The global data center market continued to accelerate in mid 2026, with hyperscale operators and infrastructure developers announcing major investments across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and South America. Driven by soaring demand for artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and high-performance computing (HPC), the month saw the launch of multi-gigawatt campuses, strategic land acquisitions, major financing deals, and new energy partnerships to support next-generation digital infrastructure.

Notable new data center project developments included Meta's 5 GW Hyperion expansion in Louisiana, SoftBank's proposed 5 GW AI data center program in France, AirTrunk's planned 3 GW campus in India, Brookfield and NextEra's USD 100 billion Paducah AI Energy Hub, and SK Telecom's USD 91.5 billion data center investment plan in South Korea. 

Meanwhile, companies including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, QTS, Digital Realty, Pure DC, and Alibaba Cloud continued expanding their global footprints through new campuses, operational milestones, and AI-ready infrastructure projects.

North America Data Center Developments

Project Saltworks

Headwaters Site Development, an affiliate of Stream Data Centers, is planning Project Saltworks, a large-scale data center campus on an approximately 890-acre site in Graham, Texas. The proposed development includes 15 data center buildings and is expected to attract around USD 10 billion in investment. The project remains in the proposed stage and IT capacity has not been disclosed.

Lancium Clean Campus

QTS has announced plans to invest approximately USD 10 billion to develop up to 11 data center buildings at Lancium's Clean Campus in Hall County, Texas. The campus spans around 465 acres and is supported by a 1 GW grid connection, with Lancium also providing on-site solar and battery energy storage. The project will feature closed-loop cooling systems to minimize water consumption and marks Lancium's second major Clean Campus development in Texas.

Hyperion Campus Expansion

Meta has expanded plans for its Hyperion data center campus in Richland Parish, Louisiana, increasing its planned capacity from 2 GW to 5 GW. The company will invest up to USD 50 billion in the project and has acquired an additional 1,400 acres, significantly expanding the campus footprint. Meta is also committing USD 1 billion to local infrastructure improvements, including roads, water, and wastewater systems, reinforcing the site's role as one of the company's largest AI-focused data center developments.

Matagorda County Campus

MARA Holdings has acquired a 1,200-acre site in Matagorda County, Texas, to develop a large-scale AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and Bitcoin mining campus. The site is expected to support up to 2 GW of power capacity, making it one of the company's largest planned infrastructure developments. The land acquisition marks the initial phase of the project, with further development plans to be announced.

Montgomery Amazon Data Center Campus

Amazon plans to invest USD 10 billion to develop a new data center campus in Montgomery County, Missouri, supporting the growing demand for cloud computing and AI infrastructure. The project is expected to generate substantial economic benefits, including long-term tax revenue and new jobs. Amazon will also fund all electrical grid connection costs in partnership with Ameren Missouri and is supporting local water conservation efforts through a collaboration with Arable Labs.

Montgomery Google Data Center Campus

Google has announced plans to invest approximately USD 15 billion in a new data center campus near New Florence in Montgomery County, Missouri. Located along the Interstate 70 corridor, the hyperscale development will support the company's expanding AI and cloud computing infrastructure. The announcement follows Amazon's planned investment in the county, bringing the combined value of announced data center projects in Montgomery County to USD 25 billion.

La Porte Data Center

Microsoft has broken ground on a more than USD 1 billion data center campus in La Porte, Indiana, with the first three data center buildings expected to begin operations in 2029. The initial development spans 500 acres, with plans to expand onto an adjacent 1,300-acre site, bringing the total campus to 17 data center buildings over the next decade. The project is expected to create more than 600 permanent jobs and support thousands of construction jobs during the buildout.

Mount Pleasant Campus

Microsoft has officially commenced operations at the first data center on its Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin campus, marking a key milestone in its AI infrastructure expansion. The campus is part of a multi-building AI cluster, with the initial phase covering 315 acres and additional expansion already underway. Microsoft has also received approval to develop 15 more data center buildings, while construction of a second facility is expected to be completed in 2028.

Digital Realty Hyperscale Campus – Kansas

Digital Realty has acquired a 1,440-acre site in De Soto, Kansas, for USD 474 million to develop a new hyperscale data center campus, marking its entry into the Kansas City market. The first phase will include nine data center buildings across 280 acres, with approximately 3 million square feet of space. The campus is backed by a 600 MW power agreement with Evergy, with the potential to scale up to 2 GW, supporting future expansion.

Project Kilby AI Data Center Power Campus – Reeves County, Texas

Chevron and Microsoft have signed a 20-year power purchase agreement to develop Project Kilby, a dedicated energy facility supporting a new AI data center campus in Reeves County, Texas. Built on more than 2,000 acres, the project will provide up to 2.67 GW of natural gas-fired power directly to Microsoft's data center through a behind-the-meter configuration, avoiding reliance on the public grid. The first phase is expected to begin delivering power in late 2028, with further expansion planned into the 2030s.

