The most recent research from Synergy Research Group reveals that the number of large data centers operated by hyper-scale providers increased to 992 by the end of 2023, surpassing the one thousand mark by early 2024. Additionally, the total capacity of these data centers has doubled in just four years, driven by rapid growth in the number of facilities and a continuous increase in their average capacity.
According to Synergy’s data, the United States still accounts for 51% of global capacity, measured in megawatts of critical IT load, while Europe and China together share approximately one-third of the remaining capacity. Looking ahead, Synergy forecasts that the total capacity of hyper-scale data centers will double again in the next four years. Each year, it is estimated that between 120 and 130 new hyper-scale data centers will begin operations, but the capacity growth will be largely driven by the even larger scale of the new centers, with generative AI technology being one of the main reasons for this increase in scale.
The research is based on an analysis of the data center footprint of 19 of the world’s leading cloud and internet service companies, including major players in SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, search, social networking, e-commerce, and gaming. The cloud providers with the largest data center footprint are Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. In addition to a significant presence in their local U.S. market, each also owns multiple data centers in many other countries around the world. Together, these three now represent 60% of all hyper-scale data center capacity. They are followed in the ranking by Meta/Facebook, Alibaba, Tencent, Apple, ByteDance, and then other relatively smaller hyper-scale operators.
Synergy projects that future growth will largely be based on its tracking of the pipeline of future hyper-scale data centers from operators, which currently includes 440 facilities in various stages of planning, development, or equipage.
“While both the number of hyper-scale data centers and their average size continue to grow at an impressive rate, there is a lot of complexity and nuance behind these trends,” said John Dinsdale, Chief Analyst at Synergy Research Group. “Typically, company-owned data centers are much larger than leased ones, and data centers in a hyper-scale company’s home country are much larger than their international facilities, although there are many exceptions to these trends. We are also seeing a bifurcation in data center scale. While core data centers are growing larger and larger, there is also a growing number of relatively smaller data centers being deployed to bring infrastructure closer to customers. Overall, all major growth trends are pointing strongly upwards and to the right.”
Synergy provides quarterly market tracking and segmentation data on IT and cloud markets, including vendor revenue by segment and region. Market shares and forecasts are provided through Synergy’s uniquely designed online database, SIA™, which allows easy access to complex datasets. Synergy’s Competitive Matrix™ and CustomView™ take this research capability one step further, enabling its clients to receive ongoing quantitative market research that aligns with their executive internal view of the market segments in which they compete.
Source: Synergy Research (https://www.srgresearch.com/articles/hyperscale-data-centers-hit-the-thousand-mark-total-capacity-is-doubling-every-four-years)