Why is Utah a growing data center market?
Five structural factors: low industrial power rates, sales tax exemptions on data center equipment, cool dry climate enabling free cooling, central US position equidistant from coastal markets, and lower seismic/disaster risk than California. The result: hyperscalers and enterprises are deploying significant capacity in West Jordan, Bluffdale and surrounding cities. Novva alone is building 1.5M sq ft across four buildings by 2026.
Where are Utah's data centers concentrated?
Three main clusters: (1) West Jordan — the largest cluster, anchored by Novva (6477 W Wells Park Rd) and Aligned's 55-acre campus (SLC-01, SLC-02, SLC-03), (2) Bluffdale — DataBank's SLC6 facility on the Granite Point Campus, federal-adjacent, (3) West Valley City — Aligned's SLC-04 expansion site. The corridor running south from SLC airport into Salt Lake County contains most of the state's enterprise capacity.
What is Novva and why do they matter?
Novva Data Centers operates Utah's flagship hyperscale campus at 6477 W Wells Park Rd, West Jordan — 100 acres, 1.5M sq ft of purpose-built data center space. In March 2025 they secured $2B in financing to complete the campus, adding two more buildings with 144 MW of capacity. The four-building campus is on track for completion in 2026. Novva is one of the largest single-site data center campuses in the western US.
Is Utah good for AI / GPU workloads?
Yes — particularly for cost-sensitive AI training. Aligned's SLC-03 (80 MW with $600M Blackstone financing) was specifically built for AI density. Novva's expansion supports liquid cooling and high-density racks. Combined with Utah's low power costs and tax incentives, the per-GPU-hour economics are significantly better than California or Texas for many AI workloads where latency to coastal markets isn't critical.
What about Utah's federal / NSA reputation?
Utah hosts the NSA's Bluffdale facility (Utah Data Center, the "Bumblehive"). This has driven federal-adjacent ecosystem development — strong fibre paths, security clearances available in the labour pool, and FedRAMP-aligned commercial colocation. DataBank's SLC6 in particular sits in this corridor and serves federal-adjacent commercial tenants.
How does Utah compare to Phoenix or Denver?
Phoenix has hotter summers (more cooling cost) and higher power rates. Denver has higher labour costs. Utah typically offers the best blended TCO for enterprise tenants who want a Mountain West presence. For DR/BCP from California-headquartered enterprises, Utah is often the preferred secondary site.
How do I get a Utah enterprise colocation quote?
Take the free 2-minute assessment to specify cabinet count, power density, location preference (West Jordan vs Bluffdale), compliance needs (FedRAMP, HIPAA, SOC 2) and timeline. We'll match you with capacity across Novva, Aligned, DataBank and other Utah operators — surfacing TCO comparisons including power cost differential and tax incentive impact.