Global Data Center Market Comparison

Over the past year, lead times for the delivery of power grew beyond just the constricted market of Virginia. Markets including Phoenix, Atlanta, Dallas and even Columbus – all where data center expansion had occurred rapidly over the past several years – began to experience similar power generation constraints. While continuing to develop where possible in these markets, operators expanded their focus to additional secondary and emerging markets such as Charlotte, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Nashville and Iowa. These and other smaller markets offered largely untapped opportunities for significant land purchases and commitments.

Simultaneously as lead times for power deliveries grew in major markets, North America became a testbed for how artificial intelligence might change the data center development landscape.

Many of the larger deployments in smaller, more rural markets were targeted at facilities designed for training AI models and have less of a dependency on latency. Despite this, some of the deepest pipelines remain in the five largest markets, with hyperscalers doubling down on cloud regions and laying the groundwork for AI integration with cloud services.

The APAC region crossed 10GW in total IT load capacity over the past year buoyed by growth across various countries. The largest markets in the region continued substantial growth, with Mumbai and Jakarta rising in the rankings as pipelines grew in the market. More established markets like Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sydney and Tokyo continued to grow despite challenges for available land and power. 

As hyperscalers grow their regional presence, transaction activity has increased in emerging markets such as Bangkok, Johor, Hyderabad, Ho Chi Minh and Manila. Almost 80% of operational capacity is concentrated in the region’s top 5 markets – Mainland China (3.9GW), Japan (1.3GW), Australia (1.2GW), India (1.1GW) & Singapore (962MW). In H2 2023, India joined Mainland China, Japan and Australia as >1GW-sized markets and we anticipate that Singapore will reach this status sometime in 2024 with 962MW currently live.

Across the biggest metros in EMEA namely Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin, (FLAP-D) the markets continue to expand, despite the headwinds emerging from power availability, power pricing and sustainability regulations. Owing to factors like strategic location, data sovereignty, connectivity and rising demand, the secondary markets such as Madrid, Milan, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, and Warsaw are also gaining interests of operators and investors and powering ahead. The Nordic countries, specifically Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, with their immense potential and a current contribution of 12% of the region's data center pipeline, are attractive prospects for investment.

Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and Johannesburg in South Africa are steadily emerging as key destinations due to their strategic geographic location, reliable connectivity, and increasing local and regional cloud adoption.

The top global hyperscale cloud service providers (CSPs) are entering secondary markets such as Brussels, Warsaw, Zaragoza, and Copenhagen, with more than 150MW of combined under construction capacity. The presence of these CSPs is likely to draw major colocation data center operators, developers, and investors to these markets.