A new report finds that data centre demand across Europe remains strong, with 93% of respondents expecting continued growth over the next 12 months.

Shared by BCS Consultancy, the Data Centre Truths 2026 report examines real constraints shaping data centre delivery across Europe. Notably, 78% of respondents to the report have noted a significant uplift in demand linked to AI over the past year.

Delivery and planning complexities remain

BCS have said the findings indicate it’s not a question of if the market expands, but where and how the expansion can be delivered. The company’s findings suggest growing regional divergence as power availability, skills shortages, planning complexity, supply chain volatility and AI readiness increasingly “collide” on the same projects.

“Europe’s data centre market is not slowing down, but delivery is becoming far more uneven,” said James Hart, CEO of BCS Consultancy. “For the first time, securing power and planning approval is no longer enough.

“In 2026, those are just entry tickets. Pressure around power, floorspace and rack density continues to shape how quickly AI demand can be converted into deployable capacity.”

The report finds delivery is the bottleneck, as 86% of report respondents report ongoing supply chain volatility – unchanged from recent surveys. BCS said this suggests disruption has become structural rather than temporary – as power, skills, planning, supply chains and AI readiness are now interconnected delivery constraints.

Likewise, 95% of respondents expect the availability of skilled professionals to decline further. Already across the industry, skills shortages are already having commercial consequences, with missed deadlines, rising costs and lost orders reported across live projects.

“What comes through very clearly is that delivery risk is no longer theoretical,” Hart added. “Projects are being shaped, delayed or lost based on execution realities on the ground. The ability to coordinate and sequence delivery has become a defining factor in who can move fastest to market.”

AI and its aftermath: Unpacking global data centre growth

Europe remains strong, but the ability to deliver new capacity is becoming more uneven across regions, BCS noted. It found the UK has maintained strong delivery over the last year and has a potential pipeline of more than 10GW over the next 10 years. The DACH data centre market, Italy, France, Iberia and the Nordics are also set for strong growth.

Glancing at the Middle East market, BCS found there is a rare opportunity to build a strong, sustainable data centre ecosystem.

However, the report highlighted that local execution capability is becoming a decisive competitive advantage. In some regions, power access and grid queues dominate delivery risk, whereas in others, skills availability, regulatory friction or execution sequencing are proving decisive.

What’s clear from the report is that AI-driven demand continues to accelerate, with 78% of respondents reporting a notable uplift in demand linked to AI over the past 12 months. However, only 20% of facilities are AI-ready today, which BCS said exposes a widening gap between ambition and deployable capacity.

These findings come amid a rapid flurry of AI interest as investments roar ahead, with leading technology CEOs indicating that 2026 will be a significant tipping point for the technology.

Speaking at the Cisco AI Summit last week, company CEO Chuck Robbins said: “We know we have to embrace this. Many of us believe it’s the biggest transition that we’ve ever seen … and I do believe this will be more revolutionary and it’s moving faster than we’ve ever seen.”

However, some have likened the AI movement to the dotcom boom and subsequent crash in the late 1990s, shaking global markets and leading to some companies declaring bankruptcy.

According to the BCS report, 70% of its respondents also expect geopolitical events to create impact across the data centre industry.

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