Data centers drew more than US$ 580 billion in investments last year, which represents a year-on-year growth of 27 percent, finds a report by Colliers. Moreover, 40 to 50 percent of total project costs are attributed to power infrastructure, as power has overtaken location as the primary driver of site selection.
The report also finds that hyperscale debt of more than US$ 120 billion was issued to fund AI infrastructure. As per the report titled Facilitating AI with Unprecedented Infrastructure Investment, AI-driven demand is rapidly reshaping the data center landscape, pushing the industry into a new phase defined by power scarcity, rising capital intensity, and infrastructure-scale execution.
“Power availability, delivery timing, and contractual certainty have become the primary determinants of project feasibility, valuation, and absorption, with near-term deliverability driving a disproportionate share of demand,” finds the report.
It also found that AI-driven demand is accelerating deployment timelines, encouraging operators to secure multi-market pipelines, and intensifying competition for power-advantaged locations. “Capital formation is shifting earlier in the development cycle, with private credit and structured capital sources accounting for approximately 60–75 percent of pre-development funding and supporting longer, more capital-intensive timelines,” says the report.
For 2026, Colliers says that alternative energy partnerships will expand, with natural gas solutions advancing more quickly than nuclear and small modular reactors (SMR) deployments. It further says that AI-driven build cycles may create localized overheating, increasing the risk of valuation recalibration where speculative pipelines exceed confirmed demand.
