Illinois

The largest footprint in Illinois belongs to Digital Realty Trust, Inc., behind 6 tracked facilities. NTT Global Data Centers, Equinix, Inc., and Meta Platforms, Inc. 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: Cook County leads Illinois with 32 facilities and a composite risk score of 21/100. DuPage County and DeKalb 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.

Illinois is not done growing. 15 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: 8 state bills mentioning data centers and 6 recent news items are tracked for Illinois 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.