Prime Data Centers Phoenix Campus – Avondale, Arizona

Prime Data Centers has broken ground on the first three buildings of its 240 MW hyperscale data center campus in Avondale, Arizona. The first phase includes three 267,000-square-foot facilities, with the full 66.5-acre campus set to comprise five data centers totaling 1.3 million square feet. Designed for AI and high-performance computing workloads, the campus will operate on 100% renewable energy and feature advanced closed-loop cooling technology to minimize water consumption.

Paducah American Energy Hub – Kentucky

Brookfield and NextEra Energy are developing the Paducah American Energy Hub, a USD 100 billion AI data center and energy campus on the former U.S. Department of Energy Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant site in Western Kentucky. The project will combine hyperscale AI data center infrastructure with new power generation and energy storage, creating approximately 8,000 construction jobs and 600 permanent jobs. 

Developed under the U.S. Department of Energy's American Energy Hubs initiative, the campus is expected to generate surplus electricity that can be supplied to the regional power grid.

Europe Data Center Developments

DC01UK - Equinix (Hertsmere, near London, UK)

DC01UK is a large-scale, AI-ready data center campus near South Mimms in Hertfordshire, whose planning was approved for development by Hertsmere Borough Council in July 2026. The site was acquired last year by colocation leader Equinix, which plans a GBP4 billion (about USD 5.3 billion) investment. Details of appearance, layout, landscaping, and scale are still to be determined, and the project is at the approved/early-development stage.

5GW AI data center - SoftBank Group (Hauts-de-France, northern France)

SoftBank Group committed to develop and operate 5 GW of AI data center capacity in France, an investment of up to EUR 75 billion (about USD 85-87 billion). The first phase, an initial EUR 45 billion, targets 3.1 GW of capacity across three sites in the Hauts-de-France region - Dunkirk (Loon-Plage), Bosquel, and Bouchain - by 2031. It is SoftBank's largest AI infrastructure commitment in Europe and remains in the announced/planning stage.

Seinäjoki campus - Pure DC (Seinäjoki, Finland)

Pure DC launched the first phase of its Seinäjoki data center project, with Microsoft reported among the customers leasing capacity. The site has been expanded to 550 MW, with a planned investment of more than EUR 7.5 billion (about USD 8.55 billion) for the full buildout. Phase one is underway, with the remainder of the capacity to follow.

Dublin data center - Pure DC (Dublin, Ireland)

Pure DC secured USD 2.7 billion in financing to accelerate AI infrastructure growth across Europe and the Middle East, including a USD 2.15 billion Dublin data center facility secured against the firm's Dublin and Amsterdam campuses. The financing supports development already in progress.

Horndal data center - Google (Horndal, Sweden)

Google launched a new data center in Horndal to support Search, Google Cloud, and YouTube services in the country. It is Google's first data center in Sweden and is operational. The investment figure was not disclosed.

Haugaland mega site - atNorth (Haugaland, Norway)

Colocation provider atNorth expanded into Norway with the purchase of land for a planned mega data center in Haugaland. The facility is slated to go online in 2028, initially delivering 120 MW and scaling to 350 MW at full capacity. It is at the land-acquisition stage; investment was not disclosed.

Joroinen site - Arcem (Joroinen, Finland)

Arcem signed an agreement with the municipality of Joroinen for an 800,000 sq m site that will host a facility with up to 500 MW of capacity. The first 60 MW construction phase is expected to launch in early 2027. The project is at the land-acquisition/planning stage.

MENA (Middle East & Africa) Data Center Developments

Portfolio landbank (6,000 MW) - Damac Digital (multi-country, incl. North Africa)

Damac Digital reached 6,000 MW in planned IT capacity across a portfolio spanning 13 countries. The infrastructure provider has broken ground on 10 new sites in the last five months, with eight expected to be operational by the end of 2026. It is at the active-development stage across multiple sites; total investment was not disclosed.

Hyperscale data centers - Hassan Allam Digital Infrastructure (Egypt)

Egypt approved a license for Hassan Allam Digital Infrastructure and Data Center Solutions to develop hyperscale data centers, backed by a first-phase capital projection of USD 400 million. The venture is at the licensing/early-development stage.

Sagebrush Infrastructure acquisition - Stark Power (Israel)

Stark Power committed to acquire 100% of Sagebrush Infrastructure Partners, a developer of hyperscale data centers co-located with natural gas-fired power plants. The transaction is at the acquisition-agreement stage; deal value was not disclosed.

Three new data centers - MIS / Saudi Data Center 1 (Saudi Arabia)

Al Moammar Information Systems (MIS) signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Data Center 1 to explore building three new data centers in the Kingdom, valid for 90 days from 21 July 2026. If the venture proceeds, MIS intends to act as designer, developer, and manager of all three facilities. It is at the MoU/exploratory stage; a prior 2024 deal between the two was valued at up to SAR 2.5 billion (about USD 666 million).

