<p>Data centers operate as physical digital infrastructure for generating, storing, computing, transmitting, and utilizing massive data and information, constituting the backbone of the flourishing digital economy across the world. Given the lack of a consistent analysis for studying the locational factors of data centers and empirical deficiencies in longitudinal investigations on spatial dynamics of heterogeneous data centers, this paper develops a comprehensive analytical framework to examine the dynamic geographies and locational factors of techno-environmentally heterogeneous data centers across Chinese cities in the period of 2006–2021. First, we develop a “supply-demand-environment trinity” analytical framework as well as an accompanying evaluation indicator system with Chinese characteristics. Second, the dynamic geographies of data centers in Chinese cities over the last decades are characterized as spatial polarization in economically leading urban agglomerations alongside persistent interregional gaps across eastern, central, and western regions. Data centers present dual spatial expansion trajectories featuring outward radiation from eastern core urban agglomerations to adjacent peripheries and leapfrog diffusion to strategic central and western digital infrastructural hubs. Third, it is empirically verified that data center construction in Chinese cities over the last decades has been jointly influenced by supply-, demand-, and environment-side locational factors, echoing the efficacy of the trinity analytical framework. Overall, our findings demonstrate the temporal variance, contextual contingency, and attribute-based differentiation of locational factors underlying techno-environmentally heterogeneous data centers in Chinese cities.</p>