The total investment in global data centre infrastructure more than doubled in 2021 – up from US$24.4 billion in 2020 to US$53.8 billion in 2021. The total number of data centre transactions increased by 64% in the same period, up from 69 in 2020 to 113 in 2021; according to a report by DLA Piper, entitled The meteoric rise of the data centre: Key drivers behind global demand. The report surveyed 100 senior executives from infrastructure, equity and debt provider firms and data centre developers from around the world.
The extraordinary growth is expected to continue in 2022, supported by the fact that there have been 41 transactions, worth US$21.3 billion, for the current year. This is an increase of over 100% compared to the same period last year and almost as much as the combined annual value seen in both 2019 and 2020.
Just under half of developers (45%), 56% of debt providers and 67% of equity investors are planning to invest in four or more data centre projects in the next 24 months; up from 10%, 27% and 37% respectively, who invested in four or more data centres in the past 24 months. The record-breaking demand for data centres is driven by the growth of hyperscalers, which have thrived amid the transition to cloud service which has itself been escalated by the pandemic.