Riyadh data center + enterprise cloud - Letsia (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)

UAE-based technology conglomerate Letsia announced a SAR 50 million (about USD 13.3 million) investment to develop a new data center and enterprise cloud platform in Riyadh. The project is at the announcement stage.

Israel data centers - Crusoe (Israel)

Crusoe is reported to plan up to USD 10 billion in data center investment in Israel over the next 10 to 15 years. This is a reported long-term plan and remains unconfirmed in detail.

South America Data Center Developments

Brazil data center - ByteDance (Brazil)

ByteDance reportedly began construction of a large-scale data center in Brazil, with regional outlets citing a figure of roughly USD 38.44 billion. Given the size of the reported figure, it should be treated with caution and verified against a primary source. Construction is reported to have begun.

Rio AI City - consortium (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Rio AI City is a planned, plant-covered ("green") data center campus positioned to become Latin America's largest. It is at the planning stage; developer details and investment were not disclosed in the roundups.

Elea Data Centers acquisition - I Squared Capital (Brazil)

I Squared Capital expanded its Latin American data center franchise by acquiring Elea Data Centers, a leading Brazilian platform. The transaction has been announced/completed; deal value was not disclosed.

322 MW grid connection - Voltalia (Brazil)

Voltalia secured a 322 MW grid connection for data centers in Brazil, an enabling step tying renewable generation to future data center load rather than a single named facility. It is at the grid-connection/enabling stage; investment was not disclosed.

APAC Data Center Developments

Maharashtra campus - AirTrunk (Maharashtra, India)

AirTrunk, backed by Blackstone, plans to invest USD 21 billion in the western Indian state of Maharashtra to build a data center campus with 3 GW of capacity. The project is in the planning stage.

First AI-enabled data center - Meta / Reliance Industries (India)

Meta signed an agreement with Reliance Industries to lease its first AI-enabled data center in India. Meta is also partnering with two clean-energy providers, CleanMax and Fourth Partner Energy, to back nearly 1 GW of renewable energy. The lease agreement has been signed; investment was not disclosed.

Jakarta campus expansion - STT Global Data Centers (Jakarta, Indonesia)

STT GDC announced it will expand its Jakarta campus with new facilities totaling 360 MW of AI-ready IT capacity. This adds to a campus expected to reach a combined 2.7 GW by 2030. The expansion was announced and investment was not disclosed.

Ansan data center - Digital Edge (Ansan, South Korea)

Digital Edge acquired land in Ansan to develop 60 MW of AI-ready capacity, supported by a 90 MVA power agreement. The site will feature dual-feed power architecture backed by two independent 154 kV substations. It is at the land-acquisition stage; investment was not disclosed.

Bundey campus - Iren (South Australia)

Iren signed a transmission connection agreement to support a planned 800 MW data center campus in Bundey, with energization set for 2028. It is Iren's first Australian data center campus and is at the planning/pre-construction stage; investment was not disclosed.

New Korean data centers - SK Telecom (South Korea)

SK Telecom announced a plan to invest USD 91.5 billion in new Korean data centers, part of a broader national tech investment push. Separately, SK Telecom approved an AI data center subsidiary with plans to invest USD 500 million by 2030. These are at the announcement stage.

AI data center - HCLTech (India)

HCLTech announced it will set up a USD 1.48 billion AI data center in partnership with a domestic startup. The project is at the announcement stage.

Project Pluto - Goodman (Western Sydney, Australia)

The New South Wales government approved Goodman's AUD 1.1 billion (about USD 720 million) Project Pluto data center in Western Sydney. The project has received planning approval.

Gas-backed campus - consortium (gas-rich region, Australia)

A reported AUD 28 billion (about USD 18 billion) data center project backed by a gas-rich Australian region was proposed, tying large-scale compute to on-site or nearby gas generation. Details remain limited and the project is at the proposed/backed stage.

~1GW data center near Shanghai - ITC Properties (near Shanghai, China)

Hong Kong property firm ITC Properties signed a memorandum to build a roughly 1 GW data center near Shanghai. It is at the MoU stage; investment was not disclosed.

Johor public cloud region - Alibaba Cloud (Johor, Malaysia)

Alibaba Cloud launched a new public cloud region in Johor to meet rising demand for cloud services in the region. The region is operational; investment was not disclosed.

Conclusion

The latest wave of announcements highlights how AI is reshaping the global data center landscape. Developers are building larger hyperscale campuses, securing dedicated power infrastructure, and expanding into emerging markets to meet unprecedented compute demand. As governments, utilities, and technology companies invest in next-generation digital infrastructure, the pace of new data center construction is expected to remain strong through the rest of 2026. Tracking these projects provides valuable insight into where future capacity, investment, and business opportunities are likely to emerge.

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