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Data center cost calculator
Announced investment for tracked U.S. data centers has a median of $10 million per megawatt across 37 projects. Enter a size to scale it, with the jobs those projects announce.
The five tracked projects closest in size
Projects that publish both an investment and a capacity, nearest in size to the figure above. Each links to its record and sources.
| Project | Capacity | Stated investment | Per MW |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quiet Data Centers, Trestle Road NC · published as “more than” or “up to” | 88 MW | $250 million | $2.8 million |
| Utah Data Center UT | 65 MW | $1.2 billion | $18.5 million |
| WF Industrial Yaphank Data Center NY | 176.6 MW | $1 billion | $5.7 million |
| Remington Site Data Center NY | 200 MW | $2.5 billion | $12.5 million |
| Meta Beaver Dam Data Center WI · published as “more than” or “up to” | 220 MW | $1 billion | $4.5 million |
What a data center could cost by size
The same estimate for common sizes, from all tracked projects (middle half of projects, 37 projects for cost). A 100 MW data center comes out at $620 million to $1.3 billion; a 1,000 MW campus at $6.2–13 billion.
| Capacity | Capital cost (middle half) | Median | Permanent jobs | Construction jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 MW | $62–130 million | $100 million | 1.9–4.4 | 15–43 |
| 50 MW | $310–670 million | $500 million | 9.3–22 | 73–210 |
| 100 MW | $620 million to $1.3 billion | $1 billion | 19–44 | 150–430 |
| 250 MW | $1.6–3.3 billion | $2.5 billion | 46–110 | 370–1,100 |
| 500 MW | $3.1–6.7 billion | $5 billion | 93–220 | 730–2,100 |
| 1,000 MW | $6.2–13 billion | $10 billion | 190–440 | 1,500–4,300 |
Cost: 37 projects. Permanent jobs: 38. Construction jobs: 31; published construction figures mix peak headcount with totals over the whole build, so the construction column is a rough order of magnitude. Ranges are the 25th to 75th percentile of per-MW figures times the capacity, rounded to two significant figures.
Announced investment per MW, project by project
Chart data as a table
| Project | Capacity | Stated investment | Per MW |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monarch Compute Campus | 8 GW | $20 billion | $2.5 million |
| Meta Hyperion | 5 GW | $50 billion | $10 million |
| Project Camellia | 3.21 GW | $20 billion | $6.2 million |
| Quantum Frederick | 2.4 GW | $5 billion | $2.1 million |
| Project Tamarack | 2.16 GW | $12 billion | $5.6 million |
| Joliet Technology Center | 1.8 GW | $20 billion | $11.1 million |
| T5 @ Chicago IV | 1.55 GW | $18 billion | $11.6 million |
| Vantage Frontier Campus | 1.4 GW | $25 billion | $17.9 million |
| Saline Township Stargate Data Center | 1.38 GW | $16 billion | $11.6 million |
| Fort Meade Hyperscale Data Center | 1.2 GW | $2.6 billion | $2.2 million |
| Meramec Valley Technology Park | 1.2 GW | $16 billion | $13.3 million |
| Project Marvel | 1.2 GW | $14.5 billion | $12.1 million |
| QTS Cedar Rapids Data Center Campus | 1.05 GW | $10 billion | $9.5 million |
| Meta El Paso Data Center | 1 GW | $14 billion | $14 million |
| Meta Lebanon Data Center | 1 GW | $10 billion | $10 million |
| Project Boulder | 1 GW | $6 billion | $6 million |
| Sentinel Grove Technology Park | 1 GW | $13.5 billion | $13.5 million |
| Project Sail | 900 MW | $17 billion | $18.9 million |
| Viridian Data Center Campus (former GM/JATCO site) | 800 MW | $8 billion | $10 million |
| Farmington Technology Park | 708 MW | $5 billion | $7.1 million |
| Project Mica | 700 MW | $10 billion | $14.3 million |
| CRG Festus Data Center | 600 MW | $6 billion | $10 million |
| Logan Prairie Data Center | 500 MW | $5 billion | $10 million |
| Stream Data Centers STAMP Campus | 500 MW | $19 billion | $38 million |
| Imperial Data Center | 330 MW | $10 billion | $30.3 million |
| CloudHQ ORD Campus | 300 MW | $2.5 billion | $8.3 million |
| Project Borealis | 300 MW | $3 billion | $10 million |
| Riverview Innovation & Technology Campus | 300 MW | $2 billion | $6.7 million |
| Project Blue | 286 MW | $3.6 billion | $12.6 million |
| Core Scientific Denton Data Center | 260 MW | $6.1 billion | $23.5 million |
| Prime Phoenix Campus | 240 MW | $3 billion | $12.5 million |
| Meta Beaver Dam Data Center | 220 MW | $1 billion | $4.5 million |
| Remington Site Data Center | 200 MW | $2.5 billion | $12.5 million |
| WF Industrial Yaphank Data Center | 176.6 MW | $1 billion | $5.7 million |
| Quiet Data Centers, Trestle Road | 88 MW | $250 million | $2.8 million |
| Utah Data Center | 65 MW | $1.2 billion | $18.5 million |
| Deep Green Lansing data center | 24 MW | $120 million | $5 million |
How the estimate works and its limits
- Which projects
- Projects that publish a single stated investment and a single capacity (capacity, else IT load, converted to MW) whose notes do not say the figures cover different things. 38 projects publish both; 29 were set aside because a figure was text or a range, or its note says it covers several sites, one phase, or a plan that changed. 38 remained, and 1 of those were dropped as outliers, leaving 37.
