Data Centers in Wisconsin

Wisconsin – Resilience for the American Midwest

Executive Summary

Wisconsin serves as a primary alternative for enterprises requiring Midwest stability without the premium costs of Tier-1 markets. It pairs a dependable power grid with aggressive tax incentives to provide a secure environment for disaster recovery and regional edge deployments. Choosing Wisconsin ensures high uptime and significant capital savings for performance-critical workloads.

Wisconsin: At A Glance

Network & Connectivity Ecosystem

The connectivity landscape in Wisconsin is built for regional stability and efficient traffic management. It provides a clean, lower-latency path to the broader Midwest.

Carrier Density & Carrier Neutrality: Carrier count: over 12. The market features approximately 15–20 carriers as of September 2025. Major facilities in Madison and Milwaukee maintain neutral environments. This allows for competitive transit pricing and diverse pathing options for redundancy.

Direct Cloud On-Ramps: Over 0, enabling access to 0 cloud regions as of September 2025. While local sites do not host direct on-ramps for AWS, Google Cloud (GCP), or Microsoft Azure, enterprises utilize private transport or high-speed waves to Chicago. This provides a reliable link to the nearest primary cloud gateway.

Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): Peering is largely managed through the Madison Internet Exchange (MAD-IX). This exchange improves local traffic efficiency by keeping data within regional borders and reducing reliance on distant hubs.

Bare Metal: General availability is confirmed across major facilities as of September 2025. Reliable services are provided by industry leaders such as Hivelocity and phoenixNAP.

Power Analysis

Power availability is a fundamental advantage for the Wisconsin market. It is characterized by regional stability and industrial-scale capacity.

Average Cost Of Power: Industrial electricity ranges from $0.07 – $0.11/kWh, as of September 2025. These rates are well-suited for high-density compute applications. Lower energy costs directly improve the bottom line for power-hungry AI and analytics workloads.

Power Grid Reliability: The local grid is well-engineered with redundant, multi-substation support in major data center corridors. This ensures high levels of availability for mission-critical financial and healthcare operations.

Market Access, Business & Tax Climate

Wisconsin provides a favorable business environment for digital infrastructure. It is a strategic choice for organizations serving the broader Midwest.

Proximity To Key Business Districts: Data centers are centrally located near the Madison and Milwaukee metro areas. This provides low-latency access to major clusters in the insurance, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing sectors.

Regional Market Reach: From its central position, Wisconsin effectively serves a population base spanning the Upper Midwest. This includes rapid access to users in Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa.

Tax Advantage For Data Centers: Wisconsin offers a specific sales and use tax exemption for equipment and software used in qualified data center environments. This incentive significantly reduces the initial capital expenditure for new deployments and ongoing hardware refreshes.

Natural Disaster Risk

Wisconsin carries a Moderate (60.48/100) risk profile as of September 2025. The environment is generally stable, lacking the high-impact seismic or coastal threats found in many Tier-1 markets.

The primary natural hazards affecting local infrastructure include:

• Tornadoes
• Ice Storms and Winter Weather
• River Flooding
• Heat Waves
• Severe Thunderstorms and Hail

Infrastructure is hardened against these regional weather patterns through purpose-built cooling systems and reinforced structures. Due to its inland geography, coastal flood and tsunami risks are not material to this market.