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Global Datacenter Trends

Global Datacenter Trends

Datacenter trend intelligence tracks data centre market trends, AI-driven capacity demand, power availability, colocation growth, interconnection strategy, and regional campus investment worldwide, giving readers a fuller view of the demand shifts, capacity constraints, platform strategies, capital timing, regulatory pressure, and operating assumptions behind the market.

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Latest Coverage

Latest from Global Datacenter Trends

274 articles

Editorial illustration of a large data-centre campus and server racks representing PwC’s forecast for rising global data-centre capital expenditure through 2050.

Global Datacenter Trends

PwC forecasts US$31.6tn in AI data-centre capex by 2050

PwC expects repeated server, GPU and networking upgrades to keep AI data-centre spending rising long after facilities are first built.

Sep 3, 2026
Two differently sized metal comparison frames surround the same data-centre networking equipment, with additional modules extending the historical operating perimeter.

Global Datacenter Trends

HPE's 112% Data-Centre Networking Growth Reverses on Its Normalized Base

HPE reported US$382 million of data-centre networking revenue for its July quarter, more than twice the published figure a year earlier. Against the historical base reconstructed in its own earnings presentation, the same revenue fell about 6%. Neither calculation is a reason to…

Sep 3, 2026
Two 50% threshold gates stand between a microgrid control yard and a data-centre hall, above separate measured, storm-restoration and utility-infrastructure ledgers.

Global Datacenter Trends

Vertiv’s UIG earnout has two 50% EBITDA cliffs

Vertiv has put approximately US$1.45 billion of cash on the closing table for UtilityInnovation Group. Another US$1.15 billion sits behind two performance tests whose dollar targets are not public. The filed agreement nevertheless reveals the machine: fall just short of half a…

Sep 2, 2026
Editorial image of an NVIDIA Vera server in a data centre representing the start of Vera CPU shipments

Global Datacenter Trends

NVIDIA starts shipping Vera CPUs at scale

NVIDIA says Vera CPU systems are shipping at scale, moving its new AI processor from launch plans into customer integration.

Sep 2, 2026
AI-generated editorial illustration showing SLB and Kelvion branding between industrial infrastructure, heat-exchange equipment and data-centre server racks.

Global Datacenter Trends

SLB agrees $4.1bn Kelvion deal for data-centre cooling

SLB is buying Kelvion to bring thermal management into the same data-centre delivery stack as its engineering, modular construction and digital systems.

Sep 2, 2026
Illustration of a power transformer and electrical substation supplying a large data centre

Global Datacenter Trends

Data-centre orders surge at transformer makers

Long transformer backlogs mean data-centre developers may need to secure electrical equipment years before a site is ready to energise.

Sep 2, 2026
Two glass pathways carry different numbers of blank equity discs through a partly open gate beside a generic data-centre campus.

Global Datacenter Trends

Digital Realty’s Teraco Put Created a 6.957m-Share Gap Between FFO Denominators

Digital Realty reported two diluted share counts for the same quarter: 367.605 million for funds from operations and 360.648 million for Core FFO and adjusted funds from operations. The 6.957 million difference is a receipt for an ownership transition that had been modelled…

Sep 1, 2026
Data centre beside cooling infrastructure showing Rystad forecasts for water use in 2025 and 2030

Global Datacenter Trends

Data centre water use could hit 644bn litres

Rystad says cooling choices could cut 2030 water demand sharply, but some lower-water systems require more electricity.

Sep 1, 2026
Editorial illustration of municipal water being added to a direct-to-chip cooling loop alongside a data centre commissioning checklist

Global Datacenter Trends

Ecolab links cooling-loop fill to week-long data centre outage

A week-long outage linked to the wrong cooling-loop fill shows why coolant verification matters before direct-to-chip systems enter operation.

Sep 1, 2026
Editorial server-integration hall with equal amber and cyan accounting frames and a short-contract lane outside the cyan disclosure perimeter.

Global Datacenter Trends

Supermicro's US$2.612bn RPO Mirrors Deferred Revenue; Short-Term Backlog Is Excluded

A US$943.4 million increase in non-refundable product advances helped push Super Micro Computer's contract liabilities to US$2.612 billion. The disclosed remaining performance obligations landed on the same rounded figure, but the RPO disclosure still omits contracts originally…

Sep 1, 2026
An empty gauge socket sits on an executive scorecard while a glass ledger behind it keeps three contract-time lanes moving toward wafers and processor packages.

