2025 Data Center Boom Analysis: AI Impact, Market Trends, and Key Stakeholder Insights

On November 17, 2025, Seeking Alpha published an article titled “Chart Of The Day: The Data Center Boom, Illustrated” [1], which visualized global data center capacity in gigawatts (GW) across four categories: existing, under construction, planned, and potential future capacity (subject to overcoming project headwinds like power supply constraints). The piece questioned whether the boom would continue or reach a turning point.

The global data center market is projected to hit $527.46 billion in 2025, driven by cloud computing, AI, and edge computing [2]. Asia-Pacific leads regional growth with 20,320 MW of capacity in 2025 and a 13.1% CAGR to 37,580 MW by 2030 [2].

Goldman Sachs forecasts data center demand to grow by ~50% to 92 GW by 2027, with a 17% CAGR between 2025 and 2028 [3]. Scenarios range from a 14% CAGR (downside: lower AI adoption) to a 20% CAGR (bullish: higher GPU power needs) [3]. The AI data center market alone will expand from $39.49 billion in 2025 to $124.70 billion by 2030 (25.85% CAGR) [2].

• Upstream
  : Cooling solutions market to reach $226.39 billion by 2034 [2]. Utilities are increasing capex by 22% YoY to $212 billion in 2025 to support power infrastructure [4].
• Downstream
  : 8 hyperscalers plan to spend $371 billion in 2025 on AI data centers [4], with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google as key consumers.

• Colocation
  : Equinix (13% market share), Digital Realty (11%), and NTT (6%) dominate the colocation segment [5].
• Hyperscale
  : Hyperscalers hold 35.14% of the global market and are expected to account for 61% of total capacity by 2030 [5,6]. Key players include AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

On November 17, 2025, the Technology sector gained 2.03%, alongside Energy (+3.12%) and Utilities (+2.16%), reflecting investor confidence in infrastructure growth [0].

• Regional Expansion
  : North America’s Northern Virginia market expanded inventory by 523 MW YoY in Q1 2025, with a record-low vacancy rate of 0.76% [7].
• Edge Computing
  : Fast-growing trend to support low-latency AI and IoT workloads [2,6].
• Sovereign Cloud Mandates
  : Asia-Pacific markets (India, Indonesia) enforce local data storage rules, driving regional investments [2].

• Investors
  : Opportunities exist in colocation providers (Equinix, Digital Realty) and hyperscalers. Risks include power infrastructure constraints [1,5].
• Operators
  : Must prioritize power efficiency and cooling to meet AI demand. Colocation providers need to expand capacity for hyperscaler contracts [7].
• Policymakers
  : Need to address grid gaps—utilities are investing $212 billion in 2025 to support data centers [4].
• Tech Companies
  : Long-term capacity contracts are critical to secure AI/cloud infrastructure access [7].

1. AI Demand Volatility
   : Upside/downside scenarios impact capacity planning [3].
2. Power Constraints
   : Project headwinds (per [1]) and grid limitations are critical bottlenecks.
3. Regulatory Compliance
   : Sovereign cloud rules and data security laws shape location strategies [2].
4. Regional Growth
   : Asia-Pacific’s 13.1% CAGR and North America’s tight vacancy rates present expansion opportunities [2,7].

[0] get_sector_performance tool (2025-11-17 data)
[1] Seeking Alpha: Chart Of The Day: The Data Center Boom, Illustrated. URL: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4844531-chart-of-day-data-center-boom-illustrated
[2] Brightlio: 6 Data Center Market Trends for 2025. URL: https://brightlio.com/data-center-market-trends/
[3] Goldman Sachs: How AI Is Transforming Data Centers and Ramping Up Power Demand. URL: https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/how-ai-is-transforming-data-centers-and-ramping-up-power-demand
[4] Deloitte: Can US infrastructure keep up with the AI economy? URL: https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/power-and-utilities/data-center-infrastructure-artificial-intelligence.html
[5] Brightlio: 255 Data Center Stats (September-2025). URL: https://brightlio.com/data-center-stats/
[6] TierPoint: Top 10 Data Center Industry Trends in 2025. URL: https://www.tierpoint.com/blog/data-center-industry-trends/
[7] CBRE: Global Data Center Trends 2025. URL: https://www.cbre.com/insights/reports/global-data-center-trends-2025

This report is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. All data is sourced from publicly available reports and tools as of November 17, 2025.