Data Centers in Georgia Statistics 2026: Power, Tax and Counts

Georgia Power says 32 large-load customers have committed to receiving approximately 15,600 MW of electric service, with 21 projects under construction. The Georgia Public Service Commission has approved a stipulated agreement that lets Georgia Power produce 9,885 megawatts of new energy, most of it for new large customers such as data centers in Georgia.

Georgia is estimated to have 63 active data centers, 35 under construction and another 249 announced as of December 2025, mostly in the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. The state’s sales-tax exemption for data centers carried an estimated $474.2 million in forgone state tax revenue in FY 2025. The counts, the Atlanta market, the PSC rules, the bill projections, the tax break and the major projects follow, each with the body that published the figure and its date.

Key Takeaways

• Georgia Power’s approximately 15,600 MW of committed large load is about 8.7 times CBRE’s 1,803.2 MW Atlanta data center inventory.
• OpenAI’s expected need of approximately 3,200 MW is about one-fifth the size of the approximately 15,600 MW Georgia Power reported as committed in April 2026.
• Aterio data puts Georgia at an estimated 63 active data centers and 249 announced projects as of December 2025.
• The Institute determined that 30% of data centers in Georgia could be attributed to the tax exemption, so 70% would exist without it.
• Forgone state tax revenue is projected at $866.7 million in 2030, about 83% above the $474.2 million FY 2025 estimate.
• Georgia Power now projects savings of $180 per year for a typical residential customer, up from its December 2025 commitment of $102 per year.

Editor’s Choice

• Certified new generation: 9,885 megawatts of new Georgia Power energy approved by a unanimous 5-0 PSC vote.
• Atlanta operating inventory: 1,803.2 MW, with 29.5 MW available, in CBRE Research’s Q2 2026 data.
• Atlanta absorption: a record 918 MW in just six months, according to JLL.
• Fairwater Atlanta IT power: an estimated 636 MW for Microsoft Fairwater Atlanta, per Epoch AI.
• AWS planned investment: an estimated $11 billion to expand AWS infrastructure in Georgia.
• Large-load threshold: more than 100 megawatts, the usage above which new Georgia Power customers can be billed on special terms.

Data Centers in Georgia by Development Stage

• As of December 2025, Georgia is estimated to have 63 active data centers.
• Active, under-construction and announced facilities total 347 in the Aterio estimate.
• Announced projects outnumber active ones by about 4.0 to 1.
• The majority sit in the greater Atlanta metropolitan area of Fulton, Douglas, Fayette, Walton and Cobb counties.
• Researchers projected, based on Aterio data, that by 2030 the average data center in Georgia would be rated at approximately 68 MW.

Source: Carl Vinson Institute of Government (Aterio data), December 2025

A second count, from the Data Center Map listings in a Pew Research Center chart, uses different categories. It lists Georgia with 235 data centers: 94 currently operating and 141 planned. The planned category includes data centers listed as under construction, planned or land banked, and the listings were accessed Feb. 19, 2026.

About This Data

• Compiled from 12 publications: the state’s tax incentive evaluation and its audit summary, 2 PSC releases, 3 Georgia Power releases, 1 Amazon announcement, and CBRE, JLL, Pew Research Center and Epoch AI data.
• Sources date from January 2025 to October 2026.
• Only state agencies, the regulator, the utility, companies and independent research firms qualified; paid market-research reports were excluded.
• Figures are reviewed on a rolling basis and updated when sources publish new editions.

How many data centers are in Georgia?

Georgia is estimated to have 63 active data centers, 35 under construction and 249 announced as of December 2025, based on Aterio data. Data Center Map listings count 94 currently operating and 141 planned. The two counts use different categories, so neither is a correction of the other. National totals sit in the largest data centers in the US ranking.

Atlanta Data Center Market Capacity

• Atlanta emerged as North America’s most active construction market for the first time, with nearly 2,900 MW under construction, overtaking Northern Virginia.
• Atlanta held 1,803.2 MW of inventory in CBRE Research’s Q2 2026 data, with available capacity of about 1.6% of that total.
• Capacity under construction is about 1.6 times the existing Atlanta inventory.
• Atlanta hit record absorption of 918 MW in just six months, JLL reported.
• In the Atlanta metro area, data center absorption reached approximately 706 MW in 2024, a figure the state’s tax evaluation cites from Georgia Cities.
• Northern Virginia remained the country’s largest market by inventory, at 4,496.5 MW.
• The data centers in Virginia market is the yardstick Atlanta’s construction pipeline is now measured against.

