- The capital regions of the U.S. and China are the world's two largest data center markets
- Malaysia, India and Spain will have some of the fastest growing footprints in the coming years
- But when it comes to Chinese data centers, they primarily serve domestic clients
When it comes to hyperscale data center capacity, no other country can hold a candle to the U.S. and China. And despite massive hyperscale expansion efforts across the globe, that’s not going to change anytime soon.
Just two markets – Northern Virginia in the U.S. and China’s capital city of Beijing – account for just under a quarter of all global hyperscale data center capacity, new data from Synergy Research Group showed. Hyperscale, of course, refers to data centers run by 19 of the top cloud and internet companies. Think Amazon, Microsoft, Google Cloud, Meta, Alibaba, Tencent, Apple and the like.
According to Synergy’s data, the U.S. houses seven of the top 10 data center markets (measured by capacity), while China is home to two. And out of the top 20, 13 are in the U.S. and three are in China. Those top 20 markets account for 62% of hyperscale data center capacity.
All told, the U.S. accounts for 51% of global data center capacity while China boasts 16%.
Synergy noted that there’s a data center construction pipeline of around 510 facilities at the moment. The firm previously forecast that between 120-130 new hyperscale data centers will come online each year over the coming years.
Chief Analyst John Dinsdale told Fierce that Malaysia, India, Spain, Mexico, Norway and New Zealand will be among the countries with the fastest growing data center capacity in the short term.
However, he noted there is also “a lot of activity to continue building hyperscale data centers in both the U.S. and China. They will still be the top two countries five years from now. No other country will come even close.”
But there is a key difference between U.S. hyperscale data centers and those in China: “The current Chinese hyperscale data centers are predominantly serving local customers. If you look at companies like Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu and China Telecom, the vast majority of their revenues are generated in China,” Dinsdale said.