{"id":1004790323,"date":"2026-03-04T11:28:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004790323"},"modified":"2026-04-14T06:02:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T14:02:56","slug":"whos-funding-the-data-center-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/whos-funding-the-data-center-boom\/","title":{"rendered":"Who\u2019s Funding the Data Center Boom?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Clockwise: Michael Dorrell of Stonepeak, Christopher Wellise of Equinix, Marc Ganzi of Digital Bridge, Sikander Rashid of Brookfield and Andrew Schaap of Aligned Data Centers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Overall market growth in data centers and related infrastructure is projected to approach $3 trillion over the next five years, with about 100 GWs of new capacity to come online, creating $1.2 trillion in real estate asset values. Total data center investment in 2025 was nearly $500 billion, and it is expected to reach $650 billion in 2026, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who’s providing the capital for all this growth? Largely, it’s the following entities. Whether as users, equity partners or private lenders, these investors are fueling the big AI infrastructure buildout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hyperscalers <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Combined, hyperscalers Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet (Google), and Apple invested about $350 billion in data centers and supporting infrastructure<\/a> in 2025 and plan to spend about $650 billion more in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Tim Cooke, CEO, Apple Inc.

Photo by Molly Riley\/Whitehouse.gov<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Apple Inc. <\/strong>launched a four-year, $600 billion capex investment plan in 2025 aimed at expanding domestic manufacturing and AI infrastructure. It is expected to expend about $13 billion in 2026, which includes a facility in Houston to assemble servers and acquire 100 million advanced chips to power its infrastructure, It also  will launch a billion-dollar partnership with Google and hybrid cloud model, The Futurum Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon<\/strong> invested $131 billion, including $50 billion in 2025 to its AI and high-performance computing infrastructure for U.S. government users, $15 billion for new data center campuses in Northern Indiana, and $12 billion to fund a massive infrastructure bond offering. It leads the field with a $200 billion capex plan for 2026, most of which is slated for data centers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Microsoft <\/strong>invested an estimated $80 billion to $88 billion in 2025 to build out AI-enabled data centers and expand infrastructure to meet demand for Azure and AI services. More than half of total invested was used to expand U.S. data center capacity and secure sustainable energy resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Microsoft is projected to invest approximately $100 billion to $120 billion in capital expenditures in 2026 to expand its network of more than 400 data centers in over 70 regions worldwide, but the vast majority of capital will be directed toward U.S. data centers and AI infrastructure. This tech giant is launching a global “AI factory” to double its data center footprint over the next two years, and in the first half of fiscal 2026 plans to spend $72.4 billion on infrastructure. Projects include: a $10 billion Portugal Mega Data Center in Sines, a $3.3 billion “AI Factory\u201d in Mount Pleasant, Wis.; expansion of U.S. Cloud Expansion in New Availability Zones in the North Central U.S. region and for Arizona Government officials; and the first stages of a $115 billion “Stargate” AI supercomputer project, developed in partnership with OpenAI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alphabet<\/strong> (Google\u2019s parent company) invested $91.4 billion to $93 billion in AI infrastructure, data centers and server capacity in 2025. Key investments included $40 billion to ramp up data center capacity in Texas over the next two years. Alphabet plans to double its capital investment in 2026 to a projected $175 billion to $185 billion, mostly for technical infrastructure to support AI and cloud computing demands. This includes up to $111 billion for AI accelerators, storage and specialized silicon; $74 billion for construction of data centers in Pine Island, Minn., and Wilbrager County, Tex., power infrastructure, and networking equipment; and $4.75 billion to acquire data center operator Intersect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meta <\/strong>reported investment of $72.22 billion in capital expenditures last year, which primarily funded construction of new high-efficiency data  centers, GPU cluster expansion and the development of AI hardware, including the MTIA v2 accelerator chip. Meta expects capital investment to range from $115 billion to $135 billion in 2026 to further accelerate AI development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CPE Capital Markets Newsletter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Executive Editor Therese Fitzgerald delivers the capital markets intel that moves the needle.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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