$33B Data Center Park Eyed in Arizona
When complete, it will be the largest such development in the U.S.
Vermaland LLC, an Arizona land developer, has proposed building a $33 billion data center park on 3,300 acres between Phoenix and Tucson. When complete, it would become the largest such development in the U.S.
The campus would support up to 3 gigawatts of power capacity, positioning the area to compete directly with data center leader Northern Virginia for tech industry investments.
Known as “Data Center Alley,” Northern Virginia had a total inventory of 2,930 megawatts at the end of 2024 and 2,672.5 megawatts under construction, according to CBRE data from the second half of 2024. Phoenix, which is the nation’s fourth-largest data center market by total inventory, had 602.8 megawatts and 176.0 megawatts under construction, CBRE reported.
The announcement comes as major technology companies are accelerating data center investments to support artificial intelligence applications. Meta alone plans to invest between $60 billion and $65 billion this year, primarily on AI and data center infrastructure.
Plans for site
The site spans about 4 miles near Eloy in Pinal County. It is located within a federally designated Qualified Opportunity Zone in the Phoenix-Tucson corridor, which would give investors significant tax advantages for long-term capital investments.
Kuldip Verma, Vermaland CEO, said in prepared remarks the development could give Arizona edge to capture a meaningful share of the AI infrastructure boom because power costs are significantly below California and data center demand is growing.
Vermaland is planning a hybrid energy system for the campus, combining solar, natural gas, battery storage and grid connectivity for continuous operations. The company’s portfolio supports a range of industries, with ongoing commitments across 16 solar farms totaling more than 10,000 acres. Those projects are to generate more than 2 gigawatts of clean energy capacity.
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Verma told Arizona Republic the company has an application before the Arizona State Land Department to use state land for an additional solar facility. Vermaland also plans to develop a natural gas plant in the project’s first phase, to power the data center campus until the solar plants are built and able to service the site.
The first phase of construction could begin within two to three years with companies acquiring buildings or sites or renting space, according to the newspaper.
Founded in 2006, Vermaland specializes in solar farms, industrial development and data center infrastructure. The company controls 25,000 acres of land holdings representing the largest collection of 50- to 1,200-acre parcels in metro Phoenix.
Other data center sites in Phoenix
As one of the major primary data center markets in the U.S., Arizona continues to see new projects planned around the state and activity at existing sites.
In June, Vantage Data Centers secured a $735 million refinancing package for three data centers in Goodyear, Ariz. The developer has so far invested more than $1.5 billion into the project and expects the campus, dubbed AZ1, to grow to more than 1 million square feet.
A month earlier, EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure acquired a 44-acre lot in Mesa, Ariz., to expand its existing data center campus. At full build-out, the complex will comprise more than 3.1 million square feet and provide more than 450 megawatts of capacity. The developer had previously obtained $1.9 billion in green financing for the project.
Novva Data Centers is also building a data center campus in Mesa. The company plans to invest more than $3 billion in two phases over the next decade at the 160-acre site that will provide 300 megawatts of capacity. The first 96-megawatt phase is scheduled to deliver next year. On completion, the campus will have a total of 1.3 million square feet of space across five data halls, an office building and warehouse.
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