AI Boom Drives Data Center Capex to $1.7 Trillion by 2030, According to Dell’Oro Group

Hyperscalers, Neo Clouds, and Sovereign AI Enter a New Phase of Infrastructure Expansion

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Feb. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — According to a recently published report from Dell’Oro Group, the trusted source for market information about the telecommunications, networks, and data center industries, the multi-year AI expansion cycle is projected to drive worldwide data center capex to $1.7 trillion by 2030. Hyperscale and neo cloud service providers, along with sovereign AI initiatives, are entering a new phase of infrastructure expansion.

“The Top 4 US hyperscale cloud service providers—Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft—entered 2026 with strong momentum, raising combined data center capital expenditures to nearly $600 billion,” said Baron Fung, Senior Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “Despite increased scrutiny around AI infrastructure returns, hyperscalers continue to invest aggressively, supported by large cash reserves and a long-term focus on market share. This growth is being driven by the deployment of larger and more complex AI clusters, which are increasing demand for high-performance networking, storage, inference capacity, and advanced power and cooling infrastructure.”

“Beyond the Top 4 US hyperscale cloud service providers, AI model builders, neo cloud providers, and sovereign cloud initiatives are accelerating their own data center deployments. As a result, global data center capex is expected to approach $1 trillion in 2026, reaching a major industry milestone sooner than anticipated,” Fung added.

Additional highlights from the Data Center IT Capex 5-Year January 2026 Forecast Report:

• Accelerated servers for AI training and domain-specific workloads could account for approximately two-thirds of total data center infrastructure spending by 2030.

• While the Top 4 US hyperscalers are expected to represent about half of global data center capex by 2030, emerging AI model builders and neo cloud service providers are projected to grow at significant rates.

• Outside hyperscale, enterprise data center investment remains constrained by tariffs, monetary policy, and uncertain AI returns.

About the Report
The Dell’Oro Group’s Data Center IT Capex 5-Year Forecast Report offers a complete overview of the market with historical data from 2014 to the present. The forecasts provide a comprehensive overview of market and technology trends and include tables covering data center and server capex and server unit shipments forecasts for Top 4 US Cloud, Top 4 China Cloud, Top 3 Tier 2 Cloud, Rest-of-Cloud, Telco, and Enterprise customer segments. The report also breakout markets for data center infrastructure equipment, along with server, storage system, and other data center equipment revenues sub-segments. To purchase this report, please contact us at dgsales@delloro.com.