How Many Data Centers Are There and Where Are They Being Built?

Page updated on 3/03/2026

By the end of 2026, Cloud Research analysts forecast there will be 8,821 data centers worldwide. Colocation providers operate the most, followed by hyperscalers, neoclouds, and government/sovereign cloud operators. Europe has the highest concentration of data center locations, with North America and Asia-Pacific following. In total,  a new ABI Research market analysis projects that more than 10,000 data centers will be operational by 2030, rising to over 12,000 by 2035. 

As enterprises continue to digitally transform and leverage advanced technologies, demand for cloud resources and larger data centers has peaked. Although the number of data centers being built worldwide is growing, regional differences exist due to varying regulatory, legal, climate,  and space availability factors. Moreover, North America and Europe are already well-established markets for data center construction, leaving room for major growth in other regions. 

Table 1: Number of Data Centers by Region

World Markets: 2026 to 2035

(Source: ABI Research)

Key Takeaways 

• The number of data centers continues to be on the rise. ABI Research's Cloud service team forecasts there to be 8,821 data centers worldwide in 2026. Colocation sites are far more common, but hyperscale sites are on the rise. Emerging neocloud providers like Nscale and CoreWeave are growing the fastest, especially in North America and Europe. 
• Generative AI is a key catalyst for data center buildout. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a key catalyst for data center expansion. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other Gen AI tools require immense cloud processing power. By 2031, ABI Research expects AI workloads to overtake legacy workloads in terms of active data center capacity (learn more in our blog, Forecasting Data Center Capacity Increases in the AI Era). 
• Europe has the most data centers globally, for now. With more than 3,300 data center locations today, Europe leads the way. However, ABI Research forecasts indicate that North America will overtake Europe by 2035 due to more significant demand for AI and High-Performance Computing (HPC) capacity.
• Data center sizes are getting bigger. According to our findings, data centers in the 10+ MW power bracket are growing at a faster rate than facilities under 10 MW. Large AI data center facilities are being built to support data-intensive applications like Gen AI and Agentic AI.
• Hyperscalers are increasingly developing AI data centers. Hyperscale data centers are larger facilities that can house more data and provide more computing power than traditional colocation sites. They are operated by tech giants like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Oracle, Alibaba, and others. These companies are investing billions of dollars to expand their AI data center footprint to Southeast Asia and the  Middle East.

What Is a Data Center?

A data center is a facility built for housing and distributing huge sums of data. The data center has networking infrastructure, such as cooling systems and server racks, that allow third-party enterprises to rent space for computing and data storage needs. The public data center market is divided into two main categories, each experiencing different growth rates and influenced by distinct factors:

• Colocation Data Centers: This category includes any space within a building, owned or leased by a company, that is rented out to third parties for their networking equipment or server storage. Colocation data centers can host multiple companies within one physical building, offering either retail or wholesale space, or both.
• Hyperscale Data Centers: These are large-scale facilities that offer extensive space, power, cooling, and infrastructure to support massive data and cloud computing operations. Hyperscalers include companies like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Microsoft Azure, Alibaba Cloud, IBM, and Oracle.
  
• Neocloud Data Centers: Neocloud companies provide AI-native infrastructure, including Graphics Processing Unit-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) and High-Performance Computing-as-a-Service (HPCaaS). This is alongside developer-focused Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), consumption-based pricing models, support for cloud-native and AI-native workloads, sovereign or regional cloud positioning, and integrated GPU acceleration and AI orchestration tools. Formore information on these emerging data center operators, download ABI Research's Neocloud Providers Competitive Ranking. 
  

   To meet accelerating market growth, vendors must take the lead in delivering interoperable, reliable, and coordinated reference frameworks that set the standard for data center construction. Reference designs establish replicable, scalable blueprints that operators need to meaningfully shorten time to market and eliminate costly design variability. Vendors that deliver clear, repeatable frameworks directly enable faster deployment cycles and position operators for long-term scalability. Learn more in Research Analyst Paris McKinley's blog post, Rethinking Data Center Design for a New Era of Scale and Complexity.

