How big is the Chicago data center market | Capacity, Trends & Insights

Q: What is the current size and forecast of the Chicago data center market?

The Chicago data center market was valued at USD 3.9 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 8.1 billion by 2031 at a CAGR of 11.2%.

Q: Which sectors drive the Chicago data center market?

Cloud computing, AI, financial services, healthcare, and e-commerce are major demand drivers.

Q: What are the main growth factors of the Chicago data center market?

Strategic location, expanding AI workloads, hyperscale investments, and power availability.

Q: What challenges exist in the Chicago data center market?

Land constraints in central locations, increasing power demand, regulatory compliance, and sustainability pressure.

Q: How does 6W market outlook report help businesses in making decisions?

6W monitors the market across 60+ countries Globally, publishing an annual market outlook report that analyses trends, key drivers, Size, Volume, Revenue, opportunities, and market segments. This report offers comprehensive insights, helping businesses understand market dynamics and make informed decisions.

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Code: MTA4904

Publication Date: Jul 2025

How big is the Chicago Data Center Market?

According to 6Wresearch internal database and industry insights, the Chicago data center market was valued at approximately USD 3.9 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 8.1 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 11.2% during the forecast period.

This growth is driven by rising demand for digital infrastructure, AI workloads, hyperscale expansion, and strong enterprise colocation activity across the Chicago metropolitan area.

Key Growth Drivers of the Chicago Data Center Market

The location and connectivity of Chicago are strategic to businesses with more than half of the enterprises and hyperscale firms with a presence in the city as well as financial services firms. The area boasts of good power availability, access to fiber networks as well as affordable real estate. The driving factors in the market are the growth of cloud services, the rise of adoption of AI and machine learning workloads, and the growing storage requirements of financial and healthcare industry players.

Chicago Data Center Market Trends

The Chicago data center market is seeing rapid suburban expansion, particularly in areas like Elk Grove Village, Aurora, and Hoffman Estates due to power availability and land constraints in the urban core. High-density computing demand is leading to infrastructure upgrades for AI and HPC use cases. There is a growing focus on modular builds, sustainable cooling, and renewable energy sourcing. Additionally, cloud providers are signing long-term leases and pre-leasing large campuses to secure capacity ahead of demand surges.

Emerging Developments in the Chicago Data Center Market

The operators are purchasing energy management systems powered by artificial intelligence to improve cooling and save money on energy bills. Hybrid and edge deployments are gaining increasing interest as a way of serving latency-sensitive applications. Other suppliers are testing liquid cooling and other non-carbon energy sources such as hydrogen and super-advanced battery storage. The collaboration of the government and utilities is accelerating the speed of power infrastructure updates to satisfy the burgeoning grids. Moreover, green building certifications, and water-efficient cooling technologies are increasingly becoming a common occurrence in order to meet sustainability objectives.