Gartner: AI and Datacentre Spending Ramps Up
•February 3, 2026
0
Companies Mentioned
Gartner
Why It Matters
The shift toward AI‑optimized infrastructure reallocates capital toward high‑performance compute, reshaping vendor strategies and enterprise roadmaps. Faster AI adoption also fuels new markets such as synthetic data and heightened energy demand.
Key Takeaways
- •IT spend reaches $6.2 tn by 2026
- •Datacentre equipment growth 32% YoY
- •AI spending hits $2.52 tn, up 44%
- •AI‑optimized servers cost three‑times traditional
- •Power use in datacentres doubles by 2026
Pulse Analysis
Gartner’s latest forecast underscores a pivotal inflection point for the technology sector. While overall IT expenditure climbs modestly to $6.2 trillion, the real engine of growth is the datacentre ecosystem, where equipment purchases are expected to rise 32% by 2026. This surge is anchored by hyperscale cloud operators that are scaling AI compute capacity at unprecedented rates, prompting a reallocation of capital from legacy workloads to purpose‑built AI servers. The ripple effect extends to software vendors, whose offerings must now integrate AI capabilities to stay competitive.
The AI boom is reshaping hardware economics. Gartner notes that organizations are spending three to four times more on AI‑optimized servers than on traditional systems, a trend that will inflate datacentre power consumption to double within four years. Synthetic data, a rapidly expanding niche projected to grow from $3.1 bn to $6.4 bn by 2027, mitigates data‑scarcity and privacy concerns, further accelerating AI model training. Meanwhile, AI infrastructure spending alone is slated to add $401 bn in 2026, reflecting both the construction of foundational layers and the procurement of specialized accelerators.
For enterprise leaders, the forecast signals both opportunity and caution. While AI is positioned as a transformational technology, Gartner places enterprise buyers in the "trough of disillusionment," suggesting that adoption will likely occur through incumbent software providers rather than bold, standalone projects. Simultaneously, rising memory prices are throttling broader IT growth, constraining device refresh cycles and squeezing margins in lower‑end markets. Companies must therefore balance aggressive AI investment with prudent cost management, ensuring ROI predictability before scaling AI initiatives across the organization.
Gartner: AI and datacentre spending ramps up
IT spending is to grow almost 11% (10.8%), hitting $6.2 tn in 2026, according to the latest forecast from analyst Gartner
Gartner’s most recent IT spending forecast shows that spending on datacentre equipment is set to rise by 32 % in 2026, while spending on software has been forecast to grow by nearly 15 %.
Much of this is linked to hyperscalers growing their artificial intelligence (AI) compute capacity. John‑David Lovelock, distinguished vice‑president analyst at Gartner, said: “Demand from hyperscale cloud providers continues to drive investment in servers optimised for AI workloads.”
Along with its global outlook for IT spending, Gartner has forecast that worldwide spending on AI will total $2.52 tn in 2026, a 44 % increase year over year (YoY). After 20 years of flat‑to‑declining server spending, AI has created an explosive growth in infrastructure investment, according to Lovelock.
He said that organisations are spending three‑to‑four times more money on AI‑optimised servers than traditional servers. “Three times more money is spent on servers to do AI than everything we currently do with computers,” he said.
Gartner’s forecast shows that building AI foundations alone will drive a 49 % increase in spending on AI‑optimised servers, representing 17 % of total AI spending for 2026. It predicted that AI infrastructure will also add $401 bn in spending in 2026 as a result of technology providers building out AI foundations.
According to Gartner’s forecast, datacentre power consumption is projected to double in four years due to AI demands.
Lovelock noted that technology providers are currently investing heavily in AI infrastructure, however he pointed out that enterprise IT buyers are in Gartner’s “trough of disillusionment” phase, which, from an AI adoption perspective, means they tend to adopt AI‑enabled products from existing software providers.
“Because AI is in the trough of disillusionment throughout 2026, it will most often be sold to companies by their incumbent software provider rather than bought as part of a new moonshot project,” said Lovelock. “The improved predictability of ROI must occur before AI can truly be scaled up by the business.”
Nevertheless, Gartner’s forecast suggests that for IT and business leaders, AI is a transformational technology.
“Getting away from AI is going to be impossible, so the transformation is there. We’re seeing all the money being spent, we’re seeing the compute capacity required to do all of that transformation, and the money is the leading indicator of how important it is,” he said.
Gartner expects the market for AI data to more than double by 2027 from $3.1 bn to $6.4 bn. Lovelock said synthetic data is driving this growth. For Lovelock, synthetic data overcomes data‑scarcity issues, addresses privacy concerns and reduces bias in AI training. In addition he notes that synthetic data enables the creation of comprehensive training scenarios that are impossible with real data.
Not all areas of IT are experiencing growth or benefiting from the drive to adopt AI. Gartner’s IT spending forecast shows that market‑demand constraints will slow growth to 6.1 % in 2026.
“This slowdown is largely due to rising memory prices, which are increasing average selling prices and discouraging device replacements,” said Lovelock. “Additionally, higher memory costs are causing shortages in the lower end of the market, where profit margins are thinner. These factors are contributing to more muted growth in device shipments.”
0
Comments
Want to join the conversation?
Loading comments...