Produced from the invitation-only Digital Infra Leaders Summit at Datacloud Global Congress in Cannes, this report captures the thinking of CEOs, capital allocators, and operators from more than 40 of the world's most influential digital infrastructure organisations.

  • AWS
  • Equinix
  • Microsoft
  • NVIDIA
  • OpenAI
  • Google
  • Meta
  • CyrusOne
  • Digital Realty
  • DigitalBridge
 

What the Report Covers

Drawing on pre-session survey data from senior executives and structured workshop discussion, the report maps out actionable industry intelligence:

  • Where the industry sees value being created.
  • What bottlenecks are holding back physical delivery at scale.
  • Which strategic actions can reduce uncertainty and unlock immediate investment.

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What's inside

The demand picture

Zero respondents believe demand is being overestimated. But 77% expect it to distribute beyond today's major hubs, and the central debate has moved from "is there demand?" to "where can it be powered, permitted, delivered, and monetised?" This section maps the most likely demand shape over the next 3 to 5 years and identifies the markets and asset types best positioned to capture it.

Technology as opportunity and risk

Technology ranked as the single strongest positive value driver in the survey - but it also introduces obsolescence risk for facilities built to today's specs. This section examines the divergence between those betting on higher infrastructure intensity and those who believe power and policy will ultimately matter more than technology itself.

Power: the industry's primary strategic constraint

Grid access and interconnection timing scored 8.9 out of 10 as a delivery constraint, the highest of any category surveyed. Power availability is now the dominant factor determining where AI capacity can actually be deployed. This section examines why visibility on power remains far lower than visibility on demand, and what operators, utilities, and governments need to do differently.

Community acceptance as a delivery risk

Even with capital committed and power secured, local opposition has emerged as a material project risk. More than $150bn of AI-focused data centre projects were reportedly delayed or cancelled in 2025. Social licence is becoming as important to project success as permitting and financing. This section covers why – and what leading operators are doing about it.

Who controls the levers

Data center operators and capital providers are bearing the consequences of delays, cost overruns, and permitting failures they do not have the influence to prevent. Hyperscalers, governments, and the energy sector hold the levers. This section maps the influence-versus-downside gap across every major uncertainty category, and why explicit risk-sharing is now a bankability requirement.

What will unlock the next phase of investment

The top four solutions identified by summit participants are all power and operations related. Capital availability ranked well below grid coordination, behind-the-meter generation, permitting reform, and new generation capacity linked to infrastructure demand. This section defines the practical actions the ecosystem needs to take and which stakeholders need to lead them.

Download the 34-Page Executive Summary

Access the 2026 Digital Infra Leaders Summit Global Executive Summary

The report covers:

  • How senior digital infrastructure executives see demand evolving over the next 3 to 5 years
  • Which uncertainty categories carry the highest positive and negative value swing
  • Why power is the industry's primary strategic constraint — and what the data shows about visibility gaps
  • The influence-versus-downside matrix: who controls risk, and who absorbs it
  • Community opposition as an emerging project risk
  • The four solution categories most likely to unlock the next phase of digital infrastructure growth
  • What collaborative action the industry needs to take — and where individual firms cannot act alone