Illinois index · last changed 12 October 2026

Illinois data centers: what the public record shows.

Selected source-linked records are published below. This is not a complete inventory of Illinois data centers.

12 sourced policy records for Illinois ↓Facility register: 118 records · by county →3 published DataCenterData records · evidence status shown per row72 licensed directory leads · not independently verifiedThese counts overlap and are not added together

Explore Illinois

Map, listings and checked facts.

Start with 72 licensed source leads, then inspect the separate public-evidence layer below. Licensed rows are not independently verified and are not a statewide census.

Illinois map

Reported locations in Illinois

72 licensed rows · 32 source localities · 2 map targets

Open interactive map
IL67 licensed rows in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN Metro Area · 27 source locality labels · opens the Illinois interactive map675 licensed rows in the Clarksdale area · 5 source locality labels · opens the Illinois interactive map5
Source-reported points; some are approximate. Not parcel boundaries. Exact Approximate or representative Bounded nearby groupA number on a marker is the count of licensed rows it holds.Licensed layer only (Compute Atlas, source data through 14 October 2026). The interactive map lists 140 data-center source listings here across licensed, operator and DataCenterData layers (82 with a map point); 172 with government registry records. Source listings are not distinct sites.
Browse 2 mapped areas as links
Map sources and method

The state outline is adapted from the U.S. Census Bureau 2025 cartographic boundary file. Facility coordinates are adapted from Compute Atlas by Edward Kubiak, edition 1.34.1, under CC BY 4.0. Outline and markers use one geographic projection before any explicitly disclosed readability offset. Exact singleton source anchors are never moved. A one-kilometre boundary tolerance prevents the simplified 1:20,000,000 outline from hiding legitimate border-area source points; farther conflicts are disclosed, not clamped. DataCenterData groups source-reported city coordinates only within a bounded map radius; the outline does not validate a facility record. Some locations in this layer are reported by the provider as derived from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL, https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright) and Epoch AI (CC BY 4.0).

72 licensed rows31 reported city labels45 eligible organization labels
37source-reported operational15source-reported under construction10source-reported proposed6source-reported permitted4source-reported cancelled

Browse all 72 rows below. Licensed rows are not independently verified and remain separate from the checked public-evidence layer.

Official metro areasChicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN 92 mapped listings (all states, all layers)St. Louis, MO-IL 12 mapped listings (all states, all layers)Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL 3 mapped listings (all states, all layers)Paducah, KY-IL 1 mapped listing (all states, all layers)Peoria, IL 1 mapped listingRockford, IL 1 mapped listingSpringfield, IL 1 mapped listingChampaign-Urbana, IL 1 mapped listing
Elk Grove Village 15Chicago 12Northlake 5Franklin Park 3Wood Dale 3Yorkville 3Aurora 2Hoffman Estates 2Itasca 2Mount Prospect 2Plano 2Barrington Hills 1
Counties in the facility registerChristian 1Cook 39DeKalb 1DuPage 9Grundy 3Kane 3Kendall 6Lake 2Logan 1Madison 1Ogle 1Sangamon 1Tazewell 1Will 1
Digital Realty 8Aligned Data Centers 4CyrusOne 4Microsoft 4Equinix 3Stream Data Centers 3T5 Data Centers 3Centersquare (Csquare) 2
  1. Aligned Coal City Campus

    Aligned Data Centers

    Coal City · Grundy County · Illinois

    source-reported proposedCapacity not statedSource updated 12 September 2026approximate location
    View lead →Facility record →dcd-dir-000033
  2. Aligned ORD-01

    Aligned Data Centers

    505 Northwest Ave · Northlake · Cook County · Illinois · 60164

    source-reported operationalReported operational 48 MWSource updated 15 October 2026exact location (provider label)
    View lead →Facility record →dcd-dir-000042
Browse all 72 rowsFind sourced answers about IllinoisSearch all evidence for Illinois

Separate layer

Also listed by operators

Sites that operators list on their own websites and that are not rows in the licensed directory above. They are kept apart and never added to the licensed rows.

31 operator-listed sites (mixed units; not added to licensed rows) in Illinois →

22 of these sites have no supported coordinate. The map does not invent a pin or a metro placement for them.

Illinois evidence at a glance

A few checked sites

Selected public evidence, not a statewide census. Each row shows whether it is independently source-linked, attributed, or unresolved; licensed leads remain separate.

Published project / campus
2
Published facility / building
1
Attributed or unresolved rows
0
Licensed directory leads
72 not independently verified
Capacity boundary stated
0 of 3 published DataCenterData rows
Review timing
Audit through 17 September 2026 · next 16 March 2027
Known coverage gap

The report does not name the single withdrawn or denied applicant, so that lifecycle record could not be turned into a research lead.

Browse all 72 Illinois licensed leads → · Why these counts differ →

Projects and Operating facilities

2 project records · 1 operating facility record. Names are as they appear on each record page.

