Data Centers in North Carolina

North Carolina – Resilient Infrastructure and Strategic Value

Executive Summary

North Carolina is the primary destination for enterprises requiring large-scale colocation and high uptime without the premium pricing of Northern markets. The state provides a rare combination of low natural disaster risk, aggressive tax incentives, and a resilient energy grid, making it a strategic choice for primary compute and regional disaster recovery.

North Carolina: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality: The market features a healthy ecosystem with over 28 carriers as of September 2025. This density ensures competitive pricing for IP transit and transport across the Charlotte and Raleigh–Durham corridors, supporting a wide range of interconnection requirements.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps: There is at least 1 direct connection point in the state, enabling access to 1 cloud regions as of September 2025. For specialized cloud services, organizations typically utilize low-latency private extensions to reach major peering hubs in nearby markets.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): Local traffic exchange is managed through regional exchanges in Charlotte and the Research Triangle. These points facilitate local peering to reduce latency for Southeast users and improve overall performance for content delivery.

Bare Metal: High-performance compute requirements are well-supported through providers such as Hivelocity and Latitude.sh. These services offer rapid deployment of dedicated hardware for workloads that demand more than traditional virtualized environments can provide.

Power Analysis

Average Cost Of Power: Industrial electricity in North Carolina ranges from $0.07 – $0.09/kWh, as of September 2025. This pricing provides substantial operational savings compared to the Northeast or West Coast. The generation mix is diverse, featuring roughly 33% nuclear and 42% natural gas, ensuring a steady supply for high-density deployments.

Power Grid Reliability: The regional grid is well-engineered, featuring redundant transmission paths and multi-substation support for major data center clusters. Reliability remains high due to consistent utility investment in the state’s industrial corridors, minimizing the risk of large-scale outages.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Proximity To Key Business Districts: Data centers are concentrated near the Research Triangle Park and the Charlotte financial district. This positioning provides direct access to high-growth technology, healthcare, and banking sectors that require low-latency connectivity for core operations and secure data handling.

Regional Market Reach: From North Carolina, service providers can effectively reach the entire Southeast and Mid-Atlantic populations. This central position makes the state an ideal location for serving millions of end-users with minimal hop counts to major metros.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers: North Carolina offers significant financial benefits through sales and use tax exemptions on electricity and critical equipment. These measures help operators and tenants lower their total cost of ownership for long-term infrastructure projects without meeting unattainable investment hurdles.

Natural Disaster Risk

Risk Score: Low (14.70/100) as of September 2025. North Carolina is one of the safest regions in the Eastern United States for critical infrastructure. While the overall score is very low, site selection accounts for specific regional factors to ensure maximum uptime.

• Hurricanes: Moderate risk, primarily affecting coastal areas; inland sites face indirect wind and rain impacts.
• Strong Wind: Frequent during seasonal transitions but typically within standard building tolerances for modern facilities.
• Tornadoes: Occasional activity requiring hardened facility designs, which are standard for local Tier III data centers.
• Ice Storms: Winter weather can impact local power distribution, though sites manage this with on-site generation and fuel reserves.
• River Flooding: Site-specific risk that is easily managed by selecting locations outside of active floodplains.

Other hazards such as earthquakes and wildfires are considered minor or not significant threats to facility operations.