This summer’s heat is a live stress test for data centers — here’s what it’s revealing in real time

This summer has already produced three answers to questions the data center industry would have preferred to leave theoretical. In May, the PJM Interconnection — the grid operator serving data center-dense northern Virginia — received emergency authorization from the Energy Department to curtail power to data centers due to “atypically hot mid-May weather conditions.” In France, temperatures of 44.3C forced nuclear plants to shut down — the same plants Macron called the “heart” of France’s AI ambitions. And on Monday, Zurich Insurance disclosed that severe weather is now the leading cause of loss in its U.S. data center portfolio. The questions: Can data centers actually hold up in a warming world? And has the industry priced that in? Data centers are having a massive year. So far in 2026, the world’s largest companies operating data centers have committed at least $750 billion to the sector, compared to $450 billion last year, the early stages of more than $3 trillion in forecasted capital investments over the next five years, according to Moody’s. That spending is now running directly into a stress test nobody scheduled. A study published earlier this month by climate analytics firm First Street found that 79% of global data center capacity faces high risks from climate and weather elements, including from heatwaves and flash flooding. These hazards can disrupt operations, lead to prolonged downtimes, and raise insurance costs, the study found. Data centers in hot water Because the U.S. contains some of the world’s largest and fastest-growing data center hubs, its risk profile is sharper than most. Parts of the country that are seeing a surge in new data center construction as well as a rise in costly extreme weather such as flooding or drought include the Carolinas and Virginia, respectively ranked 5th and 6th in climate risk among the 97 global data center markets surveyed by First Street. Of 809 planned U.S. data centers, 517 are l