University of Kwazulu-Natal

2026 Global Data Center Predictions Datacenterhawk

Bonisiwe Shabane
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2026 global data center predictions datacenterhawk

As we enter 2026, the global data center industry is at a critical turning point. Historic absorption rates over the past year have been driven by the growing demand for AI infrastructure. In this episode of the datacenterHawk podcast, Founder and CEO David Liggitt joins regional leaders Ed Socia (North America), David Sandars (EMEA), Dedi Iskandar (APAC), and Steve Sasse (Latin America) to analyze key trends... North America leads in data center development, but the growth is shifting geographically. Regional Director Ed Socia highlights a movement toward nontraditional markets like North Dakota, Wyoming, and Missouri, driven by available power and the need to avoid community pushback. AI providers are building large, master-planned campuses in these areas.

Regions like West Texas are seeing plans for massive 1-gigawatt projects, although network latency keeps traditional hubs like Chicago and Northwest Indiana relevant. Additionally, smaller enterprise demand (20-50MW) is carving a niche alongside hyperscale developments, signaling diverse growth within the market. In Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, diversification is the name of the game. Regional Director David Sandars notes a slowdown in speculative building, with some projects delayed until 2026 or 2027. Interest is expanding beyond traditional FLAP-D markets to areas like Zaragoza, Spain, and parts of Eastern Europe, including Romania, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. The Middle East is emerging as a major AI hub, with plans for multi-gigawatt campuses.

Its strategic location between Europe and Asia is attracting investments not only from western hyperscalers but also from countries like South Korea, keen to support their tech industries. As we enter 2026, the global data center industry is at a critical turning point. Historic absorption rates over the past year have been driven by the growing demand for AI infrastructure. In this episode of the Data Center Hawk podcast, Founder and CEO David Liggitt joins regional leaders Ed Socia (North America), David Sandars (EMEA), Dedi Iskandar (APAC), and Steve Sasse (Latin America) to analyze... North America leads in data center development, but the growth is shifting geographically. Regional Director Ed Socia highlights a movement toward nontraditional markets like North Dakota, Wyoming, and Missouri, driven by available power and the need to avoid community pushback.

AI providers are building large, master-planned campuses in these areas. Regions like West Texas are seeing plans for massive 1-gigawatt projects, although network latency keeps traditional hubs like Chicago and Northwest Indiana relevant. Additionally, smaller enterprise demand (20-50MW) is carving a niche alongside hyperscale developments, signaling diverse growth within the market. In Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, diversification is the name of the game. Regional Director David Sandars notes a slowdown in speculative building, with some projects delayed until 2026 or 2027. Interest is expanding beyond traditional FLAP-D markets to areas like Zaragoza, Spain, and parts of Eastern Europe, including Romania, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.

The Middle East is emerging as a major AI hub, with plans for multi-gigawatt campuses. Its strategic location between Europe and Asia is attracting investments not only from western hyperscalers but also from countries like South Korea, keen to support their tech industries. The Asia-Pacific market has doubled in size from 5GW to 10GW in just two years. Regional Director Dedi Iskandar highlights that while Japan and Australia remain key hubs, power constraints in major cities like Tokyo are pushing developments into tier-two markets. Johor in Southeast Asia has quickly become a 2GW market, while India’s rapid growth positions it as a future leader, potentially surpassing Tokyo. Unlike Europe’s cautious pace, APAC’s AI companies demand fast delivery, often seeking 100MW+ capacities within just 3 to 6 months.

Emerging hotspots like Melbourne, Chennai, Bangkok, and Vietnam are reaping the benefits, with governments offering incentives to attract digital infrastructure. In Latin America, Chinese cloud operators such as Tencent, Alibaba, and Huawei have stepped in as US providers focus more domestically. Regional Director Steve Sasse notes expansion across Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Peru. Looking ahead, the region is leveraging its renewable energy resources to attract AI-focused hyperscale investments. Brazil leads the market, accounting for nearly 40% of the economic base and introducing legislation to reduce GPU chip import taxes. Meanwhile, Argentina is gaining attention for its vast natural gas reserves, positioning itself as a potential dark horse for on-site power generation.

The global demand for data center capacity shows no sign of slowing, but how that demand is met varies greatly by region. From gigawatt-scale campuses in West Texas and AI hubs in the Middle East to APAC’s rapid tier-two growth and LATAM’s renewable energy strategies, the industry is evolving to address power constraints and shifting needs. For investors and IT professionals, understanding these regional trends will be critical to navigating and capitalizing on the next wave of digital infrastructure growth in 2026. North America: The Rise of Nontraditional MarketsEMEA: Capacity Challenges Amid AI GrowthAsia-Pacific: Tier-Two Markets Take OffLatin America: Renewable Power and Chinese Cloud ExpansionConclusion To listen to explicit episodes, sign in. Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.

Happy New Year! Here are the 2026 Global Data Center Predictions from me and the datacenterHawk Regional Director Team. We take a boots on the ground approach to make sure we can keep the pulse of the market at all times! Enjoy! Steve Sasse Ed Socia Dedi Iskandar David Sandars https://lnkd.in/g3M64maM Ready to meet the best to develop the site for Trudeau Airport: )

How breakthroughs like DeepSeek will shock data center builds and operations Navigating SE Asia’s data center market: What it takes to win Charting the Future of Data Center, Cloud, and AI Infrastructure Ed. Note - Data Center Frontier's annual Trends Scorecard and 8 Trends That Will Shape the Data Center Industry articles will appear soon. In the meantime, we give you DCF Editor-at-Large Melissa Reali's assessment of the top five data center, AI and digital infrastructure trends for the year just past, with predictions for what lies ahead in...

- MV This year not only stretched our industry, but exposed our fault lines. To wrap 2025 data center industry trends, the emerging sentiment is that our industry is being forced into adulthood: data centers can no longer behave like passive grid customers or anonymous real estate investment... Power independence, active policy alignment, and more sophisticated capital stacks will determine who actually delivers capacity in a world where innovation and ambition still far exceed what the grid, permitting, and supply chains can... As 2025 closes the digital backbone did not simply expand; it bifurcated into power‑rich and power‑poor regions, aligned and misaligned policy regimes, and well‑capitalized versus stranded capacity. Connectivity, data, and computation move fully into the realm of economic statecraft, where questions of data center access, control, and investment are argued as much in ministries and sovereign funds as they are in...

Lead the conversation for the year ahead in the data center sector To help data center decision-makers navigate ongoing disruption, our Trends and Outlooks series offer actionable insights into the defining trends and challenges of the past year – while also exploring what 2026 may hold... Download our 2026 Trends and Outlooks guide now to find out more on how you can lead the conversation for the year ahead, including topics such as: The data center industry is entering an unprecedented period of transformation. The rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing, and expanding sustainability mandates is reshaping how facilities are designed, powered, cooled, and secured. As we move toward 2026, operators will face both significant challenges and major opportunities as digital infrastructure evolves at speed.

Below, we explore six defining trends that will shape the next generation of data center environments. AI is fundamentally redefining data center architecture. Facilities once optimized for general IT workloads are giving way to environments purpose-built for dense GPU clusters, ultra-high-speed networking, and exceptional compute intensity. As AI workloads grow, modular solutions and scalable designs will become the foundation for both new builds and retrofit projects, enabling operators to expand capacity without disrupting operations. Prediction: AI-optimized architecture will move firmly into the mainstream. Scalability, modularity, and thermal resilience will become baseline requirements for modern facility design.

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