TL;DR

Querétaro is the fastest-growing wholesale market in Latin America, about 298 MW and up roughly 450% in a year, with most of Mexico's racks in the state. CloudHQ's $4.8B campus changes the published category if 200 MW energizes in 2027. Kio has a $1.3B QRO3 option. CFE interconnection and water are the operating constraints. Plan México sets a $100B a year FDI target against a 2025 print of $40.9B, about 39% of it from the United States. Diligence starts with the power contract and the interconnection date.

CBRE's Q1 2026 print put wholesale inventory in Querétaro at 298.2 MW, up 450% year on year, with vacancy around 10.6%. Depending on the source, the state now holds 65% to 79% of Mexico's installed data-center capacity, a higher share of the national base than Northern Virginia holds of the U.S. base. The practical split is capacity already serving tenants versus capacity that still depends on published energy dates.

Key Takeaways
  • Capacity already serving tenants is still a mix: Kio on the Mexican colo side, ODATA / Aligned, Ascenty, and Equinix on the U.S.-owned wholesale and interconnection side. The announcements are hyperscale campuses.
  • CloudHQ is the project that would change the state's category: $4.8B, six halls, 52 hectares, 200 MW targeted for 2027, 900 MW at full build, waterless cooling, a private substation, and a 2 GW switching station with CFE and Cenace.
  • Microsoft ran gas generators waiting on CFE high-voltage into 2027. Recent CFE work for AWS and ODATA is measured in single- and double-digit MW. That is the real scale of the grid today.
  • Plan México sets a $100B annual FDI target. 2025 printed $40.9B, of which $15.9B (38.8%) came from the United States. The energy line is about $23.4B and +22 GW of generation by 2030.

Who is actually here

There are two books. One is capacity that already serves cloud and enterprise tenants. The other is campus AI load that only exists if CFE, Cenace, or a private substation hits the date on the lease.

PlayerTypeQuerétaro / Bajío footprintScale signal
CloudHQU.S. wholesale hyperscale6-building, 52-ha campus$4.8B; 200 MW (2027); 900 MW full
KIO (I Squared)Mexican colocation / interconnectionQRO2 live; QRO3 in El MarquésUp to $1.3B / ~100 MW by 2030; $200M+ in 2026 (CDMX, MTY, QRO)
ODATA (Aligned)U.S.-owned wholesaleQR03 campus; QR04 near San Miguel>40% of Mexico operational IT power; QR03 first phase 72 MW
AWSHyperscalerMexico region, 3 AZs$5B over 15 years
Microsoft AzureHyperscalerMexico CentralGrid energize targeted 2027; interim gas generation
EquinixInterconnectionMX1 / MX2Carrier-neutral; Dallas / Miami fiber
Ascenty / Scala / Layer 9Wholesale / hyperscaleQRO and Guanajuato~52 MW Ascenty pair; Scala campuses; Layer 9 ~96 MW
Google / Oracle / Huawei / AlibabaCloud regionsQRO / MexicoFollow-the-workload capacity

ODATA is the quiet incumbent, more than 40% of Mexico's operational IT power, mostly in Querétaro, with QR04 stretching toward Guanajuato. Kio is the Mexican operator: I Squared since 2022, more than $900 million invested, QRO2 live, a "Hecho en México" mark this year from Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard. Equinix is not in the megawatt race. MX1 and MX2 are the interconnection hotels to Infomart Dallas and NAP of the Americas in Miami, which is how a Bajío rack joins a North American network. Also on the board, at smaller scale: Triara (Telmex), Nabiax, HostDime, MTP, EdgeConneX, MDC, Fermaca, Cybolt, Neutral DC.

CloudHQ is the change in published scale. First 200 MW secured, energy works started in January 2025 and aimed at the second half of 2027, about $250 million of pre-development capex, 7,200 construction jobs and roughly 1,000 permanent roles. Waterless cooling is a material design choice here. Querétaro is in structural water stress. Evaporative cooling in this corridor increases water demand.

