New Jersey
DataCentersExposed tracks 61 AI data centers in New Jersey — 13 operating and 6 in the pipeline — across 13 counties, drawing 778 MW of reported power demand from 14 tracked corporate operators.
Sources: Methodology, Coverage scorecard
Reporting by Eric Keller · Updated May 29, 2026
New Jersey at a glance
The largest footprint in New Jersey belongs to Equinix, Inc., behind 8 tracked facilities. Digital Realty Trust, Inc., Prime Data Centers, and Cologix, 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: Hudson County leads New Jersey with 13 facilities and a composite risk score of 15/100. Middlesex County and Somerset 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.
New Jersey is not done growing. 6 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 New Jersey 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.
2035 Buildout Outlook
Under the model's moderate-growth scenario (5%/yr annual load growth), PNNL's IM3 model sites about 9 standardized 36 MW campuses in New Jersey by 2035 — roughly 324 MW of new electricity demand and ~313 M gal/yr of cooling water. Under the higher-growth scenario (15%/yr) that climbs to 50 campuses (1.8 GW). For scale, we currently track 61 real data centers in New Jersey (778 MW of reported power).
- Low growth6216 MW · ~209 M gal/yr cooling water
- Moderate growth9324 MW · ~313 M gal/yr cooling water
- High growth24864 MW · ~836 M gal/yr cooling water
- Higher growth501.8 GW · ~1.7 billion gal/yr cooling water
The model assigns ~100% of these campuses' cooling to evaporative water cooling in New Jersey (the rest to mechanical/air cooling), a split it derives from local water stress and wet-bulb temperature.
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 New Jersey
County risk leaderboard
| County | Facilities | Pipeline | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hudson County | 13 | — | 15 |
| Middlesex County | 11 | — | 14 |
| Somerset County | 10 | — | 13 |
| Passaic County | 3 | — | 7 |
| Essex County | 3 | 1 | 6 |
| Union County | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Mercer County | 1 | — | 4 |
| Bergen County | 1 | — | 4 |
| Monmouth County | 1 | — | 4 |
| Burlington County | 3 | 2 | — |
| Hunterdon County | 1 | 1 | — |
| Cumberland County | 1 | 1 | — |
Pipeline & proposals
- ProposedComcast Data CenterOperator unknown · Hunterdon County
- ProposedComcast Data CenterOperator unknown · Burlington County
- ProposedJoint Base McGuire-Dix-LakehurstOperator unknown · Burlington County
- ProposedPrism Capital Partners Data CenterOperator unknown · Essex County
- Under construction300 MWNebius Data CenterOperator unknown · Cumberland County
- Under construction250 MWCoreWeave Kenilworth (former Merck)Core Scientific, Inc. · Union County County