Projects and Operating facilities published for Illinois
Record / rolesStatusCapacity / scalePrimary evidence
Project Cardinal Data Center Campus approvedproject UnknownNo independently supported figureNo primary-source critical IT, utility-service or measured-load figure was established. Project Cardinal Data Center Campus — annexation, rezoning and PUD →Gov. record
Colovore LLC Aurora data center proposedproject · Illinois EPA application notice dated 14 August 2025, BOA 043407AEM / application 25070018; proposed status only. UnknownNo independently supported figure Illinois EPA, Office of Environmental Justice →Gov. record
Microsoft Corp-Chicago Data Center operatingoperating facility · Status is as of 2024-08-05 and is not a statement about the present: the letter records that the Illinois EPA had received an application to renew Federally Enforceable State Operating Permit 09070018, that the application was 'not requesting changes to the facility or operation', that it was then 'currently under review by the BOA', and that 'This is a computer server facility.'
Full status noteIllinois EPA, Office of Environmental Justice; Illinois EPA EJ notification letter dated August 5, 2024, BOA ID# 031807AAN, body paragraphs 2-3; document date 2024-08-05. Status is as of 2024-08-05 and is not a statement about the present: the letter records that the Illinois EPA had received an application to renew Federally Enforceable State Operating Permit 09070018, that the application was 'not requesting changes to the facility or operation', that it was then 'currently under review by the BOA', and that 'This is a computer server facility.'
 UnknownNo independently supported figure Illinois EPA, Office of Environmental Justice →Gov. record

Where the records were checked

Statewide audit pending

A few checked sites

This is not a list of every data center in the state, and the number here is not a count of them. There are almost certainly more.

Statewide coverage is not complete. The records below are sourced; a full statewide count has not been published.

State research audit window ended 17 September 2026. Individual records and claims below show their own evidence dates and may be newer.

Next scheduled coverage review: 16 March 2027.

2 independently source-linked project/campus records; 1 independently source-linked facility/building record; 0 attributed or unresolved rows. These counts use different units and must not be added together.

Source families checked, selected records and remaining gaps

These notes name selected records, say which kinds of public evidence were checked and show what remains missing. They do not add anything to the published counts.

  • Economic development incentives — Checked
    • The report does not name the single withdrawn or denied applicant, so that lifecycle record could not be turned into a research lead.
    • The report gives municipalities only, not street addresses or parcels, except in the five 2025 amendments.
    • Tenant exemption certificates (91 issued) are counted but not itemised, so tenants are invisible.
    • Earlier annual reports (2022-2024) were not yet reviewed directly, so entities that left the programme between reports were not checked.

    Selected records

  • Utility commission and large-load records — Checked
    • Individual ComEd large-load customer studies and applications are not public in the documents read, so no project-level utility request megawatt figure was obtained for any Illinois research lead.
    • Ameren Illinois large-load filings were not searched.
    • The e-Docket system was not searched item by item; only the consolidated proposed order was read.

    Selected records

  • Environmental and construction permits — Partly checked
    • The EJ notification-letter HTML index is still JavaScript-rendered; the JSON table was later opened and is cited only for the Colovore Aurora row.
    • Only permits in environmental justice areas of concern generate these letters, so data centres outside such areas are systematically missing from this family.
    • No water withdrawal, discharge or stormwater construction permit notices were searched.
    • No permits were found or searched for the Channahon, Joliet, DeKalb, Yorkville, Grayslake or Sangamon County sites.

    Selected records

  • Local planning, assessor and map records — Partly checked
    • City of Joliet could not be retrieved during review, so the Joliet Technology Center annexation is carried as a dataset-only lead.
    • cityofdekalb.com did not respond during review and then refused connections, so the DeKalb development projects list and the Goldframe ordinances were not read.
    • elkgrove.org and the Elk Grove Village code library could not be retrieved during review, so no Elk Grove Village ordinance or redevelopment agreement is cited even though the village holds the largest concentration of Illinois data centre incentive recipients.
    • No county assessor or GIS parcel portal was queried for any Illinois county, so no parcel identifier appears anywhere in the current research record.
    • A Channahon search returned only solar business; no Channahon data centre case was located.

    Selected records

  • Tax abatements and development agreements — Partly checked
    • The Elk Grove Village announcement could not be retrieved during review, so no agreement is cited.
    • The Yorkville development and utility agreements were listed on the project page but their documents were not yet reviewed directly.
    • No PILOT, enterprise zone or property tax abatement instrument was retrieved for any Illinois site.
  • Operator disclosures — Partly checked
    • Microsoft, Oracle, Equinix, Digital Realty, CyrusOne, STACK, Stream, QTS, CoreSite, NTT, EdgeConneX, Iron Mountain, Serverfarm and Prime location pages were not yet reviewed directly, so most incentive recipients have no operator-side address.
    • Amazon Web Services, Google and Apple Illinois disclosures were not checked at all.
    • No colocation operator inventory was built for Chicago.

