Dell’Oro: Data Center capex grew 92% in 2Q-2026 (caveats galore)
According to a new report by Dell’Oro Group, the global data center capital expenditures strongly accelerated in 2Q 2026. Continued AI infrastructure investment supported growth across compute, storage, networking, and physical infrastructure, while rising memory and storage prices significantly increased server average selling prices.
“Data center capex growth broadened in the second quarter as investment accelerated across both established Cloud Service Providers and emerging AI infrastructure customers,” said Baron Fung, Vice President of Research at Dell’Oro Group.
“Spending remained concentrated in NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra and hyperscaler custom accelerators, while agentic AI created incremental demand for general-purpose compute, storage, and complementary networking. Neocloud providers and AI model builders are also becoming increasingly important contributors to infrastructure investment. These companies are rapidly expanding their own capacity while deepening partnerships with cloud service providers.”
“Looking ahead, ongoing accelerator deployments and emerging agentic AI and AI-related storage workloads should sustain strong capex growth through the remainder of 2026 and beyond, although supply constraints could limit the pace at which planned infrastructure is deployed,” explained Fung.
Additional highlights from the 2Q 2026 Data Center IT Capex Quarterly Report:
- Neocloud and AI Model Builder capex grew the fastest among the customer segments, reflecting the early stages of their infrastructure buildouts.
- Higher memory and storage prices provided an additional lift to capex by driving server average selling prices higher.
- Dell led server OEM revenue, followed by SuperMicro and Lenovo, while white-box server revenue reached a record high.
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On August 18th Dell’Oro Group forecasted that worldwide data center capital capex is to maintain growth momentum and surpass $3 trillion by 2030. High-end accelerators powering accelerated servers optimized for AI are expected to represent the largest share of data center capex and remain the primary driver of capex growth over the forecast period.
“Our 2030 data center capex outlook has nearly doubled since the January 2026 forecast, reflecting higher hyperscale capex guidance, increased projections for global data center power capacity, and higher commodity costs,” said Baron Fung, Vice President of Research at Dell’Oro Group. “High-end accelerators powering AI-optimized servers are expected to account for the largest share of data center capex and remain the primary driver of growth over the forecast period.
“However, the pace of growth will depend on the sustainability of investment, power availability, and supply chain conditions. Accelerated and heterogeneous computing, along with innovations in server efficiency, could help mitigate the rising cost and infrastructure demands of AI. The Top 4 US hyperscalers alone could represent about half of global capex, while enterprise investment remains constrained by uncertain AI returns,” according to Fung.
Additional highlights from the Data Center IT Capex 5-Year July 2026 Forecast Report:
- High-end accelerators are expected to account for the largest share of data center capex and remain the primary driver of spending growth through 2030.
- General-purpose server demand is expected to benefit from growing inference, agentic AI, and storage workloads, broadening infrastructure growth beyond accelerated computing.
- The newly added AI-specialized cloud segment, comprising AI model builders and neocloud service providers, is projected to grow at nearly a 60 percent CAGR, outpacing the growth of other customer segments.
Additional highlights from the Data Center IT Capex 5-Year July 2026 Forecast Report:
- High-end accelerators are expected to account for the largest share of data center capex and remain the primary driver of spending growth through 2030.
- General-purpose server demand is expected to benefit from growing inference, agentic AI, and storage workloads, broadening infrastructure growth beyond accelerated computing.
- The newly added AI-specialized cloud segment, comprising AI model builders and neocloud service providers, is projected to grow at nearly a 60 percent CAGR, outpacing the growth of other customer segments.
IEEE Techblog Analysis:
- Dell’Oro had already raised its 2026 global data-center capex outlook to more than $1 trillion in its June 2026 report. It also said 2H26 growth was expected to accelerate because of NVIDIA Rubin deployments and hyperscaler custom-accelerator refreshes. That makes the new 92% 2Q figure much more significant: this isn’t simply a strong quarter; it is occurring within a $1-trillion-plus annual investment cycle.
- Epoch AI’s tracking shows combined hyperscaler quarterly capex has been increasing at an average 72% annual rate since 2Q23 and projects approximately $770 billion for 2026 if the trend continues.
- Another estimate from Moody’s put 2026 hyperscaler capex at $785 billion, including Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Oracle and CoreWeave.
- Dell’Oro’s separate 2Q semiconductor/component report says data-center component revenue increased 182% YoY, while DRAM and storage-drive average selling prices per bit more than doubled. Therefore, some of the 92% increase in data-center capex is clearly inflation in the cost of the equipment, not necessarily an equivalent increase in physical infrastructure.
- Therefore, the 92% increase in capex should not be interpreted as a 92% increase in deployed computing capacity, because sharply higher DRAM, NAND/storage and other component prices are inflating server system costs.
What’s Missing from this Report:
The press release for this report notes that worldwide data center capital expenditures grew 92% in 2Q02026, driven by surging AI demand and memory costs. However, it omits precise spending figures for individual hyperscalers (Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle) as well as OEM market share details. Moreover, YoY growth can conceal the current trajectory. Sequential growth would show whether the AI infrastructure spending acceleration actually intensified during 2Q of 2026.
Conclusions:
The 92% year-over-year increase in 2Q26 data-center capex needs to be viewed against a much larger AI infrastructure investment cycle. Dell’Oro had already raised its 2026 global data-center capex forecast to more than $1 trillion, with 2H26 spending expected to accelerate further as NVIDIA’s Rubin systems and hyperscaler custom accelerators ramp. At the same time, Dell’Oro reported that data-center semiconductor and component revenue surged 182% in 2Q26, with DRAM and storage-drive prices per bit more than doubling year over year. Consequently, a significant portion of the reported capex growth reflects higher equipment prices rather than a comparable increase in physical computing capacity. Meanwhile, hyperscaler capex is increasingly being supplemented by debt-financed Neocloud and AI-model-builder infrastructure, broadening the investment cycle beyond the traditional cloud giants.
Dell’Oro Group’s Data Center IT Capex Quarterly Report details the data center infrastructure capital expenditures of the largest hyperscale cloud service providers, AI Model Builders, Neocloud, Rest of Cloud, Telco, and Enterprise customer segments. It provides the allocation of data center infrastructure capex for general-purpose and accelerated servers, storage systems, and other auxiliary data center equipment. The report also discusses market trends, drivers of the leading cloud service providers’ capex growth during the quarter, and the outlook for the next year. To purchase this report, please contact us at [email protected].
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References:
Dell’Oro: 2H2026 Data Center Capex to Accelerate due to massive AI Deployments
PwC: Global AI data center spending to hit $31.6tn by 2050; Role of full stack orchestration layer explained
Nvidia CEO Huang: AI is the largest infrastructure buildout in human history; AI Data Center CAPEX will generate new revenue streams for operators
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