Number of Colocation Data Centers by Region, 2026-2035

By the end of 2026, there will be 4,029 colocation data centers worldwide. Growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 2.8%, the number of colocation data centers will increase to 5,157 by 2035. In other words, we expect 1,128 colocation data centers to be constructed over the next nine years.

Today, Europe has the most colocation data centers (1,576 sites) worldwide, followed by North America (1,188 sites) and Asia-Pacific (819 sites). Some of the countries with the most data centers built in these regions include the United States, China, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, and France.

As Table 1 shows, this order will sustain through the decade, and even through 2035. By then, 1,868 colocation data centers will be live in Europe, 1,540 sites in North America, and 1,014 sites across Asia-Pacific. Meanwhile, Latin America and the Middle East & Africa will lag behind by a wide margin. 

Table 2: Number of Colocation Data Centers by Region

World Markets: 2026 to 2035

(Source: ABI Research)

Number of Data Centers by Size, 2026 to 2035

The size of data centers is increasing, driven by the rapidly growing adoption of generative AI and other data-intensive technologies relying on the cloud. While the number of micro and small-sized data centers will decrease throughout the rest of the decade, the construction of large and mega data centers will grow robustly.

Epitomizing this trend, ABI Research forecasts a 3.8% CAGR for data center builds at facilities of 10 MW or more of power capacity, compared to a 2.9% CAGR for facilities less than 10 MW. As AI compute demand skyrockets, data center operators will only continue to expand their physical cloud infrastructure to accommodate new workloads.

Table 3: Number of Data Centers by Power Bracket/Size

World Markets: 2026 to 2035

(Source: ABI Research)

Hyperscale Data Center Trends

Hyperscale data centers are large, remote facilities with greater cloud computing capacity than enterprise data centers. Cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), IBM, Alibaba, and Oracle are investing billions of dollars in building data center capacity around the world. As a result, the number of hyperscale data centers is expected to reach 3,207 by 2026's end. Going forward, Hyperscale Tier Two companies will see faster growth rates, reflecting their relative immaturity compared to Hyperscale Tier One operators, who already have vast global footprints. By 2035, ABI Research analysts estimate 3,558 total hyperscale data centers in operation.

Table 4: Number of Hyperscale Data Centers by Region

World Markets: 2026 to 2035

(Source: ABI Research)

*This table reflects forecasts for both Hyperscale Tier One and Hyperscale Tier Two data centers.

AWS has the most data center sites worldwide among all cloud hyperscalers, with 105 in the United States alone as of 2025. This translates to a whopping 2.3 GW of active data center IT capacity for the year, followed by Meta (1.5 GW), Microsoft Azure (1.2 GW), Aligned (548 MW), Google Cloud (508 MW), and Oracle (470 MW). Get a deeper analysis in our article, Top 25 Largest Data Center Companies in the U.S. by Active IT Capacity (2025 Edition).

Table 5: Top Hyperscale Data Center Companies in the United States by Active IT Capacity

(Source: ABI Research)

While North America and Europe remain innovation hubs for hyperscale data centers, Asia-Pacific is a faster-growing region as AI-first workloads become strategic priorities. AWS and Google Cloud have announced their plans to build data centers in Malaysia, Thailand, and New Zealand in the last couple of years. Microsoft currently operates a data center in India and plans to open new facilities in Taiwan and Indonesia. Domestic players like Alibaba Cloud and Huawei Cloud will also add power capacity to data center buildings and nodes across key locations.

In the United States, ABI Research is forecasting a 3% CAGR in the number of Hyperscale Tier One data centers being built (run by AWS, Meta, Google, etc.). For Hyperscale Tier Two facilities, the number is decreasing at a CAGR of -8.1%. In Europe, we are seeing the opposite trend materializing. Hyperscale Tier One data centers are declining at a -7.3% CAGR, and Hyperscale Tier Two sites will grow at a 5.6% CAGR through 2035. 

