Florida
DataCentersExposed tracks 67 AI data centers in Florida — 7 operating and 5 in the pipeline — across 12 counties, drawing 1.0 GW of reported power demand from 10 tracked corporate operators.
Sources: Methodology, Coverage scorecard
Reporting by Eric Keller · Updated May 29, 2026
Florida at a glance
The largest footprint in Florida belongs to Flexential Corp., behind 4 tracked facilities. Equinix, Inc., Cologix, Inc., and CoreSite, LLC 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: Miami-Dade County leads Florida with 4 facilities and a composite risk score of 7/100. Hillsborough County and Duval 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.
Florida is not done growing. 5 facilities are 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: 5 state bills mentioning data centers and 6 recent news items are tracked for Florida 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.
Data-center policy watch: Florida enacted SB 484 (signed May 2026, effective July 1) barring utilities from billing residents and small businesses for data-center costs — facilities of 50 MW or more must pay their full cost of service — plus tighter aquifer permitting and preserved local denial authority.
2035 Buildout Outlook
Under the model's moderate-growth scenario (5%/yr annual load growth), PNNL's IM3 model sites about 3 standardized 36 MW campuses in Florida by 2035 — roughly 108 MW of new electricity demand and ~0 M gal/yr of cooling water. Under the higher-growth scenario (15%/yr) that climbs to 17 campuses (612 MW). For scale, we currently track 67 real data centers in Florida (1.0 GW of reported power).
- Low growth272 MW · ~0 M gal/yr cooling water
- Moderate growth3108 MW · ~0 M gal/yr cooling water
- High growth8288 MW · ~0 M gal/yr cooling water
- Higher growth17612 MW · ~0 M gal/yr cooling water
These are modeled candidate sites, not announced or permitted facilities. PNNL's IM3 model places identical 36 MW unit-campuses at feasible locations under each scenario — it shows where demand could concentrate, never a specific parcel. Figures use a market-gravity weight of 50. How the model works.
Top operators in Florida
County risk leaderboard
| County | Facilities | Pipeline | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miami-Dade County | 4 | 1 | 7 |
| Hillsborough County | 3 | — | 7 |
| Duval County | 2 | — | 6 |
| Alachua County | 2 | — | 6 |
| Broward County | 2 | — | 6 |
| Orange County | 2 | — | 4 |
| Brevard County | 1 | — | 4 |
| Polk County | 2 | 2 | — |
| Okeechobee County | 1 | — | — |
| DeSoto County | 1 | 1 | — |
| Palm Beach County | 1 | 1 | — |
| St. Lucie County | 1 | — | — |
Pipeline & proposals
- ProposedDeSoto County AI Data CenterOperator unknown · DeSoto County
- ProposedProject SwanOperator unknown · Polk County
- Under construction16 MWIron Mountain Data CenterOperator unknown · Miami-Dade County
- Under constructionFort Meade Data CenterOperator unknown · Polk County
- Under constructionProject TangoOperator unknown · Palm Beach County