The pace of development in 2026 will be just as rapid, according to LiquidStack global commercial director Stuart Crump.

“Earlier this year CBRE said vacancy rates continued to fall, while ever persistent power constraints were not enough to hold back growth. Instead, hyperscalers and cloud operators would look for alternative locations,” he explained.

“Around the same time, Knight Frank forecast that global live IT capacity for 2025 would hit 55,646 MW, up 22% on the previous year. Next year, things will cruise another 20% higher to 66,504 MW.”

Crump examines some of the key trends impacting the global data centre sector in 2026.

Spectacular growth leads to investment

Crump said certain markets like the Middle East are expected to show almost 50% growth next year. Coinciding with this was another wave of large investments, including Meta’s plans to create a data centre the size of Manhattan.

“Is this likely to be mirrored by other mega vendors?” Crump asked. “Google is raising over US$3bn from a bond sale to finance further AI expansion, following a $6.75bn sale earlier this year. So, it doesn’t look like the big tech giants will be closing their wallets and taking off their high-viz vests anytime soon.”

He added: “AI is undoubtedly driving growth, but as models and applications get to work on real world problems, latency and throughput will become more important, so you can expect more data centre activity at the edge.”

There’s no ignoring data centres now

In the past year, the data centre industry has become much more visible around the world, with these facilities entering the public consciousness with full velocity. Crump said this means that the industry will attract more scrutiny and political attention from multiple angles.

“National and local governments are desperate to tempt data centre operations onto their turf, for the jobs and investment they bring and support downstream,” he said. “They are also conscious of the need to establish some degree of data and AI sovereignty.

“At the same time, governments have to pay attention to the sustainability question around data centres.”

With data centres absorbing a significant amount of electricity production, he suggested that consumer electricity prices increasing on account of data centres would lead to unease and resentment over the industry.

“This should mean the sweeping statements we’ve seen from political leaders over the last year or so start turning into real world policies,” he said. “These need to fuel real world progress in turning around planning holdups or speeding up electrical hookups just so builders can break ground. But we should also expect more detail on what data and AI sovereignty really means, and how this affects what is built where.”

New initiatives and faster innovation

Faster GPUs are expected to demand more power and heat, which will inevitably demand greater innovation in cooling – liquid cooling in particular, Crump said. Larger facilities will demand cooling solutions that are both efficient and can be built quickly and easily.

Likewise, Crump explained how edge sites will demand flexible cooling architectures that can be adapted to specific locations.

“Not only will we see increased take up of liquid cooling, but a shift to modular, scalable systems that can be easily adapted to a myriad of locations,” he said. “Think standardised technology that can be easily tuned for multiple installations, rather than bespoke and expensive.”

He added: “The heat they remove will still have to go somewhere. Engineers will focus on novel, useful ways to reuse the vast amounts of heat our increasingly vast datacentres are going to be producing – the case has already been proved with district heating projects.”

“With great power comes great responsibility”

Crump also argued that because businesses, governments and citizens are starting to understand that data centres are critical infrastructure, the industry now has an even greater responsibility.

“We should prepare for growing awareness of the need for resiliency, standards and reliability both at the broad data centre level and for the specific technologies within them such as liquid cooling,” he said. “As data centres step further into the public eye, our role as the backbone of the digital economy is no longer in question. With that visibility comes scrutiny – from governments, regulators and the public alike.

“Rather than resist it, our industry must be ready to explain its value, and show how we’re enabling progress, sustainably and transparently.”

He also predicts that the industry will witness a more mature, responsible and engaged industry that embraces its responsibilities head-on.

He added: “Because the alternative is not sustainable. Not next year, and certainly not in the years to come.”

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