Plan México, electricity first

The Mexican federal government presented Plan México on January 13, 2025. The published headline is $100 billion of FDI a year for six years, with nearshoring as the stated method. Data centers appeared on the first-month project list with semiconductors, drones, and a Mexican satellite. The Bajío is one of the poles. The tax side is accelerated depreciation, and in the Polos de Desarrollo a 100% immediate deduction on new fixed assets.

Published energy figures are the binding constraint on whether those poles fill. About $23.4 billion is earmarked ($12.3B generation, $7.5B transmission, $3.6B distribution), with a target of 22,000 MW of new generation by 2030 and a first batch of 100 transmission upgrades. Plan México assigns CFE majority participation in generation. Private plants can be built; interconnection remains through CFE and Cenace. CloudHQ's private substation and 2 GW switching station are being developed with CFE and Cenace, the interconnection path required for a campus of that published size. Microsoft's Mexico Central site ran seven gas generators while it waited for high-voltage energization, currently aimed at Q2 2027.

CFE has connected some live loads: 2 MW for AWS and 6 MW for Abbott at Finsa Querétaro, 18.8 MW for ODATA at VYMSA. Those connections are operating megawatts. They are also an order of magnitude below a 200 MW first phase. Transmission and on-site private generation need to move on the same calendar as campus construction for announced megawatts to energize.

The U.S. and Mexico numbers

Mexico's 2025 FDI was a record $40.87 billion, up 10.8%. The United States sent $15.88 billion, 38.8% of the total, then Spain ($4.43B), Canada ($3.32B), the Netherlands, and Japan. New investment rose about 133% to $7.38 billion. Most of the stock is still reinvested earnings. Q1 2026 was another record at $23.59 billion, $10.21 billion of it from the United States. The Economy Ministry named data centers, AI, and electronics in the central region among associated projects. Plan México's published annual FDI target is $100B, against the 2025 print of $40.87B.

The U.S. still holds about 40% of global data-center capacity. Census figures released August 3 put private U.S. data-center construction at about $68 billion annualized in June, up roughly 46% year on year. Hyperscaler AI capex is a $700B-plus 2026 item. Mexico's live megawatts are small next to that. The corridor's published advantages are land, latency into Texas and the southern U.S., labor, and USMCA coverage for digital trade. On the U.S. side, interconnection queues and local siting processes are the constraints. In Querétaro, CFE, Cenace, and water are the constraints.

CloudHQ's Querétaro campus was announced at a public event with federal and state officials present. The project structure is U.S. private capital, Mexican land, and Mexican grid supply serving North American cloud load. Equinix's Dallas and Miami paths are the same corridor at the network layer. AWS's $5 billion, 15-year Mexico region is the same corridor at the product layer. Digital trade sits under USMCA, which is scheduled for a 2026 review. Energization remains tied to substations and interconnection queues.

If you are diligencing a site or a vendor, the split is practical. CloudHQ, Scala, Layer 9, and Kio QRO3 are the construction book. ODATA and Ascenty hold wholesale IT. Equinix and Kio hold interconnection. AWS, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle are the offtake. CFE, Cenace, and private substations are the grid. I Squared, Digital Realty, DigitalBridge, Brookfield, and Aligned sit behind the platforms. The questions that actually move value are offtake versus energization dates, cooling versus water, and whether a 900 MW announcement is a 200 MW 2027 fact.

What the numbers imply

Site and vendor diligence starts with contracted, energized megawatts rather than announced capacity. CloudHQ would change the state's published category if the 2 GW switchyard and the 200 MW 2027 phase come online as stated. Kio is the Mexican colo and interconnection operator. ODATA holds the largest share of operational IT power. Equinix is the carrier-neutral path from Querétaro into the North American network. Plan México's FDI target is $100B a year; 2025 printed $40.87B. Additional data-center megawatts depend on CFE transmission and private generation moving on the same calendar. U.S. and Mexican operators already sit in one power-and-compute corridor with two regulators. Interconnection and power contracts determine whether announced megawatts become live capacity.

Sources