OUTLOOK
Integrating solutions to interconnected challenges
AI-driven growth brings huge opportunities, but success depends on coordinated, sustainable infrastructure development.
The past decade has shown just how quickly a new industry can evolve and cement itself as a prominent sector within global construction markets. As data center development continues to grow and expand, the next decade will be defined by the construction sector’s ability to meet the demands of unprecedented scale and continued rapid technological change.
Strong foundations
Positively, the sector’s outlook remains overwhelmingly optimistic for the future. Only 20% of respondents consider the industry as vulnerable or highly vulnerable to economic downturn – showing more confidence than the equivalent 26% in our 2025 survey. Reasons for optimism include:
- Continued strengthening demand for digital infrastructure
- Ongoing investment in cloud computing, AI and advanced manufacturing
- Growing integration of data into every aspect of society and the economy
- Greater prevalence of reinforcing digital security among the public and policymakers.
The challenge facing developers, operators, utilities and governments is how to deliver that capacity at unprecedented speed and scale while navigating increasingly complex constraints around power, labor, infrastructure, sustainability and public acceptance.
Figure 11:
At present, which of the following best describes your view of the data center industry’s resilience to an economic downturn?
AI growth and the impact on demand
With AI a fixture of the data center market, the industry’s focus has moved towards understanding the scale of the demand it presents. Across global markets, organizations are investing heavily in AI infrastructure, creating a pipeline unlike anything the sector has previously experienced.
Our survey shows that over the past 12 months, 39% of respondents have been working primarily on delivering AI-ready data centers, with 53% anticipating AI-dominant workloads next year.
Figure 12:
The past 12 months - proportion of projects focused on AI workloads
Figure 13:
The next 12 months - proportion of projects focused on AI workloads
Figure 14:
What could the government in your region do to support the construction and delivery of data centers needed to meet growing demand for AI and data processing?
The role of government
For policymakers, this creates both opportunities and challenges. Many governments increasingly recognize data centers as critical infrastructure which is essential to economic growth, innovation and national competitiveness.
However, it is clear from our survey that data center owners and operators would welcome further collaboration with governments to help in meeting the demands of AI, potentially through accelerating grid connections where possible. There is also an opportunity to streamline planning permission and permitting processes in suitable locations, with a well-considered plan on how these facilities will contribute to the development of the local areas and communities.
The most successful data center markets will be those where governments are able to work proactively and coordinate with the sector to drive mutually beneficial developments.
Longevity and asset lifecycles
Challenges around power supply and public support for data centers have come to the fore as the industry scales up. Yet there is also increasing attention on the longer-term usability of data centers, which poses questions about asset resilience and adaptability.
64% of survey respondents say that sustainability and ESG requirements are moderately, considerably or significantly impacting the designs of new data centers they work on. Significant design changes to projects during the delivery phase in response to local feedback and expert advice are now commonplace, and this is likely to continue in the long term as the pace of technological evolution means data centers must increasingly be designed with future requirements in mind.
While the scale of the developments can cause concern in some quarters, the fundamental structures of data centers are incredibly flexible, reusable, and built for the long term. The technology within centers can be easily removed and replaced as technology improves, creating ever more efficient infrastructure without an equivalent carbon cost from a new building every time.
To ensure this longevity is maximized, developers should actively consider the full lifecycle of these structures, and ensure they are built to cater flexibly for future demands and refits.
Figure 15:
To what extent are sustainability or ESG requirements influencing the design and delivery of data center projects you are working on?
The rising importance of data sovereignty
Alongside AI, few trends are likely to have a greater influence on future data center development than data sovereignty.
Governments around the world are increasingly viewing digital infrastructure through the lens of national security and strategic independence and as a result, sovereign data center investment is expected to become a growing feature of the global market.
This trend extends beyond traditional concerns around data storage and localization. Increasingly, countries are seeking greater control over the infrastructure that supports AI, cloud computing and critical digital services. In many regions, this is leading directly to government investment where sovereign programs are now scale buyers.
In other regions, policymakers are providing funding and regulatory incentives designed to encourage local development and reduce reliance on overseas infrastructure, such as the UK government launching its national AI Hardware Plan to support the domestic semiconductor sector to harness its strengths in AI hardware.
This shows a growing trend across the globe – increasing emphasis on developing local technical skills and building sovereign capabilities and positioning countries at the forefront of the AI revolution to attract further investment.
FINAL THOUGHTS
A boundary-pushing decade to come
The data center industry has spent much of the past decade responding to extraordinary growth, and now the challenge moving forward is securing the methods and tools to support its further evolution.
With digitalization a major force across the globe, with AI driving new and more complex requirements and prompting innovative approaches, and with historic levels of investment forecasted to flow to every corner of the world, the sector’s future looks exceptionally strong. However, the sector’s greatest opportunity is also its greatest challenge: responsible and sustainable delivery of the critical infrastructure needed for our increasingly digital world.
Success will ultimately depend on the industry’s ability to think beyond the boundaries of a single project. Power, water, supply chains, labor, planning, sustainability and data sovereignty are becoming interconnected challenges that require coordinated solutions.
Organizations that have the ability to attract talent, build genuine partnerships, earn public trust and adapt to changing requirements will be best placed to lead the next chapter of data center growth.
“The next phase of data center growth will be defined not only by building facilities faster, but by managing interconnected infrastructure, resource, and sustainability challenges through coordinated, long-term strategies.”
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