- The statistics
- The median and the 25th to 75th percentile range of investment per MW, multiplied by the capacity you enter. No averages are used. Outliers are values outside 1.5 times the interquartile range of the base-10 logarithm of the per-MW figure; dropped: CyrusOne Sangamon County Data Center ($0.8 million per MW). Jobs use the same method on jobs per MW (45 projects publish a jobs figure and a capacity). The construction estimate is a rough order of magnitude: published construction figures mix peak headcount, daily headcount on site and totals over a multi-year build, and ranges are stored at one end.
- Small groups
- A filter needs at least 8 comparable projects. Below that the calculator shows the all-projects figure and says so.
- Qualified figures
- 16 of the 37 projects publish a figure as “more than”, “up to” or similar. They are kept as published and flagged in the nearest-projects table.
- What it is not
- Announced investment is a headline number from a developer, an official or an incentive agreement, not audited construction cost. Depending on the announcement it can include land, buildings, power infrastructure and sometimes servers and chips, and it can span several phases built over years. Cancelled and denied proposals are included because their announced figures describe the same kind of plan. Cost per MW does not stay constant as size grows, so estimates far from the sizes in the chart are less reliable. Treat the result as a range from public announcements, not a quote.
Projects set aside (29)
- PORTS-Pike Technology Campus: investment note says it covers a different scope
- Homer City Energy Campus: capacity note says it covers a different scope
- Project Thunderbird: capacity note says it covers a different scope
- Project Tembo: investment note says it covers a different scope
- Project Jupiter: investment note says it covers a different scope
- Project Phoenix: investment is text, not one figure
- Port Washington (Lighthouse) Data Center Campus: capacity note says it covers a different scope
- Stargate Milam County: investment note says it covers a different scope
- Brightseat Tech Park: capacity note says it covers a different scope
- Amazon Web Services Louisa County campuses: investment note says it covers a different scope
- Project Lincoln: investment note says it covers a different scope
- Hut 8 River Bend Campus: investment note says it covers a different scope
- CoreWeave Lancaster data center: capacity note says it covers a different scope
- QTS Richmond campus expansion (RIC4 and RIC5): investment is text, not one figure
- Blueprint Taylor Data Center: capacity note says it covers a different scope
- DC BLOX Nashville Data Center: investment note says it covers a different scope
- Amazon Web Services Butts County data center campus: investment is text, not one figure
- Amazon Web Services Madison County Mega Site campus: investment note says it covers a different scope
- AVAIO Digital Leo: investment note says it covers a different scope
- Balico data center campus and gas plant: investment note says it covers a different scope
- Falls Township Innovation Campus: investment is text, not one figure
- Google Chesterfield County data center campuses: investment is text, not one figure
- Google Hermantown Data Center: investment note says it covers a different scope
- Microsoft Fairwater: investment note says it covers a different scope
- Project Cherry Blossom: investment is text, not one figure
- Project Cornmaze: capacity is a range or text, not one figure
- Project Spalding: investment note says it covers a different scope
- Salem Township Innovation Campus: investment is text, not one figure
- Wallace Jackson Data Center Campus: investment note says it covers a different scope
Data center cost: common questions
How much does a data center cost per MW?
Among 37 tracked U.S. projects that publish both an investment and a capacity, the median announced investment is $10 million per megawatt, and the middle half of projects fall between $6.2 million and $13.3 million. Announced investment is not audited construction cost.
How much does a 100 MW data center cost?
Applying the per-MW range to 100 MW gives about $620 million to $1.3 billion, with a median estimate of $1 billion, based on 37 comparable projects. Real costs depend on the market, the design, the power infrastructure and whether servers are included.
Why do AI data centers cost more?
Not in this data: the 13 projects the Census counts as AI data centers have a median of $10 million per MW, against $10 million for the other 24, so announced investment per MW is not higher for them here. Announced investment can include chips and servers for some projects and not others, which moves the figure more than the building does.
How many jobs does a data center create?
Scaling the medians of tracked projects to 100 MW gives about 31 permanent jobs (38 projects) and, as a rough order of magnitude only, about 200 construction jobs (31 projects); published construction figures mix peak headcount with totals over the whole build. These are announced figures. The jobs near me tool lists them by ZIP code.
Related: How much does it cost to build a data center? · Impact calculator · Largest data centers · Data center jobs and pay · Data center jobs near me
Cite this page
Last updated Oct 13, 2026. Figures may change as records are updated — include the date you retrieved them.
| APA | Data Center Census. (2026). Data center cost calculator. Retrieved from https://datacentercensus.com/cost-calculator |
|---|---|
| MLA | “Data center cost calculator.” Data Center Census, Oct 13, 2026, https://datacentercensus.com/cost-calculator. |
| Link | https://datacentercensus.com/cost-calculator |
Republishing a figure or table? Attribute it to Data Center Census with a link to this page. The underlying data is downloadable as JSON and CSV; the press kit has standing figures and contact details.