Hyperscale Operators to Account for 67% of all Data Center Capacity by 2031

The number of large data centers operated by hyperscale companies reached 1,360 at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, and new data from Synergy Research Group shows that they now account for 48% of the worldwide capacity of all data centers. Almost 60% of that hyperscale capacity is now in own-built, owned data centers with the balance being in leased facilities. With non-hyperscale colocation capacity accounting for another 20% of total capacity, that leaves enterprise on-premise data centers with just 32% of the total. This is in stark contrast to 2018, when 56% of data center capacity was in on-premise facilities. Looking ahead to 2031, hyperscale operators will account for 67% of all capacity, while on-premise will drop to just 19%. Over that period, the total capacity of all data centers will continue to rise rapidly, driven primarily by hyperscale capacity growing more than threefold. While colocation share of total capacity will slowly decrease, colocation capacity will continue to increase each year at near double-digit rates. After a sustained period of essentially no growth, on-premise data center capacity is receiving something of a boost thanks to GenAI applications and GPU infrastructure. Nonetheless, on-premise share of the total will drop by around two percentage points per year over the forecast period. The Synergy data is based on a combination of several detailed quarterly tracking research services, allowing for a comprehensive analysis of data center capacity, segmented by region, country, and metropolitan area. The hyperscale research is based on in-depth analysis of the data center footprint and operations of the world’s major cloud and internet service firms, including the largest operators in SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, search, social networking, e-commerce and gaming. The colocation research is based on Synergy’s in-depth tracking of the colocation market, including quarterly data on over 320 individual companies. The enterprise on-premise analysis is based on Synergy’s tracking of the data center hardware market.

"Cloud and consumer-oriented digital services have been driving changes in data center deployment patterns for many years now, but over the last three years AI technology has accelerated those changes," said John Dinsdale, a Chief Analyst at Synergy Research Group. “We are seeing a different mix of data center usage across the regions, but overall the world is racing towards a situation where hyperscale operators are responsible for the bulk of global data center capacity. There are almost 800 hyperscale data centers in our known future pipeline, enabling hyperscale capacity to double in just three years."