, so previous analyses can be reproduced. downloads/latest/ always contains the current data.

A documented status change updates the existing record. An unsupported claim or mistaken identity may instead require a correction or removal; removal does not imply that the project was cancelled or completed.

Identifiers and stable URLs

Use site_id, project_id and evidence_id to join records. Site and project identifiers are derived from stable curation keys and retained when a record is renamed or updated. Evidence identifiers refer to a particular captured source; changed content receives a new identifier.

Identifiers are never reused for a different entity. A merge or split retires identifiers that no longer describe the same entity. The archive index lists added and removed sites. Retired records remain in the archived downloads that contained them.

Site pages and api/v1/ describe the current data. A record absent from the current data returns HTTP 404 there. Archived download pages and their original data files remain available at the same paths. Where an archive has a GitHub Release, its generated formats (such as SQLite, Excel, JSON and the zip) are that release's frozen files, linked from the archive's download page and the archive index.

Reproducing the data

Each archived dataset includes a manifest.json with file sizes and SHA-256 hashes; manifest.sha256 identifies the manifest. Generated formats such as SQLite and Excel have checksums in SHA256SUMS.

The repository README explains how to build and test the website and data. Browse the data dictionary for field definitions, or use the API documentation for endpoints and examples.