Data centres and AI compute: players, trends and cases
Who the players are by region, the 2024 to 2026 build-out and sovereign AI programmes, regulation basics, and typical case prompts.
Industry brief, with a one-minute summary: Data centres, cloud and AI computeFirm processes and online tests change from year to year and differ by office. Use this to prepare, and confirm the exact current steps on the firm's own careers page.
Key takeaways
- Data centre cases are usually bets on three things at once: will the demand be there, can you get the power in time, and will the price still cover a very large investment when the capacity arrives?
- Common traps: Starting a site case with land price or tax instead of power.
- Cloud demand accelerated.
- GPU clouds grew very fast, with debt.
Key idea
Data centre cases are usually bets on three things at once: will the demand be there, can you get the power in time, and will the price still cover a very large investment when the capacity arrives?
| Region | Examples |
|---|---|
| Global cloud (hyperscalers) | Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle; Meta builds for its own use |
| GPU clouds (neoclouds) | CoreWeave, Nebius, Lambda, Crusoe (US and Europe) |
| Colocation, global | Equinix, Digital Realty, NTT Data, AirTrunk (owned by Blackstone) |
| Europe | Global colocation firms plus Data4 and OpCore (France, owned by Iliad and InfraVia), atNorth (Nordics), Mistral AI compute (France) |
| Middle East | G42 and Khazna (UAE), Humain (Saudi Arabia, owned by the Public Investment Fund), center3 (stc, Saudi Arabia) |
| India | Yotta, CtrlS, Sify, NTT Data, AdaniConneX, Reliance Jio |
| Southeast Asia | STT GDC and Keppel (Singapore), Princeton Digital Group, AirTrunk; large campuses in Johor (Malaysia) and Batam (Indonesia) near Singapore |
So-what
Synergy Research estimates that in the second quarter of 2026 Amazon had about 28 percent of cloud infrastructure spending, Microsoft about 20 percent and Google about 15 percent, together about two thirds.
Trends from 2024 to 2026 (checked 30 September 2026)
- Cloud demand accelerated. Synergy Research puts cloud infrastructure spending at about USD 143 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up about 43 percent on a year earlier, the fastest growth in eight years, driven by generative AI.
- Record capital spending. For 2026, Amazon guided to about USD 200 billion and Alphabet raised its range to about USD 195 to 205 billion (CNBC, July 2026); Microsoft now reports about USD 175 billion including finance leases for calendar 2026, down from about USD 190 billion only because of a lease accounting change (July 2026); Meta guided to USD 130 to 145 billion (Meta, July 2026). Investors keep asking when this will pay back.
- GPU clouds grew very fast, with debt. CoreWeave reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of about USD 2.6 billion and a revenue backlog (contracted future revenue) of about USD 104 billion, while still reporting a net loss because of interest on its borrowing (CoreWeave).
- Capacity is scarce and costs are rising. CBRE reports record-low vacancy of about 1.4 percent in primary North American markets in the first half of 2026 and a record 7,481 MW under construction; Cushman & Wakefield reports build costs up about 21 percent per MW since late 2024.
- Power became the limit. The IEA projects data centre electricity use roughly doubling from about 415 TWh in 2024 to about 945 TWh in 2030. In Ireland, data centres used 23 percent of metered electricity in 2025 (CSO), up from 5 percent in 2015.
- Sovereign AI build-outs. Governments want AI compute inside their borders: the UAE's Stargate UAE plans a 1 GW cluster with a first 200 MW phase due in 2026 (G42; The National); Saudi Arabia's Humain targets several GW by the 2030s (reported); India's IndiaAI Mission offers more than 38,000 GPUs to startups and researchers at subsidised rates of about INR 65 per GPU hour (PIB); the EU's InvestAI plan includes EUR 20 billion for AI gigafactories (European Commission). Announced plans often change, so check progress.
