QTS Data Centers: Hyperscale Growth and Sustainability

QTS Data Centers (QTS), a provider of data centre solutions across North America and Europe, has secured the number 13 position in Data Centre Magazine’s 2025 Top 100 Companies list.

The company provides colocation and hyperscale data centres for enterprise, federal and technology clients. 

Its current strategy is defined by large-scale capital investment, a standardised approach to facility design and a focus on sustainable operations to meet a new wave of market demand. 

Capital-backed strategic expansion

In August 2021, Blackstone completed its acquisition of QTS for approximately US$10bn.

The transaction moved QTS from a publicly-traded entity to a private company, providing access to capital for a long-term infrastructure expansion strategy.

This financial structure supports forward investment in land, utilities and equipment, insulating the company from short-term public market pressures.

This approach enables development on a scale demonstrated by recent announcements.

The company has planned a US$10bn data centre campus in Cedar Rapids, Iowa – the largest economic development project in the state's history. 

In the UK, enabling works have begun at a site in Cambois, Northumberland, for a campus that could represent an investment of up to £10bn (US$13.3bn). 

Tag Greason, Co-CEO at QTS, says of the project: “QTS is thrilled to have officially started work on the site of our data centre campus. While this is the first step in a long journey, it is a visible milestone of progress made possible by the support of the local community and Northumberland County Council”. 

Further investment, backed by Blackstone, includes a commitment of over US$25bn for digital and energy infrastructure in Pennsylvania.

A blueprint for delivery and sustainability

The company utilises a standardised and modular building model – the QTS Freedom design – for its new data centres.

This approach is intended to create predictable timelines and costs for customers by standardising facility architecture, layout and critical equipment. 

A core component of the design is a water-free cooling system that uses a closed-loop, pumped refrigerant solution instead of evaporative cooling towers.

This design choice allows development in water-stressed regions and reduces a facility’s impact on local resources.

David Robey, Co-CEO of QTS, says: “This QTS Freedom design is one that employs solutions to remove heat without consuming water.

“Evaporative systems, which consume large amounts of water, are something we’ve moved away from. We believe the industry should push harder on that. It affects communities, and we all need to be cautious with water as a resource.”

This focus on sustainability extends to energy, with a company goal to procure its power from carbon-free sources. In 2023, QTS achieved 100% utilisation of carbon-free operational electricity across its data centres.

Responding to market demand

The data centre industry is experiencing a period of high demand. 

Tag says: “I've been in the data centre business for 25 years. I've never seen anything like we're having right now.

“AI is additive to a cloud services business that was already growing pretty significantly”.

This dual demand for cloud services and AI workloads is altering site selection criteria.

AI training workloads, unlike services that require low latency to end-users, can be located in new regions where power and land are available.

This shift aligns with QTS’ strategy of developing large campuses in markets outside of traditional data centre hubs.

This is reflected in the company’s pivot to a utility-led site selection process.

David says of the change: “It used to be that site selection led the process. Today, we start with the utility. Especially as workloads get larger, you need to lead with what makes sense from a utility point of view. Then you can go source land to support that project”. 

This method involves securing power availability years in advance, a critical factor for delivering the multi-hundred-megawatt campuses required for AI infrastructure.

The company's number 13 position in Data Centre Magazine’s Top 100 list reflects its current market trajectory. 

This placement is underpinned by the strategic decisions detailed–the Blackstone acquisition enabling large-scale development, a standardised design blueprint facilitating speed-to-market and a sustainability focus that addresses key operational challenges.

These elements combine to position the company for the ongoing demand from cloud and AI workloads.