Global Datacenter Trends

Arm Dropped RPO From Its Scorecard; 53% Still Sits Beyond Two Years

Arm has stopped putting remaining performance obligations in the operating-metrics table of its quarterly shareholder letter. The number did not disappear from the accounts. At 30 June, the financial-statement note still carried US$2.1226 billion of contracted work, with…

Aug 31, 2026
An amber priority lane runs through advanced reactor manufacturing bays toward a data-centre campus.

Global Datacenter Trends

Amazon Has First Call on X-energy's 2031–2039 Reactor Queue

Amazon did not need to place a conventional reactor order to acquire leverage over X-energy's future factory sequence. X-energy's securities filings say Amazon holds first-priority manufacturing allocation across 2031–2039, a right of first refusal over part of scheduled…

Aug 31, 2026
Reserved semiconductor wafers and packaging lanes lock into a central gate while translucent customer-order tiles remain movable on the other side.

Global Datacenter Trends

Marvell Added US$5.76bn of Supplier Commitments. Customer Orders Stay Cancellable

Marvell has made one side of its AI-capacity wager much harder than the other. In thirteen weeks, unconditional purchase commitments to foundries and test-and-assembly partners rose from US$2.7568 billion to US$8.5189 billion. The new schedule reaches deep into fiscal 2030. Yet…

Aug 31, 2026
A central switching cabinet divides an amber internal compute route from a larger blue external data-centre route inside an unbranded AI server hall.

Global Datacenter Trends

NVIDIA’s US$36bn AI-Cloud Backstop Yields to Better Bids

NVIDIA has committed US$36 billion to cloud service from selected AI-cloud partners that first procure its data-centre hardware. The unusual term is not the six-year horizon. It is the switch: a partner can replace NVIDIA with a third-party customer offering a more advantageous…

Aug 31, 2026
Illustration of an AI data centre showing coordinated electrical power and cooling systems around server infrastructure

Global Datacenter Trends

Eaton and Trane combine power and cooling for AI data centres

Eaton and Trane have developed a joint AI data-centre design that brings power and cooling planning together around NVIDIA DSX infrastructure.

Aug 31, 2026
Amber advance units move from a clear holding chamber through unbranded AI compute equipment and an acceptance gate.

Global Datacenter Trends

NVIDIA Has US$2.8bn of Customer Advances. Its RPO Uses a Different Perimeter

NVIDIA is receiving substantial customer cash before recognizing the associated revenue, yet its quarter-end advance balance, half-year cash-to-revenue flow and long-duration contract obligations are not one metric. The distinction matters because the same quarter also carried…

Aug 29, 2026
An iridescent semiconductor wafer remains separate from a field of copper equity tiles, with a narrow conversion gate and a closed upper voting module.

Global Datacenter Trends

Marvell Allocated US$7.5m of Q2 Net Income to NVIDIA's Unconverted Preferred

NVIDIA's US$2 billion Marvell security had not converted by 1 August. It did not wait outside the earnings ledger: Marvell assigned it US$6.2 million of undistributed earnings and US$1.3 million of dividends for the quarter. The certificate already behaves like common equity in…

Aug 29, 2026
Four metallic funding channels cross an invented data hall; one remains continuous while a separate transparent mechanism carries two counterflowing currency streams.

Global Datacenter Trends

Equinix’s 5.25% Dollar Note Became 3.95% Euro Funding After the Swap

Equinix sold a US-dollar bond and chose a euro liability. On 6 August, its Europe 2 financing subsidiary issued US$850 million of 5.250% senior notes due in 2031, backed by Equinix’s full and unconditional guarantee. Cross-currency swaps then changed the principal obligation to…

Aug 29, 2026
Network switches and component inventory move through rack integration toward a separately lit system-acceptance handoff.

Global Datacenter Trends

Cisco's US$9.3bn AI Orders Do Not Make a US$5.3bn Backlog

Cisco closed fiscal 2026 with US$9.3 billion of AI-infrastructure orders from hyperscalers and approximately US$4 billion of AI-infrastructure revenue. Subtraction produces US$5.3 billion, but not a backlog: the company has not supplied the opening cohort, conversion bridge or…

Aug 28, 2026
An unbranded optical interconnect module sits inside an incomplete metal ring while illuminated milestone gates continue toward distant server racks.

Global Datacenter Trends

Marvell's 12-Month Forward Ends Before Its Fiscal-2029 AI Earnout

Marvell's US$300 million cash-settled forward reduced one source of volatility around the Celestial AI acquisition. It did not put the whole earnout on the same clock: the contract lasts about a year, while the revenue milestones and possible cash and share settlement continue…

Aug 27, 2026