Data center and AI infrastructure teams in Phoenix

CBRE’s North America Data Center Trends H1 2026 (August 27, 2026) puts Phoenix at 1,069.2 MW of wholesale and colocation inventory, with 248.0 MW under construction and 225.5 MW of that preleased. CBRE names Prime, Stack and Aligned among the developers with significant projects underway. QTS and Vantage are on the same list.

JLL measures on a wider basis that includes capacity hyperscalers own, and on that basis says Phoenix “absorbed 442 MW amid 1.7 GW under construction” (JLL, August 11, 2026). The CBRE and JLL figures measure different things and should not be compared directly.

Named projects show the scale. Microsoft bought 100 more acres next to its 150-acre Goodyear campus and is also developing a campus in El Mirage (DCD, June 11, 2026). Prime Data Centers has broken ground on three of five buildings at its 240 MW PHX01 campus in Avondale, with the first three secured by a “leading hyperscaler” (DCD, May 22, 2026). Edged opened a 36 MW Mesa facility offering up to 400 kW per rack with liquid cooling (DCD, April 8, 2026).

The pipeline is large but contested. Project Baccara is Takanock’s plan for two data centers and a 700 MW natural gas plant near Luke Air Force Base (DCD, January 19, 2026). It has gained a Maricopa County permit, with construction set to begin in late 2026 (Construction Review Online, May 28, 2026). Vintage Partners dropped its Laveen data center after struggling with local regulations and power availability (DCD, March 5, 2026). EdgeCore shrank its Mesa plan from 2.1M SF to 1.2M SF before winning zoning approval (Bisnow, March 16, 2026).

Arizona has paused new data center tax relief. HB 4168 (Laws 2026, Chapter 140), approved by the governor on June 13, 2026, bars the Arizona Commerce Authority from accepting applications for new computer data center tax relief from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2029. No new data center qualifies in that period. The authority received 113 new applications in the two weeks before the pause (KJZZ, July 14, 2026). CBRE says the moratorium could affect development costs and timelines for future projects (August 27, 2026).

Power is the harder limit. At the Arizona Corporation Commission’s large-load workshop, summarized on April 20, 2026, SRP said it serves 59 large-load customers with a nearly 7,000 MW combined load, and APS estimated large-customer peak demand of approximately 13.1 gigawatts this year. APS’s own data center page, read October 11, 2026, shows a 19.0 GW uncommitted queue and says APS does not yet have enough power plants, transmission lines and key infrastructure to serve all new requests.

Water is the public argument. Federal Colorado River guidelines for 2027–2028 require 1.25 million acre-feet of reductions in deliveries, though the City of Phoenix says they do not immediately interrupt service or require mandatory restrictions for its customers (City of Phoenix, August 21, 2026). On August 31, 2026, Attorney General Mayes called for a statewide pause on approving and building new data centers. That is a call for legislation, not law.

Land is tightening city by city. CBRE says the availability of suitable powered land continues to decrease because of new restrictions and opposition from cities (August 27, 2026). Phoenix now asks data centers to address grid reliability, fire risk, emergency access and noise when applying for a special permit (City of Phoenix, July 2, 2025). Maricopa County allows them only in its IND-2 and IND-3 industrial districts (Bisnow, December 17, 2025). Pinal County supervisors rejected the La Osa campus 4-1 (KJZZ, August 26, 2026).

Electrical labor is the first constraint. Bisnow reported on April 27, 2025, that electrical subcontractors in Phoenix were split between 10 and 12 critical large-scale projects. New projects add to that: Takanock estimates Project Baccara will bring 1,000 construction jobs and 200 permanent roles (DCD, January 19, 2026).

Local training feeds technician and trades roles. Maricopa Community Colleges offers a Data Center Operations certificate built with QTS and taught at its Estrella and Mesa campuses. Microsoft runs 3-month and 9-month Datacenter Academy programs with Estrella Mountain and Glendale Community Colleges (Microsoft Local, read October 11, 2026). IBEW Local 640 trains union electricians through the Phoenix Electrical JATC.

Commissioning managers and senior mission-critical engineers are hired from people who have already brought a building into service. With the developers CBRE names all building in the Valley (August 27, 2026), several programs approach the same people. That is why we map who holds a role before a search opens.

Published pay gives a baseline. In ads we read on October 11, 2026, Amazon listed a base range of $116,800 to $160,000 a year for a Commissioning Engineer in Avondale and $111,300 to $186,100 a year for a Construction Manager in Mesa. Microsoft’s Phoenix ads give US-wide base ranges rather than local ones, so they are not in the table below.