Hyperscale Data Center Leasing Shatters Records in Q3 2025, Fueled by AI Demand Surge

Unprecedented Leasing Activity

The demand for data center capacity in the United States reached a historic peak in the third quarter of 2025, according to reports from financial services firm TD Cowen. Analysts suggest that more capacity was leased by hyperscale data center users in Q3 alone than in the entirety of 2024. The report states that a record 7.4 gigawatts (GW) of power capacity was leased in this single quarter, bringing the cumulative total for 2025 to approximately 11.3GW. This marks a significant 4GW increase compared to the 7GW leased throughout the whole of 2024.

Unprecedented Leasing Activity
Quarterly Surge and Market Dynamics
Oracle and OpenAI Lead the Charge
Broad-Based Hyperscale Demand
A Historic Inflection Point

Quarterly Surge and Market Dynamics

The scale of the Q3 surge becomes even more apparent when viewed quarter-over-quarter. Sources indicate that just 2GW of capacity was leased in Q2 2025, making the jump to 7.4GW in Q3 a dramatic acceleration. The active leasing pipeline in the US is reportedly around 10.2GW, signaling that this heightened level of activity may continue. This resurgence follows a reported slowdown in early 2025, during which some major players like Amazon and Microsoft had delayed or canceled projects, though they downplayed a broader negative market shift.

Oracle and OpenAI Lead the Charge

Oracle emerged as the dominant force in the quarter, accounting for a massive portion of the leased capacity. According to the analysis, Oracle leased a total of 5.4GW across multiple sites in Q3 2025. Analysts suggest that the majority of this capacity is intended to support workloads for artificial intelligence leader OpenAI, with whom Oracle recently announced a further $300 billion cloud deal.

Broad-Based Hyperscale Demand

While Oracle and OpenAI were the primary drivers, the report states that demand was notably broad-based. Analysts at TD Cowen highlighted significantly increased activity from other tech giants:

Google: Reportedly now negotiating for gigawatt-scale leases and was the second-largest lessor in Q3 with 600MW.
Meta: Said to be negotiating large-scale projects beyond its established site in Louisiana.
Anthropic: Actively working on its own gigawatt-scale projects separate from its partnerships with Amazon and Google, leasing 528MW in Q3.
Microsoft: Leasing in support of external GPU customers and ramping cloud demand.
Amazon: Scaling up its own infrastructure initiative, known as Project Rainier.

A Historic Inflection Point

Michael Elias, a senior equity research analyst at TD Cowen, characterized the quarter as a watershed moment. “Based on our checks, Q3 2025 would represent the largest inflection in demand we have seen since the inception of the data center industry,” he stated. This surge underscores the immense computational power required by the rapidly advancing field of artificial intelligence, which is now a primary catalyst for infrastructure expansion among the world’s largest technology companies.