Global Data Center Capex to Exceed $1 Trillion Amid AI Infrastructure Surge

The worldwide capital expenditures (capex) for data centers are projected to exceed $1 trillion in 2026, reflecting an increase in spending driven by rising demand for AI infrastructure and higher component costs. This investment surge coincides with the growth of hyperscale AI deployments and ongoing improvements to general-purpose infrastructure.

A recent report from Dell’Oro Group indicates that these trends are likely to accelerate in the latter half of 2026, particularly with the launch of NVIDIA's new Rubin systems. Baron Fung, Senior Research Director at Dell’Oro Group, pointed out that rising prices for memory and storage significantly affected overall server system costs in the first quarter of 2026. This pricing pressure is expected to consistently influence capex growth throughout the year.

The first half of 2026 has already demonstrated exceptionally strong spending patterns, with further acceleration expected as hyperscalers update their custom accelerator platforms. Notably, leading U.S. cloud providers—Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft—reported a remarkable 78% increase in data center capex, underscoring their commitment to expanding AI capabilities and cloud infrastructure.

Dell led the server original equipment manufacturer (OEM) revenue during this period, followed by Supermicro and Lenovo. The hyperscale market saw significant contributions from white-box vendors, which accounted for the majority of server revenue. Fung noted that nearly all server manufacturers experienced gains as higher memory prices drove system pricing up.

While demand for AI infrastructure remains strong in the near term, some organizations have accelerated their spending in anticipation of further price increases later this year. Despite this optimism, challenges continue, especially for enterprise verticals and sovereign cloud providers, which face issues related to uncertain returns on investment and the readiness of their existing infrastructure for AI workloads.

Dell’Oro Group's Data Center IT Capex Quarterly Report offers insights into the capital expenditures of the ten largest cloud service providers, along with additional segments including Telco and Enterprise customers. The report provides a detailed breakdown of data center infrastructure capex, covering general-purpose servers, accelerated server systems, storage solutions, and complementary data center equipment. As the market evolves, the report will continue to highlight trends and factors driving capex growth among leading cloud service providers into the next year.