Happy New Year! As 2026 gets underway, the data centre sector enters the year with no shortage of momentum, but also with a sharper sense of constraint than in years past.
This week’s stories underline that tension. Major capital commitments continue to flow into European expansion, even as operators grapple with the financial structures required to sustain AI-driven growth. At the same time, power availability remains a defining challenge, prompting increasingly unconventional solutions as grid access lags demand.
Together, these developments point to a year where growth will depend as much on pragmatism as ambition. The focus is shifting toward how projects are financed, how power is secured, and how risks are managed as scale increases.
As the year unfolds, we’ll be examining how operators and investors navigate these trade-offs, and what they mean for the next phase of digital infrastructure.
All the best,
Rebecca Uffindell
