Data Centers in San Francisco

San Francisco – Your Digital Gateway to the West Coast

San Francisco is a primary North American technology hub, offering exceptional network density and direct connectivity to Silicon Valley and Asia-Pacific markets. This market is built for enterprises that require low-latency access to a rich ecosystem of carriers, cloud providers, and technology partners. Locating here ensures high-performance connectivity crucial for global operations and scaling digital services.

San Francisco: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

San Francisco is one of the most connected cities in the world, serving as the primary network gateway for Northern California and a key peering point for traffic to and from the Asia-Pacific region.

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality: The market features excellent carrier density, with access to over 25 providers as of September 2025. Numerous carrier-neutral facilities provide competitive options for interconnection and transit.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps: While the city itself has no public cloud regions as of September 2025, nearly every major cloud provider is accessible via dedicated, low-latency network extensions from colocation facilities. These private connections offer secure, high-performance access to cloud services.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): The Bay Area is home to several major internet exchanges, including Equinix SF, that facilitate massive traffic exchange between networks. This dense peering environment lowers transit costs and improves latency for end-users.

Bare Metal: Bare metal server options are readily available from multiple providers in the Bay Area, meeting demands for high-performance, single-tenant computing. Providers like Hivelocity and phoenixNAP offer dedicated servers in the region.

Power Analysis

Power in the San Francisco market is reliable but comes at a premium, reflecting California's stringent environmental standards and complex energy market.

Average Cost Of Power: Industrial electricity rates are estimated to be between $0.18–$0.22/kWh as of September 2025. This higher cost is a critical factor in total cost of ownership calculations for large-scale deployments. The power mix includes approximately 45% fossil fuels, 40% renewables, and 8% nuclear energy.

Power Grid Reliability: The power grid serving major data center clusters in the Bay Area is well-engineered, with significant investment in redundancy. Facilities typically receive power from multiple substations to ensure high levels of uptime and fault tolerance.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

San Francisco's strategic location and business environment make it an essential hub for any company in the technology sector.

Proximity To Key Business Districts: Data centers in the Bay Area provide low-latency connectivity to the global technology capital of Silicon Valley, San Francisco's Financial District, and numerous biotech and research institutions. This proximity is critical for applications sensitive to network delays.

Regional Market Reach: The market effectively serves the entire Northern California metropolitan area, a population exceeding 7 million. It is also the primary interconnection point for businesses targeting end-users across the Western United States and Asia.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers: California offers several tax incentives relevant to data center operators. These include state-level efficiency programs that provide rebates and specific exemptions for large-scale data center construction and operation, helping to offset high operational costs.

Natural Disaster Risk

San Francisco has a High natural disaster risk profile, with a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Risk Index score of 89.02 out of 100 as of September 2025.

The area's risk profile is dominated by several significant hazards. Key risks for data center operators and infrastructure planners to mitigate include:

• Earthquake: Extremely high seismic risk due to proximity to the San Andreas and Hayward faults.
• Wildfire: Increasing risk in the surrounding hills and mountains.
• Drought: Persistent, long-term risk affecting water and power resources.
• Riverine Flooding: Moderate risk in low-lying areas.
• Heatwave: A growing concern that can strain power grid resources.
• Landslide: Risk in hilly and coastal areas, often triggered by seismic activity or heavy rain.