Global data center power consumption to rise threefold by 2030, forecasts GlobalData

Shiledar continues: "The global data center market is set to be shaped predominantly by hyperscalers, colocation and managed service providers, and enterprises, because each segment addresses a distinct and enduring set of requirements. Hyperscalers will remain the principal engine of growth as AI training, inference, and cloud-native workloads require vast increments of capacity delivered with industrial speed, extreme efficiency, and tight integration across compute, storage, and networking. Colocation and service providers will expand in parallel by supplying "ready-to-use" power and space, dense interconnection ecosystems, and flexible commercial structures."

The US is positioned to dominate both hyperscale and colocation deployment. Its development pipeline is estimated at 78.2% of hyperscalers and 21.5% of colocation data centers. The UK presents a contrasting profile: the pipeline skews more heavily toward colocation than self-built hyperscale facilities, with approximately 61.2% of colocation projects versus about 38.8% of hyperscalers. The hyperscale segment will be anchored by Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud, often called the "Big Three", along with Meta, as the leading forces.

Government policies are fundamentally transforming the global data center market by prioritizing data localization, sustainability, and digital infrastructure investment. Key initiatives include mandatory data sovereignty laws and infrastructure incentives. For instance, the US issued an Executive Order on accelerating federal permitting of data center, intended to facilitate financial support for large-scale data centers in July 2025. In February 2022, China introduced a national strategy that pushes for building more data centers in western regions, where land, power and renewables are available in abundance. The Indian government is offering tax incentives and policy support to attract investment, encouraging faster expansion of data centers.

Shiledar concludes: "Data centers are rapidly reshaping the power sector. Fueled by the acceleration of AI and cloud computing, global electricity demand from data centers has surged. With a single hyperscale facility capable of drawing as much power as a small city, this growth is forcing consequential shifts across generation capacity, transmission and distribution investment, and day-to-day grid operations."