Datacentre capex to hit $1trn in 2026

“Rising memory and storage pricing substantially increased overall server system costs in the quarter and will likely remain a major capex growth factor this year,” said Baron Fung, Senior Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “At the same time, AI infrastructure deployments continue to accelerate rapidly, while hyperscalers also expanded general-purpose infrastructure to support public cloud growth, agentic AI workloads, and rising AI-related storage requirements.

“Despite exceptionally strong spending growth in 1H26, capex growth is expected to accelerate further in 2H26, driven by the ramp of NVIDIA Rubin systems and refresh cycles for hyperscaler custom accelerator platforms. Beyond hyperscalers, select enterprise verticals and sovereign cloud providers are increasing AI infrastructure adoption, though growth remains constrained by uncertain returns and infrastructure readiness. While near-term demand remains healthy, some spending may have been pulled forward ahead of expected price increases later this year,” explained Fung.

The global data center capex outlook was raised to more than $1 trillion for 2026.

The datacentre capex outlook for 2026 was raised as hyperscale AI deployments accelerated, complemented by continued investments in general-purpose infrastructure and rising component costs, reports Dell’Oro.

“Rising memory and storage pricing substantially increased overall server system costs in the quarter and will likely remain a major capex growth factor this year,” said Baron Fung, Senior Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “At the same time, AI infrastructure deployments continue to accelerate rapidly, while hyperscalers also expanded general-purpose infrastructure to support public cloud growth, agentic AI workloads, and rising AI-related storage requirements.

“Despite exceptionally strong spending growth in 1H26, capex growth is expected to accelerate further in 2H26, driven by the ramp of NVIDIA Rubin systems and refresh cycles for hyperscaler custom accelerator platforms. Beyond hyperscalers, select enterprise verticals and sovereign cloud providers are increasing AI infrastructure adoption, though growth remains constrained by uncertain returns and infrastructure readiness. While near-term demand remains healthy, some spending may have been pulled forward ahead of expected price increases later this year,” explained Fung.

The Top 4 US cloud providers—Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft—increased data center capex by 78 percent.

Dell led server OEM revenue in the quarter, followed by Supermicro and Lenovo, while white-box vendors serving the hyperscale market accounted for the majority of server revenue. 

Nearly all server vendors benefited from higher memory-driven system pricing

The Top 4 US cloud providers—Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft—increased data center capex by 78 percent.

Dell led server OEM revenue in the quarter, followed by Supermicro and Lenovo, while white-box vendors serving the hyperscale market accounted for the majority of server revenue. 

Nearly all server vendors benefited from higher memory-driven system pricing