How much data center capacity does Atlanta have?

Atlanta had 1,803.2 MW of data center inventory and 29.5 MW of available capacity in CBRE Research’s Q2 2026 data, with nearly 2,900 MW under construction. Inventory measures capacity already built, while the construction figure shows what is coming next. Wider data center capacity and capex figures follow the same split.

Recent Developments

• August 26, 2026: Georgia Power said its contract to serve OpenAI’s Effingham County project was approved in the PSC regulatory process, and raised its residential savings projection to $180 per year.
• August 11, 2026: JLL’s midyear report said Atlanta hit record absorption of 918 MW in just six months.
• July 22, 2026: Georgia Power said OpenAI is expected to need approximately 3,200 MW for its new facility and agreed to provide up to 1,000 MW of flexible demand response.
• Q2 2026: Atlanta emerged as North America’s most active construction market for the first time, with nearly 2,900 MW under construction, according to CBRE Research.
• April 23, 2026: Georgia Power asked the PSC to approve an RFP to procure 2,000 to 6,000 MW of new dispatchable capacity for 2032 through 2033.

Georgia Power Large-Load Pipeline

• 32 large-load customers have committed to receiving approximately 15,600 MW of electric service from Georgia Power, with 21 projects under construction.
• That commitment is about 8.7 times Atlanta’s 1,803.2 MW operating inventory.
• Georgia Power’s contract with OpenAI for the Effingham County project includes 3,200 MW of new demand, about one-fifth the size of the approximately 15,600 MW Georgia Power reported as committed in April 2026.
• The OpenAI agreement runs 25 years, and Georgia Power can reduce energy delivered to the facility during certain times.
• Georgia Power has stated that it may need to add up to 10,000 MW of new generation capacity, with approximately 80% of that expansion attributed to anticipated data center load.
• Georgia’s committed load is one regional slice of data center energy consumption, where most published estimates are national.

Source: Georgia Power, 2026; Georgia Public Service Commission, 2025

By the numbers: Georgia Power reports 32 large-load customers committed to approximately 15,600 MW, with 21 projects under construction. The PSC approved 9,885 megawatts of new Georgia Power energy, most of it to serve new large customers such as data centers. Contracted load ramps up over years, so the two figures measure different things.

How much power have data centers contracted from Georgia Power?

Georgia Power says 32 large-load customers have committed to approximately 15,600 MW of electric service. Georgia Power’s contract with OpenAI, filed with the Georgia PSC in July 2026, includes 3,200 MW of new demand. Not every large-load customer is a data center, so 32 caps the number of data center customers in that total, not the number of facilities.

Georgia PSC Rulings on Data Center Power

• The Georgia Public Service Commission voted unanimously to approve a rule letting Georgia Power bill new customers using more than 100 megawatts on terms beyond those used for standard customers. The PSC’s large-load rule release sets out the terms.
• Data centers would pay for upstream generation, transmission and distribution costs as construction of the data centers progresses.
• The rule allows minimum billing requirements for high-load customers, and every new contract in the 100 MW usage category must be submitted to the PSC for review.
• The PSC does not approve data center construction, location or operation.
• Georgia Power agreed to financially backstop new projects in 2029, 2030 and 2031, beyond the existing rate freeze through the end of 2028.

Source: Georgia Public Service Commission, 2025

Data Centers and Georgia Power Bills

• Georgia Power expects savings for the typical residential customer to rise from its December 2025 commitment of $102 per year to $180 per year.
• The projected annual saving rose about 76%.
• The company says the increased savings are the result of projected incremental revenue from new large-load customers.
• The PSC says Georgia Power’s backstop creates $8.50 per month of downward pressure on the average household using 1,000 kWh of electricity.

Source: Georgia Power, 2026; Georgia Public Service Commission, 2025

Worth noting: PSC staff expressed concerns that data centers and Georgia Power had not signed contracts for all of the data centers expected to be served by the 9,885 MW, and that new facilities could become stranded assets. Under the agreement, Georgia Power would financially backstop the expected new power load, preventing the possibility of stranded assets.

Will data centers raise Georgia Power bills?

The PSC says the approved agreement protects existing ratepayers from increased rates even if the data center projections do not come to fruition. Georgia Power projects savings of at least $15 per month from 2029 for a typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month. Both are projections that depend on large-load contracts being signed and served.