In Europe, Hyperscalers (Tier One + Tier Two) contract slightly, shaped by stricter energy‑efficiency rules, power‑grid constraints, and hyperscaler consolidation around high‑utilization zones in Northern and Western countries.

Leo Gergs Principal Analyst, ABI Research

Cloud hyperscalers have also taken a keen interest in South America and the Middle East & Africa. Although these regions are home to far fewer data centers than other regions, they will experience significant growth in facility construction throughout the decade. Saudi Arabia, with aspirations to become a tech hub in the Middle East, has piqued the curiosity of hyperscaler tech companies. For example, Saudi Arabia’s plans to become a manufacturing hub will necessitate expanding cloud resources. Moreover, as analyzed by ABI Research CRO Malik Saadi, billions of dollars are being invested in building AI data center infrastructure in the Gulf states. 

Over in Latin America, large-scale projects like the Goldman Sachs-backed Rio AI City will increase AI data center capacity in the region from 443 MW in 2026 to 1.6 GW by 2031.

This growing appetite for cloud-based solutions will present a huge opportunity for data center owners and construction companies. However, successfully capitalizing on these opportunities requires a careful evaluation of design best practices, climate impact, local grid capacity, and compute demand. Talk to a member of ABI Research today if your organization needs a tech intelligence provider that can create custom reports, issue surveys, build thought leadership content, and provide strategic consulting. 

Related Articles:

Where Is AI Data Center Demand Growth Being Driven?

Top 25 Largest Data Center Companies in the U.S. by Active IT Capacity (2025 Edition)

Forecasting Data Center Capacity Increases in the AI Era

Frequently Asked Questions           

How Many Data Centers Are There Globally?

According to ABI Research, there will be 8,821 data centers in operation worldwide in 2026. This number is broken down into:

• 4,029 colocation sites
• 2,327 Hyperscale Tier One sites
• 879 Hyperscale Tier Two sites
• 696 neocloud sites
• 536 government/sovereign cloud suites
• 354 captive sites (enterprise, privately owned)

The total number of live data centers will jump to 10,242 by 2030 and 12,048 by 2035.

How Many Data Centers Will Be Built?

Between 2026 and 2035, ABI Research expects 3,226 data centers to be constructed worldwide (including colocation, hyperscale, neocloud, government/sovereign cloud, and captive sites). While North America and Europe are already mature markets for data center infrastructure, construction in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East is growing the fastest.

What Are Hyperscale Data Centers?

Hyperscale data centers are larger, remote facilities operated by cloud service providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Meta, and Oracle. Hyperscale data centers provide far more cloud computing capacity than enterprise data centers, which is essential for large-scale AI deployments. Hyperscalers are increasingly focusing on building data center facilities in Southeast Asia and the Middle East as these regions digitally transform.

How Many Hyperscale Data Centers Are There?

There are 3,207 hyperscale data centers worldwide in 2026, with that number increasing to 3,280 in 2025. Growing at a Compound Growth Rate (CAGR) of 1.2%, this number will jump to 3,558 by 2035. North America has had the most hyperscale data centers built to date, while Asia-Pacific's construction frequency will be more rapid.  As an outlier, Europe is forecast to see a decrease in the number of hyperscale data centers.

Who Owns the Most Hyperscale Data Centers?

Amazon Web Services (AWS) owns the most hyperscale data centers, according to ABI Research data. The Bezos-owned tech giant operates 105 data centers in the United States, with 2.3 GW of live IT capacity as of 2025.

How Many Data Centers Are There for Google?

Google has 22 data centers in the United States as of 2025. ABI Research data indicates that these facilities are supporting 508 MW of active IT capacity.

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