    Selected records

  • Open datasets and directories — Checked
    • No unlicensed directory such as Data Center Map, Baxtel or datacenters.com was used, so no cross-reference of colocation facility counts was attempted.
    • Roughly three quarters of the Compute Atlas Illinois records, mostly operating Chicago-area colocation facilities, were left as unexamined leads because no primary record could be attached to them in the current review.

    Selected records

  • Closures, withdrawals and former names — Partly checked
    • The single withdrawn or denied Data Center Investment Program application is unnamed in the report and was not traced.
    • No systematic search of denied or expired municipal cases was done; only one withdrawal search was run.
    • No closed or demolished Illinois data centre was searched for.

    Selected records

  • News and other discovery — Partly checked
    • No systematic Illinois news sweep was performed; trade coverage of the Chicago colocation market was not reviewed.

    Selected records

Local evidence by place

Licensed and operator listings, reviewed records, answers and local policy for each place. Listings overlap and are not added; a place without a line here has no published local evidence.

No local evidence answer, reviewed record or local policy record is published for Barrington Hills, Elk Grove Village, Franklin Park, Hoffman Estates, Itasca, Mount Prospect, Plano, Wood Dale. Their listings above are source listings to investigate. No statewide evidence answer is published for Illinois either; statewide rules are under Policy tracker below.

1 Illinois answer is not tied to a published record, so it is not placed here: Illinois answers.

Policy tracker

Illinois policy records

12 sourced records are associated with this state context. They are grouped below as current, pending and nonbinding, and history, and each card shows its relevant date. These are not facility counts and do not cover every locality.

Current 8 records

Recorded as in effect on the dataset date. This does not mean every project in a represented state is restricted or approved.

Statewide permit or approval pause

Stop in processing data center incentive applications

In effect · Illinois · State

Effective: 1 July 2026

Issuing authority: Governor of Illinois (directive carried out by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity)

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity says that, under a directive the Governor gave on 5 June 2026, it no longer processes applications for the Data Center Investment incentive program as of 1 July 2026.

Read the sourced record · Primary source

Reporting or resource-use requirement · Aurora only (local rule)

Aurora: data center performance, reporting and privacy code chapters (File 26-0092)

In effect · City of Aurora, Illinois · Local

Last checked: 3 November 2026

Issuing authority: Aurora City Council

On 24 March 2026 the Aurora City Council adopted an ordinance adding two chapters to the city code: Chapter 50, the Aurora Responsible Data Center Ordinance, and Chapter 51, the Data Center Privacy Protection Ordinance.

Read the sourced record · Primary source

Pending or nonbinding 4 records

Adopted measures with unverified effect, adopted future measures, open proceedings, proposals, drafts and nonbinding context stay separate from current rules.

Legislation introduced (any outcome)

House Bill 5513 on hyperscale data centers (pending)

Proposed · Illinois · State

Last checked: 23 September 2026

Issuing authority: Illinois General Assembly

Illinois House Bill 5513, filed on 6 February 2026, proposes the same environmental, water and energy requirements for hyperscale data centers as Senate Bill 4016, according to the synopsis on the General Assembly's bill-status page.

Read the sourced record · Primary source

Federal and multistate

Federal and multistate instruments that cover all or part of Illinois

These federal, reliability-organization and multistate grid or utility instruments are stored once and listed for every jurisdiction they name. They do not add to the record count, in-effect total or map shading for Illinois. Territorial coverage does not establish that an instrument applies to any particular site, utility or project.

Reporting or resource-use requirement · Listed coverage: part of Illinois

PJM: Large Load definition and registry accepted by FERC; capacity and curtailment rules rejected (ER26-3515)

In effect · PJM region (multistate) · Regional grid

Effective: 12 October 2026

Issuing authority: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

On 9 October 2026 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accepted, effective 12 October 2026, PJM's definition of a Large Load at a cumulative peak of 50 MW and a Large Load Registry that requires load-serving entities to report on the Large Loads they serve, which the order says covers all such loads regardless of in-service date.

Read the sourced record · Primary source

Open the Illinois policy comparison

Review dates: the 12 Illinois records were last checked 23 September 2026 to 3 November 2026. 8 scheduled reviews are overdue as of the tracker date 3 November 2026: Data Center Investment program tax exemptions and credits, Public Act 104-0468 amendment to the data center investment section, Emission standards for data center backup generator permits, Data Center Investment Program administrative rules (14 Ill. Adm. Code 521), Aurora: data center facility conditional use and performance standards (File 26-0112) (last checked 23 September 2026, review due 23 October 2026); City of Chicago: proposed zoning rules for electronic data storage centers (last checked 1 October 2026, review due 29 October 2026); House Bill 5513 on hyperscale data centers (pending), Senate Bill 4016 on hyperscale data centers (pending) (last checked 23 September 2026, review due 28 October 2026). Overdue means not re-read yet, not changed. No single record, and not this list, establishes complete statewide policy coverage.

Public statements

Public statements about Illinois

A linked, archived, or paraphrased social post is not itself proof. This assessment is not a Claims & facts verdict.

Browse all public statements →