Georgia Data Center Sales Tax Exemption Cost

• The Institute estimated forgone state tax revenue of $474.2 million in FY 2025, according to the Department of Audits and Accounts exemption summary.
• Estimated gross forgone state tax revenue ranges from $18.3 million in 2018 to $866.7 million in 2030.
• The 2030 projection is about 83% above the FY 2025 estimate.
• The net fiscal impact of the exemption ranges from -$17.0 million in 2018 to -$780.2 million in 2030.
• Counting only the economic activity attributed to the exemption, after 70% of activity is treated as happening anyway, additional state tax revenue in FY 2025 from data center construction totaled $34.6 million and from operations $6.9 million.

Increased state tax collections are reduced by 70%, representing the assumption that 70% of data center activity would have occurred without the tax incentive. After that adjustment, collections from construction and equipment reach $48,006,722 in 2030 and collections from operations $38,485,083.

Key finding: In the Department of Audits and Accounts summary, the Institute determined that 30% of data centers in Georgia could be attributed to the tax exemption. Applying that share to all data center activity, the credit resulted in 8,505 jobs and $1.0 billion in value added to the state economy from construction.

How much does the Georgia data center tax exemption cost?

The Institute estimated forgone state tax revenue of $474.2 million in FY 2025. It projects the gross forgone revenue reaching $866.7 million in 2030, as data centers accumulate in Georgia. The added state tax collections are not high enough to offset the forgone revenue, so the fiscal impact is negative.

Georgia Data Center Tax Exemption Rules

• Georgia’s data center tax exemption was enacted in 2018 via House Bill (HB) 696.
• The exemption was previously slated to sunset in 2028, but it was extended to 2033 due to passage of HB 1291.
• A 2024 proposal, HB 1192, sought to pause the issuance of new tax exemption certificates for data centers, and it was ultimately vetoed.
• Based on a review of a small number of data center projects in metro Atlanta, the Institute found that a “representative” complex with three buildings had a value of more than $2 billion, that at the average millage rate its tax bill would be $33.6 million, and that $5.9 million would be abated.

Source: Carl Vinson Institute of Government (GA Code § 48-8-3), December 2025

The exemption’s cost started small, at $18,342,560 in forgone state tax revenue in 2018, and reached $234,351,535 by 2023. The 2023 figure is about 12.8 times the 2018 one.

Georgia Data Center Jobs and Economic Impact

• Institute researchers projected permanent, full-time employment in data centers in Georgia to be 1,873 in 2025.
• For each direct job in a data center, 1.9 indirect and induced jobs are created across the state.
• The value-added impact of annual operations to the state is $823.3 million.
• IMPLAN estimates the direct labor income of data center employees at $262.3 million.

Applying its 30% attribution share, the Institute credits the exemption with 8,505 construction jobs and 1,641 operations jobs. Data center construction jobs end when a building is finished, so the operations figure is the lasting one. National data center jobs figures use different methods.

Major Data Center Projects in Georgia

• Microsoft Fairwater Atlanta is an operational AI data center hosting an estimated 769,000 H100-equivalents of AI compute, according to Epoch AI.
• QTS built the campus with Microsoft as the tenant.
• Fairwater’s estimated 636 MW of IT power equals about 35.3% of Atlanta’s CBRE-tracked inventory.
• AWS has announced plans to invest an estimated $11 billion to expand its infrastructure in Georgia to support cloud computing and AI technologies.

Source: Epoch AI, October 2026; Georgia Power, 2026; Amazon, January 2025

What is the largest data center in Georgia?

Epoch AI estimates Microsoft Fairwater Atlanta at 636 MW of IT power and a capital cost of $24.1 billion. OpenAI’s Effingham County contract includes 3,200 MW of new demand. A contracted demand figure and an estimated IT power figure are different measures, so the answer depends on which one a reader uses.

Conclusion

Georgia Power counts 32 large-load customers committed to approximately 15,600 MW of electric service, about 8.7 times Atlanta’s operating inventory. On the tax side, the Institute estimated forgone state tax revenue of $474.2 million in FY 2025, while finding that 70% of data centers would exist in the absence of the exemption.

Georgia Power is now seeking 2,000 to 6,000 MW of new dispatchable capacity. How much of the committed load signs contracts under the PSC’s large-load rule will decide whether those plants get built, and whether the bill projections hold.