Illinois
DataCentersExposed tracks 38 AI data centers in Illinois — 23 operating and 1 in the pipeline — across 6 counties, drawing 1.9 GW of reported power demand from 15 tracked corporate operators.
Sources: Methodology, Coverage scorecard
DataCentersExposed tracks 38 data centers in Illinois — 23 operating and 1 proposed. The 23 Illinois facilities with disclosed electrical capacity account for 1.9 GW of demand on the grid — power that competes with homes and businesses for the same generation and transmission.
Reporting by Eric Keller · Updated May 29, 2026
Illinois at a glance
The largest footprint in Illinois belongs to Digital Realty Trust, Inc., behind 6 tracked facilities. NTT Global Data Centers, CenterSquare (formerly Cyxtera), and Equinix, Inc. round out the most active operators in the state. Many of these sites are filed under shell or project names rather than the parent's — our operator column resolves them back to the real corporate parent wherever the chain is documented.
Geographically, the buildout clusters: Cook County leads Illinois with 27 facilities and a composite risk score of 21/100. DuPage County and DeKalb County follow. Our county risk score weights project exposure (40%), power demand (30%), water draw (15%), and land footprint (15%); the full breakdown is shown on each county page.
Illinois is not done growing. 1 facility is in the pipeline — proposed, permitted, or under construction — which is where residents still have a say at zoning hearings and in rate cases. Each pending project is a decision about land, water, electricity prices, and tax revenue that hasn't been finalized.
We also surface the accountability trail: 8 state bills mentioning data centers and 6 recent news items are tracked for Illinois below, pulled from LegiScan and GDELT and refreshed automatically. Legislation is linked to the counties and operators it names; news is classified by community sentiment.
Top operators in Illinois
The taxpayer price tag
“Totals 27 $8,106,549,576 $15,731,146,724 $983,196,670 591 11 [column header: 'Est. Value of Tax Benefits']. 'While the estimated tax benefit is calculated at approximately 6.25% of total investment to represent the value of the State's sale…”
Program-wide cost of Illinois's data-center tax incentive(s), reported by the state — not attributable to a single facility. “Proj” = the state's own forward estimate; all other figures are realized/audited. Each links to its primary source.
County risk leaderboard
| County | Facilities | Pipeline | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cook County | 27 | — | 21 |
| DuPage County | 14 | — | 15 |
| DeKalb County | 3 | — | 7 |
| Champaign County | 1 | — | 4 |
| Lake County | 1 | — | 4 |
| Christian County | 1 | 1 | — |
Pipeline & proposals
All tracked facilities
| Facility | Operator | Status | County | MW |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eagle Rock Christian County Data Center | — | Proposed | Christian | 1,000 |
| Aligned Data Center - Chicago ORD-01 | Aligned Energy Holdings, LP | Mapped (unverified) | Cook | — |
| Aligned Data Center - Chicago ORD-02 | Aligned Energy Holdings, LP | Cook | — | |
| Centersquare Chicago Data Center - ORD1 | CenterSquare (formerly Cyxtera) | Cook | — | |
| Centersquare Elk Grove Village Data Center Campus ORD2 | CenterSquare (formerly Cyxtera) | DuPage | — | |
| Centersquare Lisle ORD4 Data Center | CenterSquare (formerly Cyxtera) | DuPage | — | |
| CoreSite Chicago Data Center (CH1) | American Tower Corporation | Cook | — | |
| CoreSite Chicago Data Center (CH2) | American Tower Corporation | Cook | — | |
| CyrusOne CHI3 | CyrusOne LLC | Mapped (unverified) | DuPage | — |
| CyrusOne Chicago Aurora CME | CyrusOne LLC | DuPage | — | |
| Datacenter (386) | — | Mapped (unverified) | DuPage | — |
| Digital Realty CH1 | Digital Realty Trust, Inc. | Cook | — | |
| Digital Realty CH2 | Digital Realty Trust, Inc. | Cook | — | |
| Digital Realty CH3 | Digital Realty Trust, Inc. | Cook | — | |
| Digital Realty Chicago ORD12 | Digital Realty Trust, Inc. | Cook | — | |
| Digital Realty ORD10 | Digital Realty Trust, Inc. | Cook | — | |
| Digital Realty ORD11 | Digital Realty Trust, Inc. | Cook | — | |
| EdgeConneX CHI01 | EdgeConneX, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Cook | — |
| EdgeConneX CHI02 | EdgeConneX, Inc. | Cook | — | |
| Edged Chicago ORD01 | — | Mapped (unverified) | DuPage | — |
| Element Critical CH1 | Element Critical | DuPage | — | |
| Element Critical CH2 | Element Critical | DuPage | — | |
| Equinix Chicago CH3 | Equinix, Inc. | Cook | — | |
| Equinix Chicago Data CH7 | Equinix, Inc. | DuPage | — | |
| Equinix Chicago Data Center - CH1 | Equinix, Inc. | Cook | — | |
| Iron Mountain Data & Record Storage | Iron Mountain Incorporated | Mapped (unverified) | Cook | — |
| Lakeside Technology Center | — | Mapped (unverified) | Cook | — |
| Lincoln Rackhouse | — | DuPage | — | |
| Meta | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | DeKalb | — |
| Meta | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | DeKalb | — |
| Meta | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | DeKalb | — |
| Microsoft - Azure Datacenter | Microsoft Corporation | Mapped (unverified) | Cook | — |
| NCSA Petascale Computing Facility | — | Mapped (unverified) | Champaign | — |
| NTT Chicago CH1 | NTT Global Data Centers | Mapped (unverified) | DuPage | — |
| NTT Chicago CH2 | NTT Global Data Centers | Mapped (unverified) | DuPage | — |
| NTT Chicago CH3 | NTT Global Data Centers | Mapped (unverified) | DuPage | — |
| NTT Chicago CH4 | NTT Global Data Centers | Mapped (unverified) | DuPage | — |
| Netrality | — | Cook | — | |
| QTS Chicago | QTS Realty Trust, LLC | Cook | — | |
| STACK Chicago CHI01 | Stack Infrastructure, Inc. | Mapped (unverified) | Cook | — |
| Serverfarm CH1 | — | Cook | — | |
| Skybox Chicago I | — | Mapped (unverified) | Cook | — |
| Stream Chicago I | Stream Data Centers | Cook | — | |
| Stream Chicago II | Stream Data Centers | Cook | — | |
| T5 Chicago II | — | Cook | — | |
| Visa | — | Mapped (unverified) | Lake | — |
| West Monroe | — | Mapped (unverified) | Cook | — |