US faces shortage of massive warehouses for AI data centers, says Ross Perot Jr.

During a taping of “The David Rubenstein Show” at the Bloomberg Invest Dallas event, Ross Perot Jr., the billionaire chairman of Hillwood, said the United States now has only 15 to 20 vacant million-square-foot warehouses suitable for assembling AI data-center equipment, down from a typical supply of about 50. He highlighted that North Texas, where Hillwood is constructing the AllianceTexas Data Center Campus, has just one such warehouse available.

Perot linked the shortage to a broader industrial boom and warned that every AI supplier is seeking a million square feet of space. JLL’s third-quarter industrial market report confirmed the vacancy rate for large Class A warehouses dropped to 5.4% and that leasing rose 38.5% year-over-year, with national asking rents reaching $10.55 per square foot. AI-related data-center projects near Dallas‑Fort Worth and Washington, D.C. are reportedly intensifying the need for space, while the Census Bureau reported private data-center construction spending hit about $85 billion in August, a 73% increase from the previous year. Perot compared the emerging controversy over data-center siting to the early debate over fracking and urged developers to better communicate the tax-revenue benefits to host communities.