Data Centers in Portland

Portland – West Coast Hub for Resilient Infrastructure

Portland is a primary data center market for enterprises seeking a strategic West Coast presence outside of California. The region's combination of robust connectivity, significant tax advantages, and a power grid rich in renewables delivers a compelling platform for high-performance, cost-effective digital infrastructure. For businesses prioritizing uptime and a lower total cost of ownership, Portland is a first-class option.

Portland: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

Portland has a dense and diverse connectivity ecosystem, serving as a key traffic exchange point for the Pacific Northwest and a strategic link between the US and Asia-Pacific.

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality The market is served by over 35 unique network carriers as of September 2025. Most of the 40 colocation facilities are carrier-neutral, offering extensive choice for building resilient, multi-homed network architectures.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps Over 4 dedicated on-ramps provide low-latency access to 3 major cloud regions as of September 2025. Direct connectivity is available to major hyperscalers, including:

• AWS
• Google Cloud (GCP)

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) The Northwest Access Exchange (NWAX) is the primary public peering point in the region. NWAX facilitates efficient, low-cost traffic exchange between carriers, content providers, and enterprises, reducing latency for regional users.

Bare Metal Bare metal server providers are readily available in Portland, offering dedicated compute for performance-sensitive workloads. Providers such as Hivelocity and phoenixNAP have a presence in the market.

Power Analysis

Average Cost Of Power Industrial power costs in the Portland market typically range from $0.07 to $0.09 per kWh as of September 2025. This rate, among the lowest on the West Coast, is driven by a grid dominated by inexpensive hydroelectric generation. These favorable power costs directly reduce the operational expense of running compute-intensive infrastructure.

Power Grid Reliability The regional power grid benefits from significant investment and a generation mix heavily weighted toward stable, renewable sources. Major data center corridors, particularly in Hillsboro, are supported by redundant substations and well-engineered distribution networks designed for high availability.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Proximity To Key Business Districts Portland’s data centers are concentrated in Hillsboro, the heart of the region's "Silicon Forest." This places critical infrastructure adjacent to major semiconductor and technology firms, enabling low-latency compute for research, development, and manufacturing operations.

Regional Market Reach From Portland, organizations can effectively serve the entire Pacific Northwest, including the metropolitan areas of Seattle, Portland, and Boise. It is also an ideal disaster recovery location for businesses with a primary footprint in more seismically active or expensive California markets.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers Oregon's Strategic Investment Program (SIP) offers a 15-year property tax abatement for qualifying data center projects, creating massive long-term savings. This incentive, combined with the state's 0.00% sales tax on equipment purchases, provides one of the most financially attractive environments for data center investment in the United States.

Natural Disaster Risk

Portland has a high natural disaster risk profile, scoring in the 89th percentile nationally according to federal assessments as of September 2025. While the overall risk is elevated, it is concentrated in specific, well-understood hazards.

Facility planning and site selection are critical to mitigate the primary risks, which include Earthquake, Volcanic Activity, Wildfire, and severe Winter Weather. Modern data centers in the region are purpose-built to seismic codes that exceed standard commercial construction requirements, ensuring infrastructure resilience.