South Carolina’s largest documented data center plans span a federal nuclear complex, a former manufacturing site in Spartanburg and a nine-building campus near Lake Wylie. As of October 30, the biggest active proposal is a 1-gigawatt AI data center at the Savannah River Site, followed by NorthMark’s 457-megawatt Valara project and a roughly 300-megawatt QTS development in York County. Their progress varies sharply: federal lease talks, active construction and a phased commercial buildout are not interchangeable milestones.

This ranking compares disclosed planned campus or facility power ratings, not electricity consumed today or confirmed online IT load. The figures are drawn from the Department of Energy, Spartanburg County and QTS, with third-party facility records used where an operator has not published a current megawatt specification. A separate 300 MW plan in Cherokee County merits comparison with the third entry.

3. QTS York County — About 300 MW Reported, Under Construction

In the Rock Hill area, QTS is developing a nine-building campus in three phases. The company says its approved project represents approximately $8 billion in planned investment. Four buildings make up its initial phase, while the other five would follow as development proceeds. QTS says two buildings are under construction and none is yet operating; more work is expected as the first phase advances.

A facility-level project record reports roughly 300 MW of planned power, but QTS’s current public community page does not give a comparable total megawatt figure. Treat 300 MW as an industry-reported campus figure, not measured server consumption or a confirmed utility delivery schedule. QTS says its air-cooled design uses ambient air as the final heat sink, and forecasts substantial construction employment and long-term technical work.

WCNC’s February 11, 2026 report covers QTS’s York County project, local questions and construction activity.

Residents have raised concerns about the scale of the property, power requirements, traffic and environmental effects. The county says the property was already zoned for industrial development when QTS assembled the site. Supporters point to additional tax revenue and jobs; the lasting impact will depend on actual occupancy, grid investment and how construction commitments are delivered.

2. NorthMark Valara, Spartanburg — 457 MW Planned, Construction Underway

The Valara High Performance Compute Center is being built at the former Kohler manufacturing site on South Pine Street in Spartanburg. A development agreement considered by Spartanburg County describes a 457 MW data center project over approximately 294 acres, with at least $2.76 billion in proposed investment. Its model centers on substantial on-site power generation rather than treating the entire demand as a simple purchase from an existing local substation.

On September 18, South Carolina’s Department of Environmental Services approved a construction air permit for 11 simple-cycle combustion turbines. That is an air-permit decision, not a blanket finding that every construction, land-use or operating approval has been resolved. On October 22, County Council gave first reading to a revised development agreement; final approval still requires additional proceedings. The project has drawn organized objections about air emissions, noise, local oversight and water demand.

Spartanburg County Council’s official October 22, 2026 special meeting recording includes the first-reading vote on the Numara/Valara development agreement.

The dispute matters beyond one campus. Locating servers beside dedicated generation may reduce some grid-connection constraints, but it also shifts scrutiny toward turbine emissions, fuel supply and community monitoring. Developers say private investment can turn older industrial sites into high-value technology infrastructure. Residents and environmental groups argue that permitting and operating safeguards must keep pace with that transition.

1. Savannah River Site AI Campus — 1,000 MW Proposed, Lease Not Final

The largest announced data center project on this list is an approximately 1 GW AI campus at the federal Savannah River Site. On July 20, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration selected Amentum for negotiations over a phased lease. DC BLOX has identified itself as the consortium’s digital-infrastructure partner.

The federal concept pairs that 1 GW of data center capacity with approximately 2 GW of dedicated generation, starting with natural gas and describing a possible transition toward nuclear technology. Those numbers represent different things: the 2 GW is proposed generating capacity, not a 2 GW server load. The planned campus is not yet online, and neither a final lease nor completion of the required permits and security reviews was established in the July announcement.

The federal location could give developers access to a large industrial setting, existing technical expertise and the opportunity to coordinate energy and compute investment. But a selected negotiation partner is not the same as a funded, permitted construction start. Major questions remain about the final site, delivery phases, transmission arrangements, technology procurement and how much computing capacity would be placed in service first.

Which Other South Carolina Projects Could Enter the Top Three?

A Cielo Digital Infrastructure project in Gaffney also carries a reported 300 MW full-buildout figure, putting it roughly level with QTS on published power estimates. The state’s June 2025 announcement described four roughly 400,000-square-foot buildings and a $2.1 billion proposal, but the site has not been established as operating. QTS gets the third position here because its nine-building development and ongoing construction are directly documented by the operator and county; the 300 MW comparison is not precise enough to claim an undisputed power lead over Cielo.

A previously proposed 1 GW Eagle Rock development in the Colleton County ACE Basin is not counted as an active project at that location. An October 5 agreement placed the original parcel inside a data center exclusion area, and later reporting describes the original plan as withdrawn. Any replacement site must be assessed as a separate proposal with its own current approvals before it can displace a ranked project.

Power, Jobs and Community Costs Will Decide the Outcome

Data centers can support construction trades, electrical and mechanical contractors, network deployment and long-term operations work. But projected megawatts are neither an operating capacity certificate nor a guarantee of economic benefits. The important next steps are a finalized Savannah River lease, the outcome of Valara’s remaining development-agreement proceedings and the energization schedule at QTS. Local utility costs, air quality, noise and water use deserve the same scrutiny as announced spending.

For context, the series recently examined Pennsylvania’s larger power campuses, Rhode Island’s smaller regional facilities and Oregon’s development pipeline. BitcoinVersus.Tech’s data center capacity planning lesson explains why announced megawatts, electrical headroom and actual IT utilization must be measured separately.

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