Data Insight
Sep. 4, 2026

The record for power capacity in a single data center has doubled every 10 months

Axel Campos's avatarBen Cottier's avatar
By Axel Campos and Ben Cottier

AI data centers are using exponentially more electric power. Since mid-2024, the record for the largest AI data center by IT power capacity has doubled every ten months. The current record-holder is xAI’s Colossus 2, at an estimated 950 MW.

Our research has identified five facilities that would set power records through 2028. Expansions at New Carlisle and Colossus 2 roughly track the trend into early 2027, but the three that follow come in at about half the trend’s prediction. We believe our data captures most record-holding facilities through 2028, but because of the small sample size and the uncertainty in our power and date estimates, it’s unclear whether the power trend will actually slow down.

Epoch's work is free to use, distribute, and reproduce provided the source and authors are credited under the Creative Commons BY license.

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We estimate a historical trend for the largest data center by IT power capacity, and compare it to our projections for future data centers. Data comes from our Frontier Data Centers dataset, which records per-facility milestones of operational capacity over time. IT power is the power capacity available to chips, servers, and other IT equipment, excluding cooling and other overhead. This value is usually estimated from satellite imagery, public disclosures, and permitting documents.

Although computing capacity is more relevant to AI capabilities, we focus on power capacity, as it provides insight into the physical buildout of the industry. The trend reflects the local physical constraints the industry encounters and overcomes.

Code for the analysis is available here.

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Frontier Data Center IT Power
CSV, Updated Aug. 31, 2026

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Epoch AI’s work is free to use, distribute, and reproduce provided the source and authors are credited under the Creative Commons Attribution license.

Citation

Axel Campos and Ben Cottier (2026), "The record for power capacity in a single data center has doubled every 10 months". Published online at epoch.ai. Retrieved from 'https://epoch.ai/data-insights/frontier-data-center-power' [online resource]. Accessed 5 Sept 2026.

BibTeX Citation

@misc{epoch2026frontierdatacenterpower, title={The record for power capacity in a single data center has doubled every 10 months}, author={Axel Campos and Ben Cottier}, year={2026}, url={https://epoch.ai/data-insights/frontier-data-center-power}, note={Accessed: 2026-09-05}}