Who Really Owns California's Data Centers? The Names Behind the Power Grab

Who Really Owns California's Data Centers?
The Names Behind the Power Grab
California is home to at least 287 data centers, and that number keeps climbing. But who actually owns them? The answer includes some of the biggest names in technology and real estate, along with companies most homeowners have never heard of.

The data center landlords
The largest group is colocation companies, which build data centers and rent space and power to many tenants. In California, that includes Digital Realty with about 15 listed sites, Equinix with about 12, and CoreSite with about 11, along with Vantage Data Centers, Stack Infrastructure, NTT and CyrusOne.

Big tech building its own
Some tech giants build and operate their own facilities. Microsoft is planning a 99-megawatt campus in San Jose, roughly 108,400 homes' worth of electricity at full power. Amazon Web Services operates a 39-megawatt facility in Santa Clara and a 49-megawatt facility in Hayward, together about 96,400 homes' worth.

Real estate developers
Prologis, one of the world's largest logistics real estate companies, has four planned Santa Clara data centers at 99 megawatts each. That is 396 megawatts in total, about 433,600 homes' worth of electricity.

Telecom networks
Telecom companies like Cogent and Tata run smaller network hubs that keep internet traffic flowing between cities and data centers.

Where they are
Santa Clara leads with 44 listed data centers, followed by Los Angeles with 19, San Francisco and San Diego with 12 each, and San Jose with 10. In Santa Clara, data centers now use about 60 percent of the city utility's electricity. All of these figures assume full power at 8,000 kilowatt-hours per home per year. Actual use is often somewhat lower, but data centers run around the clock.

What this means for homeowners
These companies are competing for the same grid that powers your home. Data center developers have asked PG&E alone for about 15,000 megawatts. When the grid has to grow to meet that demand, the costs of new lines and substations tend to show up in rates over time.

Choosing your side of the meter
As AI drives demand higher, homeowners can stay on the buying side or move to the supply side. Homes with solar and batteries produce their own power, use stored energy during expensive evening hours, and send extra electricity back to the grid for compensation. Some homeowners do not love supplying a grid that serves these companies. But it is better than competing with them as a customer. Qualifying homeowners can get solar and battery storage through third-party ownership programs without buying or financing equipment. And with SB 913, California is developing a method to value battery power sent to the grid during high demand.

The takeaway
The names behind California's data centers are planning for decades of growth. Homeowners can plan too, with savings that can reach up to 40 percent compared with utility rates, depending on the home and program.

To find out if your home qualifies for a TPO solar and battery program, visit myhomesolution.org/california_public_utility_commissions