Best Data Centers in New Jersey (2026)

New Jersey is one of the most critical data center markets in the United States. Positioned directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan, NJ offers the connectivity advantages of New York City with significantly lower real estate costs, favorable tax incentives, and access to major submarine cable landing points. For enterprises running AI workloads, financial services firms requiring ultra-low latency, and cloud providers expanding their East Coast presence, New Jersey delivers an unmatched combination of location, power, and network density.

Why New Jersey for Data Centers?

New Jersey's data center ecosystem has grown dramatically over the past decade, and 2026 represents a particularly exciting moment for the market. Several factors make NJ a top-tier choice for colocation and AI infrastructure:

• Proximity to NYC financial markets: Sub-millisecond latency to Wall Street trading floors. Major exchanges including NYSE, NASDAQ, and CBOE have infrastructure in NJ facilities. High-frequency trading firms cluster in Secaucus, Carteret, and Mahwah specifically for this proximity.
• Submarine cable access: Multiple transatlantic and domestic submarine cables land in New Jersey, including those connecting to Europe, South America, and other US coastal markets. This makes NJ a critical interconnection point for global networks.
• Tax incentives: New Jersey's Emerge program and Urban Enterprise Zone benefits offer significant sales tax exemptions on data center equipment. The state has actively courted data center operators with competitive incentive packages since 2020.
• Power infrastructure: PSE&G and other utilities have invested heavily in grid capacity to support data center loads. While not as cheap as Virginia or Texas power, NJ offers reliable grid access with multiple redundant feeds available in key corridors.
• Talent pool: Access to one of the largest technology talent pools in the country, spanning the NYC metro area, Princeton corridor, and central NJ tech hubs.

Key New Jersey Data Center Markets

Northern NJ Corridor (Newark, Secaucus, Jersey City)

The northern NJ corridor is the densest concentration of data centers in the state. Newark alone hosts facilities from Equinix, Digital Realty, CoreSite, and numerous smaller operators. This area benefits from direct fiber connections to Manhattan's 60 Hudson Street and 111 8th Avenue — two of the most important carrier hotels in the world. Secaucus has become a major hub for financial services infrastructure, while Jersey City offers newer builds with modern power and cooling designed for high-density AI workloads.

Central NJ (Piscataway, Edison, Somerset)

Central New Jersey has emerged as a growth corridor for data centers seeking larger footprints at lower costs. Piscataway in particular has attracted QTS, CyrusOne (now Brookfield), and others who need campus-scale deployments. The area offers excellent fiber connectivity via the NJ Turnpike corridor, abundant land for expansion, and competitive power rates compared to northern NJ. For AI infrastructure deployments that need significant power density but don't require sub-millisecond NYC latency, central NJ is increasingly attractive.

Southern NJ (Cherry Hill, Camden)

While smaller than the northern and central markets, southern NJ serves the Philadelphia metro area and offers the lowest real estate costs in the state. Operators here benefit from proximity to Philadelphia's financial and healthcare sectors while maintaining NJ's favorable data center tax treatment.

Top Data Center Facilities in New Jersey

AI Infrastructure in New Jersey

New Jersey is rapidly becoming a hub for AI infrastructure deployment. The combination of dense connectivity, proximity to major cloud regions (AWS us-east-1 is largely in Virginia but with NJ points of presence), and growing power availability makes it attractive for AI training and inference workloads.

Several facilities in the state now offer liquid cooling infrastructure capable of supporting NVIDIA H100 and H200 GPU clusters. Power densities of 30-50 kW per rack are becoming available at newer builds, particularly in the Piscataway and Jersey City corridors. For organizations that need to keep their AI infrastructure close to their East Coast operations while maintaining excellent connectivity to global networks, NJ is a natural fit.

Power and Sustainability

Power costs in New Jersey average $0.10-0.14 per kWh for large data center consumers — higher than Virginia ($0.06-0.08) or Texas ($0.05-0.07) but competitive for the Northeast market. Several operators have committed to renewable energy procurement, with Equinix, Digital Realty, and QTS all having 100% renewable energy commitments that apply to their NJ facilities.

The state's proximity to offshore wind development in the NY Bight also positions NJ data centers well for future clean energy procurement. New Jersey has committed to 11 GW of offshore wind by 2040, which will significantly increase the renewable energy available to data center operators.

Connectivity and Network Infrastructure

New Jersey's network infrastructure is among the best in the world. Key connectivity features include:

• Carrier density: 50+ carriers available in major NJ facilities, with direct connections to all major US and European networks
• Cloud on-ramps: AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, Google Cloud Interconnect, and Oracle FastConnect all available at multiple NJ facilities
• Internet exchanges: DE-CIX New York, NYIIX, and other exchanges have NJ presence
• Submarine cables: Transatlantic cables including Telia, GTT, and newer builds provide direct international connectivity

Cost Comparison: NJ vs Other East Coast Markets

Understanding how NJ compares to alternative East Coast data center markets helps in making the right deployment decision:

• NJ vs Northern Virginia: NJ costs 20-40% more per kW but offers NYC proximity, submarine cable access, and financial sector connectivity that NoVA cannot match. For latency-sensitive workloads, NJ wins.
• NJ vs NYC: NJ costs 30-50% less than Manhattan facilities while being just 5-10ms away. Most organizations that don't need to be physically in Manhattan are choosing NJ.
• NJ vs Atlanta: Atlanta offers significantly lower costs but lacks NJ's network density and financial sector proximity. For general-purpose AI and enterprise workloads, Atlanta may be more cost-effective.

Choosing the Right NJ Data Center

When evaluating data centers in New Jersey, consider these key factors:

• Latency requirements: If you need sub-1ms to NYSE/NASDAQ, focus on Secaucus/Carteret facilities. For general enterprise, any northern or central NJ location works well.
• Power density: For AI workloads requiring 30+ kW per rack, look at newer builds in Jersey City and Piscataway that were designed for high-density from the ground up.
• Expansion capacity: If you anticipate growth, central NJ campuses offer more room to scale than constrained northern NJ sites.
• Connectivity needs: For maximum carrier choice and cloud on-ramp access, northern NJ facilities near Newark and Secaucus offer the most options.

Future Outlook

New Jersey's data center market is poised for continued growth through 2026 and beyond. Key trends include:

• New hyperscale developments in central NJ to meet cloud and AI demand
• Increasing power density support as AI workloads drive rack power from 10kW to 50kW+
• Growing adoption of liquid cooling, particularly direct-to-chip systems for GPU clusters
• State government incentives continuing to attract investment
• Offshore wind integration providing clean energy for data center operations

For the latest data on all New Jersey facilities, visit our New Jersey state page or browse the full directory.