Data Center Energy Demand Has Projected to Hit 219 GW
AI-driven workloads have triggered a massive surge in infrastructure requirements through 2030.
Updated on Sept. 28, 2026 in Data Centers
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Global data center IT demand is projected to rise from 60 gigawatts in 2023 to 219 gigawatts by 2030, driven by the rapid scaling of AI agents. Vertiv confirmed these infrastructure shifts during its 2026 industry event in Zagreb.
Why it matters
The explosion in AI token volume—surging to 3.2 quadrillion monthly for Google alone by May 2026—has forced a critical redesign of power and cooling systems. This demand necessitates a fundamental change in how global data centers are architected to support next-generation compute.
Global data center investment reached $502.7 billion in 2025, with an 11.2% compound annual growth rate. NVIDIA currently projects that individual server racks will approach 1 megawatt of power consumption by 2028.
The players
Vertiv
A provider of critical digital infrastructure and cooling systems for data centers globally.
NVIDIA
A designer of graphics processing units and high-performance computing platforms for AI data centers.
A major hyperscale cloud service provider and developer of large-scale AI models.
The details
Vertiv is shifting assembly from traditional field construction to factory-built converged systems to meet the density requirements of AI workloads. These systems incorporate direct liquid cooling—a heat transfer method using liquids to absorb heat from high-performance processors—and advanced DC power distribution to improve energy efficiency. The company is currently expanding production capacity by 22,000 square meters in Nové Město, Slovakia, to support this hardware transition.
Timeline
2023: Global data center IT demand was 60 gigawatts.
May 2024: Google monthly token volume was 9.7 trillion.
2025: Global data center investment reached $502.7 billion.
September 21-25, 2026: Vertiv Week 2026 took place in Zagreb.
2030: Global data center IT demand is projected to reach 219 gigawatts.
The Tech Race
The transition to 1-megawatt racks marks a fundamental departure from the standard air-cooled designs that dominated the industry for decades. This shift in hardware density is currently creating a new competition among infrastructure suppliers aiming to capture a share of the projected $1.457 trillion market by 2035.
The adoption of AI-ready infrastructure is accelerating, as 80% of enterprise applications shipped in early 2026 now embed AI agents. Businesses should anticipate a shift toward factory-converged power and cooling systems, which may reduce deployment time for high-density compute environments.
The takeaway
The industry is moving rapidly toward a 219-gigawatt requirement by 2030, necessitating a shift toward liquid-cooled, factory-built rack systems. Stakeholders should watch the closing of the UtilityInnovation Group acquisition in Q4 2026 as a bellwether for consolidation in the cooling sector.
What happens next
The acquisition of UtilityInnovation Group by Vertiv is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Further reading
For more on the changing requirements of modern infrastructure, visit our Data Centers section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Morocco World News.
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