Global Data Centers Report 2025
- The Earth & I Editorial Team
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Data Volume and Live IT Capacity on the Rise
Data centers—such as those used by Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta—are crucial for data connectivity, storage, and processing. However, these pose concerns given their large real estate footprint and energy consumption. Knight Frank, an independent real estate consultancy firm based in London, released a report on global data centers in 2025, including power output. Below are some figures from the report.
In 2024, total data “created, captured, copied, and consumed” was around 150 Zettabytes (10^18 bytes or 1 billion terabytes) and global mobile data traffic was around 125 Exabytes (10^15 bytes or 1 million terabytes) per month. These are projected to increase sharply to just under 500 Zettabytes and just over 350 Exabytes per month, respectively, by 2030.
By 2026, global Live IT capacity is estimated to reach 66,504 megawatts (MW), about a 45% increase from 45,676 MW in 2024. Just over half—33,316 MW—is planned in North America, with 6,623 MW alone in Ashburn, Virginia (also known as the “data center alley” of the world).
Outside the US, locations with the top Live IT capacities in 2026 will be London (1,828 MW), Tokyo (1,489 MW), Dublin (1,471 MW), Sydney (1,123 MW), and Singapore (1,091 MW).
Over the next three years, data center capacity is projected to increase by 35 gigawatts (GW), of which 30% would be for artificial intelligence (AI) processing. The real estate footprint is also projected to increase from 120 million square feet (about 2,754 acres) to 150 million square feet (about 3,443 acres).
In the US, in six of eight locations, renewable and clean energy standards for data centers are expected to increase between 2035 and 2050. Notably, these standards are projected to increase to 100% in Illinois, Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin, New York, and North Carolina.
Projects are planned in some locations to provide residential heating using excess heat from data centers. Microsoft is aiming for 6,000 homes in Denmark; UK’s Old Park Royal Development Corporation is aiming for over 10,000 homes in the UK; and Fortum is aiming for 250,000 “heat users” in Finland.
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