Data centers in Illinois are significantly expanding the state's data center market, driven by hyperscale demand, cloud expansion, and the state’s tax incentives. The Data Center Investment Program (the “Program”) is an incentive offered by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. It is a program designed to attract the construction of large-scale data centers in Illinois through a variety of sales and use tax exemptions.

Some of the upcoming data centers are the T5 Chicago IV Data Center in Grayslake, the Equinix Minooka Data Center, the T5 Chicago III campus expansion, and the Edged Chicago Data Center. Below is a detailed list of upcoming data centers in Illinois in 2025.

List of Upcoming Data Centers in Illinois 2025

T5 Chicago IV Data Center (Grayslake)

The T5 Chicago IV Data Center in Grayslake is an AI-ready data center campus designed to deliver 1.2 GW of IT capacity supported by 1.6 GW of secured utility power. The project will span 450+ acres and is planned with different building sizes from 100-400 MW.

The T5 Chicago IV will feature high power densities and liquid cooling equipped with N+1 or 2N options. Phase one (expected 480 MW) is anticipated for delivery by 2027. The data center will meet the needs of hyperscale and commercial cloud providers. 

Equinix Minooka Data Center

Minooka Data Center is proposed by Equinix near Ridge/Holt Road. Back in December 2024, the Village Board approved building a "Data Center District" zoning, and in September 2025, Equinix held an open house for the residents discussing the proposed 300-acre data center details. 

With around 300 acres of farmland, a rezoning ordinance was issued in November 2024. The project is currently in the initial stage, with many details undisclosed. The data center will feature an air-cooling system with closed-loop water cooling for the data center, while The land clearing is expected to begin at the end of 2025, with the main construction expected to begin in 2027, with commissioning is expected by 2031.

CyrusOne CHI1-CHI3

The CyrusOne CHI1-CHI3 is a 109 MW data center spanning 450,000 sq. ft in the Aurora Campus, Chicago. The campus consists of three buildings, namely, CHI1, CHI2, and CHI3 on the campus. The CHI1 is a greenfield building with power and cooling equipment, and CHI2 will host CME Group’s trading platform, one of the world’s biggest financial exchanges. Both CHI 1 and CHI2 became operational in 2016.

The campus will have an air-cooled chiller plant with 800 tons at N+2 per data hall and will feature 17 kW per cabinet capacity. The project CHI3 broke ground in September 2024 with plans to initially deliver 40 MW with scalable capacity. This new data center is part of CyrusOne's broader investment strategy, selecting Illinois to expand its portfolio, with total capital investments in the state exceeding USD 1 billion. 

T5 Chicago III Data Center

The T5 Chicago III data center is a 36 MW data center announced by T5 Data Centers back in October 2023. The data center will be located at 11650 W Grand Ave, Northlake, Illinois. The data center facility in the Chicago region spans approximately 250,000 sq ft (23,000 m²).  

The data center will be a build-to-suit three-story data center with an investment of USD 500 million and will feature N+1 or 2N configurations with air and liquid cooling systems. The T5 Chicago III broke ground in Q4 of 2024. Owned by T5 Data Centers, the T5 Chicago III is being built by Clune Construction. The project achieved its top-out in May 2025 and is expected to be live in 2027.

Edged Chicago Data Center

*Edged Chicago Data Center campus layout

Edged Energy US is building its second data center in the Aurora campus in Chicago with a PUE of 1.15. The data center will be located at 2835 Bilter Road, spanning 65+ acres, and will be built for high-density AI workloads. The Edged Chicago Data Center includes three data centers planned with a total capacity of 96 MW. 

The first data center, ORDO1-1, is a 24 MW two-story data center that became operational on 27th February 2025. The ORD01-2 is a 72 MW single-story data center that broke ground on 18th November 2025. The ORD01-2 can be split into two facilities, as announced by Edged Energy. 

The data center will feature two loading dock bays per facility with multiple fibre providers, four diverse points of entry, and a Tier III design. The data center will have an on-site substation to service on full buildout, with battery backup supporting UPS N+1 and generators. The Edged Chicago Data Center will use Glycol heat transfer with rooftop air-cooled chillers and closed-loop evaporators to provide secondary cooling. The ORD01-2 is expected to go live by Q2 2027.

Conclusion

Illinois continues to strengthen its position as a major data center hub in the United States, with projects such as the T5 Chicago IV Data Center in Grayslake, Equinix Minooka Data Center, T5 Chicago III, and the Edged Chicago Data Center.

Illinois has numerous data centers, with Chicago being the largest hub, followed by cities like Aurora, Elk Grove Village, and Des Plaines. As the state continues to support advanced workloads, scalable colocation services, and next-generation connectivity, Illinois remains firmly positioned as one of the most strategic destinations for future development in the United States.

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