How the cluster formed
Three things converged in Querétaro over the last four years: cool nights year-round, a fiber-optic spine running through the state connecting Mexico City to the US border, and land availability at a fraction of the CDMX cost. AWS, Microsoft, and Google have all announced cloud regions anchored in Querétaro, and a second tier of colocation operators — Equinix, KIO, Ascenty, ODATA — has followed to serve the enterprise customers those hyperscalers are pulling into the market.
The result is a cluster that, by installed capacity, is now the second-largest in Latin America. Around 400 MW is under construction or advanced permitting, and the pipeline for 2027-2028 adds at least another 500 MW if every announced project reaches financial close.
Where the constraint actually is
Land is not scarce in this segment. Industrial parks near El Marqués and Colón have plots specifically zoned for data-center use. What's scarce is grid capacity. Every project needs a CFE substation interconnect, and the queue for those interconnects has stretched from a normal 12-18 months to more than 30 months for new applications.
The binding constraint has shifted the deal structure. Operators who secured their grid connection two or three years ago are effectively holding an option worth substantially more than the land itself. Newer entrants are having to either partner with an incumbent, buy an existing site, or accept phased builds — where only the first block goes live on their preferred timeline and subsequent blocks depend on grid additions that CFE has not yet committed to build.
What this connects to
The data-center story sits at the intersection of two other threads already visible in the Mexican market. The CFE mixed-development framework (7,411 MW of renewables awarded, plus the Cubico JV) partly exists to serve exactly this kind of load — long-term, high-utilization, willing to sign 15-year power contracts. And the Bajío industrial real estate compression is amplifying data-center land prices in ways that will surprise operators pricing off 2023 comps.
For operators evaluating Mexico entry in 2026, the practical order of operations has inverted: secure the interconnect first, negotiate the land second. The plots that come with a grid slot attached are trading at multiples of raw land value — and that premium is likely to widen as the queue lengthens.