As AI investment booms, global data center capital expenditures (capex) grew 53% 

year-over-year in the first quarter of 2025, marking the sixth consecutive quarter of 

double-digit growth.

This growth cycle is driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by hyperscale 

cloud service providers, especially server deployments powered by NVIDIA Blackwell 

GPUs and custom accelerators. "AI infrastructure continues to drive hyperscale capex, 

with strong demand for servers and custom accelerators based on NVIDIA Blackwell 

architecture," said Baron Fung, senior research director at Dell'Oro Group. "The four 

largest cloud service providers in the United States continue to increase their capex levels 

as part of multi-year investment plans."

Future growth is expected

The global data center market is expected to continue to expand. Dell'Oro predicts that 

the global data center market will grow 30% in 2025, driven by continued growth in 

demand for AI infrastructure and a recovery in demand for general servers and network 

equipment. High-end accelerated servers will be a key growth point, expected to account 

for more than a third of total data center spending this year.

Fung noted that hyperscale cloud service providers' spending plans are not affected by 

tariff uncertainty due to their "diverse global supply chain." However, there are differences 

between hyperscalers, secondary cloud service providers and enterprise users. Although 

some US cloud service providers have canceled certain projects, "the overall capital expenditure 

is still moving forward as planned, and the hyperscalers are more likely to adjust production 

capacity rather than cut investment."

The secondary cloud market, represented by emerging GPU as a service (GPUaaS) providers, 

will achieve rapid growth in 2025 and subsequent years. However, enterprise users with tight 

budgets and facing tariff risks are "more cautious and have slightly lowered their capital 

expenditure expectations."