TD Cowen noted that total leasing in Q3 2025 reached a record 7.4 GW, with an additional 10.2 GW of active deals still in the pipeline
In sum – what to know:
Record-breaking quarter – U.S. hyperscalers leased 7.4GW of capacity in Q3 2025, surpassing the total for all of 2024, with an active pipeline of 10.2GW.
Oracle and OpenAI lead demand – Oracle alone accounted for 5.4GW, primarily to support OpenAI workloads, marking the largest single-quarter leasing surge in industry history.
Hyperscale momentum widens – Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Anthropic also ramped up leasing, each pursuing gigawatt-scale projects across multiple U.S. regions.
More U.S. data center capacity was leased by hyperscalers in the third quarter of 2025 alone than during the entirety of last year, clearly showing the rapid acceleration of AI infrastructure demand.
According to a report by TD Cowen, total leasing in the third quarter of the year reached a record 7.4GW, with an additional 10.2GW of active deals still in the pipeline. This brings total hyperscale leasing for 2025 to roughly 11.3GW, a sharp increase from the 7GW recorded for all of 2024.
The report stated that Oracle led the surge, leasing 5.4GW of capacity across multiple sites — most of it dedicated to OpenAI workloads.
“Based on our checks, Q3 2025 would represent the largest inflection in demand we have seen since the inception of the data center industry,” said Michael Elias, senior equity research analyst at TD Cowen.
While Oracle and OpenAI accounted for the the bulk of activity in the period, demand broadened across other hyperscalers. Google leased 600MW during the quarter, followed by Anthropic with 528MW, while Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon also expanded their footprints with gigawatt-scale projects, TD Cowen said.
Earlier this year, TD Cowen reported that data center leasing was returning at scale after a slowdown in early 2025.
The North American data center sector is facing a deepening supply crunch as vacancy rates hit record lows despite a surge in new development, according to JLL’s midyear 2025 North America data center report.
In August, JLL warned the market had reached a “critical tipping point,” where soaring demand, limited power, and lengthy build timelines are forcing operators and enterprises to rethink strategies.
Colocation vacancy has fallen to just 2.3%, even as installed capacity rose to 15.5 GW. Northern Virginia continues to dominate with 5.6 GW — more than three times Dallas-Fort Worth’s 1.5 GW. Cloud providers drove 65% of leasing activity in the first half of 2025, according to JLL.
In the first half of 2025, 2.2 GW was absorbed, matching or surpassing 2024’s record pace, the JLL report added. Northern Virginia and Dallas-Fort Worth led leasing with 647 MW and 575 MW respectively, followed by Chicago (368 MW) and Austin/San Antonio (291 MW). Austin has grown nearly 500% since 2020, with 900 MW live and 341 MW under construction.