Global Data Center Market Set for 107% Growth

The global data center market is expected to see a huge jump to $317 billion by 2026, a new projection from JLL shows.

The real estate investment firm said that would represent a surge of 107 percent from the 2020 levels, which is when it was valued at $153 billion. By 2025, the market is projected to be worth $274 billion, according to JLL.

There are a few factors leading to JLL's bullish estimates. This includes IT infrastructure for data centers rising. The firm projects that will lead to the global data center market growing at a compound annual growth rate of 9.8 percent over the next half-decade.

Plus, consumers and businesses are demanding improvement in products and services such as generative AI, high computing, low latency, and omnipresence. That will "likely ensure that the cloud environment and future of edge data centers remain healthy with the opportunities observed," JLL said.

JLL also highlighted that there is "significant growth potential" overseas in the Middle East North Africa, and Asia Pacific regions thanks to mobile and internet activity rising in rural areas.

"Consumers and corporations will continue to adapt to transformational technologies within daily life and without the distribution of data processing and storage across various locations, cutting edge efficiencies and solutions like IoT and generative AI will not transition to mainstream acceptance," Jonathan Kinsey, EMEA lead and global chair for data centre solutions at JLL, said.

"Edge data centers will be essential to ensure seamless business operations in the future economy while also improving security measures and protecting against potential disruptions. Lowering latency by bringing the computing infrastructure closer to the data source and user, edge IT infrastructure will become an essential component in the international economy."

To adapt to user needs, enterprises will leverage different data centers such as cloud and edge, colocation, and on-premises.

For data center development in the U.S., 21 percent occurs in edge geographies.