Data Center Census

Fayetteville, Fayette County, GA

Microsoft Fairwater Atlanta

Also known as Fairwater 2, Azure AI superfactory (Atlanta)

OperatingBegan operations October 2025, according to Microsoft
  1. Rumored
  2. Proposed
  3. Approved
  4. Under construction
  5. Operating

Microsoft's second 'Fairwater' AI datacenter, a two-story facility in Fayetteville, Georgia, linked by dedicated fiber to its Wisconsin Fairwater site to act as a distributed 'AI superfactory.' The AJC reports it is housed within QTS's 615-acre Fayetteville data center campus and exceeds 1 million square feet. Microsoft says it began operating in October 2025, uses closed-loop liquid cooling, runs on utility power without on-site generators or UPS, and that the Fairwater network supports OpenAI, Microsoft's AI Superintelligence team and Copilot workloads.

Key facts

Size & schedule

Site size615 acres [1]
total QTS campus that houses the facility
Floor area1 million sq ft [1]
more than 1 million sq ft, per AJC

Power

Power supplyUtility grid only; no on-site generation or UPS, per Microsoft [3]

Water

Water sourceclosed-loop; Microsoft says the initial fill equals what about 20 homes use in a year and operations consume almost zero water [4]
Coolingclosed-loop liquid (direct liquid cooling at rack level, ~140 kW per rack) [3]

Local decisions & site

Deciding voteFayetteville City Council unanimously approved annexation and rezoning of the final 412 acres on June 30, 2022 [7]
Source excerpt
“The annexation and rezoning of the final 412 acres for the project on the city's west side was approved unanimously by the Fayetteville City Council on June 30.”
Parcel / address1435 Highway 54 West [8]
address named in the development agreement adopted by the council
Source excerpt
“The council on June 15 unanimously voted 'to adopt the Development Agreement between the City of Fayetteville and National Acquisition Company, LLC for the QTS Data Center located at 1435 Highway 54 West.'”

Figures are as stated by the cited source. Where sources disagree, each figure is shown.

Timeline

  1. QTS buys about 600 acres in Fayetteville for $153.8 million for a planned 250 MW campus [5]

  2. Fayetteville City Council unanimously adopts development agreement with National Acquisition Company, LLC for the QTS data center [8]

  3. Fayetteville issues certificate of occupancy for the first building on the QTS campus [1]

  4. City issues construction completion certificate [1]

  5. Facility begins operations [4]

  6. Microsoft publicly unveils Fairwater Atlanta as part of its AI superfactory [3]

  7. City of Fayetteville prohibits new data centers in every zoning district via Ordinance 26-0-12 [9]

  8. Fayette County publishes fact sheet saying QTS monthly water use is under 1% of county water production [6]

Issues raised

  • Neighborhood groups, environmentalists and Fayette County residents have raised concerns about electricity and water use [1]
  • Fayette County says QTS campus water use is under 1% of Fayette County Water's production and does not affect residential water pressure [6]
  • Development Authority of Fayette County's Niki Vanderslice said the county has no sites suited to another data center and wants the community to 'realize the benefits' first [1]

Sources

  1. Microsoft's newest AI 'superfactory' opens at sprawling Fayetteville campus
    Atlanta Journal-Constitution · Nov 21, 2025 · news
  2. Microsoft launches Atlanta Fairwater AI data center - two stories, no UPS or gen-sets
    DatacenterDynamics · Nov 12, 2025 · news
  3. Infinite scale: The architecture behind the Azure AI superfactory
    Microsoft · Nov 12, 2025 · company
  4. From Wisconsin to Atlanta: Microsoft connects datacenters to build its first AI superfactory
    Microsoft · Nov 12, 2025 · company
  5. QTS confirmed as behind 250MW data center mega-project in Fayetteville, Georgia
    DatacenterDynamics · Aug 10, 2022 · news
  6. Facts about the QTS Fayetteville Data Center Campus Project
    Fayette County, Georgia · May 13, 2026 · government
  7. A look at the developer of Fayette's first data center
    The Citizen · Jul 11, 2022 · news
  8. Fayetteville approves development agreement for 612-acre QTS Data Center on Hwy. 54 West
    The Citizen · Jun 19, 2023 · news
  9. Data Center Discussion
    City of Fayetteville, GA · 2026 · government