On the Nordic wilderness, steel structure factories are rising from the ground. The new AI infrastructure force, once regarded as a supporting role, now holds the computing resources to occupy a large scale of land, stirring up the territory of European data centers. The traditional hosting model is ignited by the demand for AI, and the industry landscape is quietly changing. A new narrative of computing infrastructure is unfolding.

As a global commercial real estate service investment institution, CBRE has released the latest research results. Driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure, the scale of European data center intention contracts has significantly expanded, and the number of data center hosting contracts for AI business has achieved a fourfold increase in the past year. AI infrastructure emerging enterprises, known as new cloud service providers, continue to have a higher proportion of new business, with many projects located in Northern Europe.

The market size is rapidly expanding

Based on this research, the overall capacity of European data centers is expected to reach 13 gigawatts by the end of 2026, an increase of 20% compared to 2025. The growth rate of self built projects by ultra large enterprises is expected to be 22%, higher than the 18% growth rate of the hosting model, but the overall market share of the self built model is still relatively low.The hosting contract data focusing on AI business shows even more impressive performance, with a contracted scale of 420 MW in the first half of 2026, compared to only 89 MW in the same period of 2025. 66% of the contracted capacity will be supplied to new cloud service providers in Northern Europe, with abundant and low-cost renewable energy as the core advantage.

The industry model is undergoing a paradigm shift

The explosive demand for computing power has prompted data center operators and capital providers to increase their cooperation with new cloud service providers. Operators use financial instruments such as rental deposits and letters of credit to hedge cooperation risks and ensure the landing of project financing. Andrew Jay, the head of data center solutions at CBRE Europe, mentioned that new cloud service providers have grown into reliable tenants, taking large amounts of computing power resources in areas with low electricity costs. The data center industry's acceptance of development plans and supporting financial solutions for such enterprises is constantly increasing.

Kevin Restivo, the head of research at the European Data Center of the organization, analyzed that there is currently a huge gap in basic computing power. Some new cloud service providers hold high-quality customer resources and are able to obtain computing power resources to undertake AI business, driving the industry to experience explosive growth and expanding computing power construction to regions in Europe where data centers were previously less frequently deployed. Keywords: AI computing power, data center, Europe

The surge in computing power demand is driving the expansion of data center development layout to traditional non core regions in Europe. New cloud service providers build infrastructure for customers with huge computing power demands and lock in a large amount of computing power resources. The skyrocketing scale of contract signing indicates that the industry is undergoing changes, and operators are constantly adjusting their plans to meet the financing and risk management demands of AI infrastructure enterprises.Editor/Gong Ziwei