Data centres need land zoning, building and environmental permits, and a grid connection approved by the local network operator. Data protection and data residency laws (the EU GDPR, India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law) push some data to stay in the country, which creates local demand. The EU Energy Efficiency Directive requires larger data centres to report their energy and water use. The US controls exports of the most advanced AI chips to some countries, and these rules have changed several times since 2022, so check the current rules for any case involving AI chips and the Gulf, India or China.
| Case prompt | Structure hint | First driver to check |
|---|---|---|
| Where should we build a 300 MW AI campus? | Power (amount, date, price, source), land, water and cooling, fibre, permits, tax, chip export rules | Firm power available and the date the grid can deliver it |
| Should a telecom company in Southeast Asia enter colocation? | Market demand in MW, its land and fibre assets, capex, rivals, anchor tenants | Signed or likely anchor tenants for the first phase |
| Our GPU cloud is losing money. Why? | Price per GPU hour, utilisation, depreciation life, power, interest | Utilisation and contract length against the chips' useful life |
| Should a Gulf government fund a sovereign AI cluster? | Strategic goals, demand from local users, cost per GPU hour, chip access, skills, partners | Who will use the compute and at what price |
| Due diligence on a data centre developer | Power pipeline, leased MW and contract terms, tenant quality, build cost and delays, debt | Share of the pipeline with secured power and signed leases |
So-what
Start every data centre case with power and signed demand. Buildings are the easy part.
Starting a site case with land price or tax instead of power. Treating the building (decades) and the chips (a few years) as one asset with one life. Ignoring that colocation customers usually pay for their own electricity, so electricity is not the operator's biggest cost. Assuming today's GPU prices last: prices fell sharply after 2024 on many platforms. Counting announced capacity as if it were built and powered.
Cloud infrastructure spending was about USD 143 billion in a quarter, up about 43 percent on the same quarter a year earlier. Roughly what was spending a year earlier, in USD billions? Round to the nearest billion.
Related modules: "Semiconductors, electronics, and data centers" covers the chip supply chain; "Power and renewables" covers power purchase agreements and grid economics; "Software and SaaS" covers the companies that buy cloud; "Capacity, supply chain, and footprint" and "Investment and capital project decisions" are the case types these cases most often become.
Why do governments in the Gulf, India and Europe fund sovereign AI compute?
A colocation company's electricity bill rose 30 percent. Why might its profit barely change?
Sources for this lesson (23)
- International Energy Agency: Energy and AI, executive summary (official, April 2025)
- Uptime Institute: Global Data Center Survey 2025 (July 2025)
- Business Wire: Uptime Institute 15th annual Global Data Center Survey results, average PUE 1.54 (July 2025)
- CBRE: North America Data Center Trends H1 2026 (September 2026)
- CBRE press release: Silicon Valley data center market in the second half of 2025, asking rents USD 180 to 275 per kW per month (26 February 2026)
- IREI: Cushman & Wakefield releases 2026 Data Center Development Cost Guide, costs up 21 percent per MW since late 2024
- CRE Daily: data center construction costs jump 21 percent since 2024, USD 8.9 million to 23.3 million per MW (citing Cushman & Wakefield)
- Supermicro: SuperServer SRS-GB200-NVL72 rack specification, power supplies rated at a total of 132 kW (official product page)
- AWS News Blog: up to 45 percent price reduction for Amazon EC2 NVIDIA GPU-accelerated instances (June 2025, official)
- Lambda: GPU cloud on-demand pricing page (official price list, checked September 2026)
- Synergy Research Group: Q2 cloud market passes USD 143 billion, highest growth rate in eight years (2026)
- CNBC: hyperscalers face capex scrutiny after the Alphabet report (July 2026)
- Let's Data Science: Microsoft keeps its AI infrastructure plan as reported 2026 capex falls to about USD 175 billion after a lease accounting change (29 July 2026)
- Meta: second quarter 2026 results, full-year capital expenditure outlook (official)
- CoreWeave: second quarter 2026 results, revenue and backlog (official)
- Equinix: fourth quarter and full year 2025 results (official)
- Central Statistics Office Ireland: Data Centres Metered Electricity Consumption 2025 (official, July 2026)
- Press Information Bureau, Government of India: IndiaAI Mission expands AI ecosystem with affordable compute (official)
- European Commission: EU launches InvestAI to mobilise EUR 200 billion of investment in AI, with EUR 20 billion for AI gigafactories (February 2025, official)
- G42: global tech alliance launches Stargate UAE (official)
- The National: Stargate UAE first phase to be completed in the third quarter of 2026 (December 2025)
- Data Center Dynamics: Saudi AI company Humain targets 6.6 GW by 2034 (2026)
- Recognized public explanations of case-interview concepts and frameworks
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