Investment in AI infrastructure is set to reach a record $31.6tn, according to projections in PwC’s first Global Data Centre Outlook, launched today (2 September 2026).
PwC commissioned Oxford Economics to model data centre capital expenditure for this analysis, covering 46 countries and territories.
The US is forecast to be the big winner from this investment, predicted to capture about $15.1trn or almost 48% of the total surge. Alongside this, PwC forecasts that data centre capital expenditure will more than double over the next 25 years to $1.8trn per year in 2050, up from the current $800bn per year.
Compared to traditional infrastructure booms, this investment is expected to accelerate over time, as chips and other equipment require upgrades every few years, the report noted. “GPUs and servers typically turn over every four to six years, meaning a single data centre may require three to five rounds of ICT investment over a 20-year asset life,” the report said.
However, it also noted that capex will not be spread evenly and will be affected by policy certainty, security and GPU access. The biggest choke point for many markets will be access to affordable, reliable energy at scale.
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Clara Cutajar, global infrastructure leader at PwC Australia, said the theme of AI infrastructure cuts across everything from technology to energy and real estate.
“AI infrastructure is becoming one of the defining capital allocation challenges of the next generation,” she said. “This changes how infrastructure investors need to think about capital requirements, risk and returns.”
The report noted that its central scenarios assume a reasonably open trade system, workloads were serviced in favourable conditions, and capacity was built based on “comparative advantages”. However, the report conceded that there is no guarantee this holds and modelled two other scenarios.
First, in a world of tighter export controls of chips, cumulative global investment through 2050 falls to roughly $25.5trn, almost $6trn less than the current central forecast.
In the other scenario, digital sovereignty and an emphasis on trusted digital infrastructure mean investment will shift towards companies with strong domestic demand and underdeveloped data centre capacity.
Cumulative global capex drops to just $29.5trn by 2050, but it may get redistributed to Asia Pacific and Africa, according to this scenario.
The point of this scenario modelling is to show that capturing this investment trend requires a more active sense of positioning, according to PwC’s Cutajar.
“The AI buildout is not a rising tide that will naturally lift all boats.
“Investors should recognise data centres as hybrid assets with a complicated risk profile,” she concluded.
