Texas and the Midwest are about to capture more than half of all of the new US AI infrastructure development:

Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft are expected to spend nearly $700B combined in 2026 on AI infrastructure, up more than 60% from 2025.

Where this money is going exactly is to AI data center real estate that houses the specific infrastructure needed to train, deploy, and deliver AI apps and services.

This requires 3 things:

- A dedicated grid connection of at least 100 megawatts (training requires more power).

- A land parcel of 100 acres or more.

- A cool climate that reduces the cost of cooling

(chips heat up often).

Established markets like Northern Virginia and Silicon Valley have run out of available power, and that is pushing new construction inland into places like Texas.

The thing that’s going to determine how suitable a place is for AI infrastructure is going to be based on these 6 things:

- Power infrastructure (30%)

- Land availability (20%)

- Network connectivity (15%)

- Labor market (15%)

- Business environment (10%)

- Climate and resources (10%)

And based on these markers, here’s what the top markets look like in the US on a score range of 2.9-4.2: