Hyperscale demand, AI clusters, and constrained power grids are reshaping where and how the largest operators build—and who wins share.

The Market Moves From “Build It All” to “Build It Smart”
The post-2024 surge in AI training and inference hasn’t merely expanded pipelines; it forced discipline. Land, power, and interconnectivity now gate growth more than steel everywhere. In 2026, scale players are prioritizing metro adjacency, renewable-backed power contracts, and faster land-to-live timelines, while pushing standardized designs to flip from 20MW phases to triple-digit campuses without rework.

Equinix: Interconnection First, Hyperscale With Partners
Equinix enters 2026 with roughly 3GW under development and fresh land in Amsterdam, London, Chicago, Toronto, and Johannesburg—adding ~900MW across those metros. The strategy pairs its dense IBX core with xScale and JV capital to serve cloud and AI tenants that want both proximity and privacy. The thesis is classic Equinix: interconnect the world, then layer capacity where traffic already flows. CRN+1

Digital Realty: Hyperscale Footing, Interconnection Momentum
Digital Realty’s 2025 run produced record bookings, a swelling backlog, and a multi-gigawatt runway of buildable IT capacity. The company leaned into 0–1MW interconnection and wholesale phases in parallel, while launching capital-light vehicles to fund U.S. hyperscale builds. That balance—retail density plus large-scale shells—positions PlatformDIGITAL for 2026 wins in North America and EMEA. digitalrealty.com+1

CyrusOne: Expansion Tied to Measurable Sustainability
CyrusOne’s playbook marries rapid campus growth with concrete ESG targets. In London, the planned LON6 campus is designed for 90MW across six data halls, with biodiversity and renewable-power commitments embedded from day one. Across Europe and the U.S., the company has been linking financing to environmental outcomes to scale responsibly while addressing grid constraints. Expect additional UK and continental phases to move from entitlement to ground-break through 2026.

Iron Mountain: 
Iron Mountain is broadening its map. In Miami, the MIA-1 facility is slated to deliver 16MW across roughly 150,000 square feet and run on 100% carbon-free energy when it opens in 2026. In Spain, Iron Mountain inaugurated the first phase of a Madrid campus expandable to 79MW, underscoring its European ambitions and the region’s improving renewable mix. The combo of edge-of-metro infill and new country entries gives the firm more lanes to win AI and content workloads.

Vantage Data Centers: Financing at Scale, Campuses at Gigawatt Pace
Vantage secured an additional $5B in green loans in 2025—lifting its North America war chest to $8B—and unveiled a $25B, 1.4-GW AI campus in rural Texas. The model is familiar but bold: pre-leased, power-dense buildings with ultra-high-density racks, fed by long-term energy strategies and structured with sustainability-linked debt. As hyperscalers chase multi-GW parks, Vantage continues to show it can marshal capital and execute quickly.

Who is projected to lead in 2026?
Equinix and Digital Realty remain the global share anchors. Equinix’s interconnection gravity gives it a first look at net-new workloads, while its JV engine extends balance-sheet capacity for hyperscale builds. Digital Realty counters with a deep land bank, private funds, and a two-sided funnel that captures both connectivity-rich retail and wholesale shells. Vantage and CyrusOne are the campus specialists with financing velocity; Iron Mountain adds credible new-market entries and strong ESG positioning.

What Customers Will Notice
For cloud and AI tenants, time-to-power is the new SLA. Expect standardized 20–40MW blocks with pre-built interconnect, faster cross-connect turn-ups, and clearer renewable provenance in PPAs and RECs. Operators are also prioritizing heat-rejection efficiency and water stewardship, enabling higher rack densities without compromising sustainability commitments. In practical terms: more capacity where the networks already are, and fewer surprise delays due to substation bottlenecks.

What Cities and Utilities Should Prepare For
The build wave concentrates along fiber-rich rings and energy-transition-friendly regions. Municipalities that can permit quickly, stand up 120–300MVA feeders, and validate recycled-water or air-side cooling win bids. Expect more creative public-private arrangements—utility-owned substations, green-loan packages, and grid-services agreements that let campuses return power during peak events—especially as AI load shapes weekday demand curves.

Pricing and Supply
New supply will arrive in large, pre-leased chunks, keeping vacancy tight across top U.S. and European metros. That favors continued rent growth, longer terms, and stronger escalators on renewal. Campus adjacency premiums will persist: tenants will pay up to sit next to their clouds, IX fabrics, and existing data gravity. In 2026, mature operators with proven delivery playbooks should continue to out-lease smaller peers even as capital costs remain elevated.

Closing Thoughts
The macro signal is clear: interconnection continues to attract the data, and capital follows the data. Equinix and Digital Realty will likely hold the global lead, while CyrusOne, Iron Mountain, and Vantage press advantages in sustainability-linked financing, new-market entries, and giga-campus execution. For buyers, the right 2026 question isn’t just “who has space,” but “who can deliver power-dense capacity at network adjacency with credible renewable sourcing—and reliably keep doing it for the next five years?” Execution will separate leaders from laggards as power scarcity persists worldwide.

References

• CRN — “Equinix Grows Revenue, Buys Land, With 3 GW Of Capacity Now Under Development.” https://www.crn.com/news/data-center/2025/equinix-grows-revenue-buys-land-and-now-has-3-gw-capacity-under-development

• Digital Realty — “Digital Realty Reports Second Quarter 2025 Results.” https://www.digitalrealty.com/about/newsroom/press-releases/123333/digital-realty-reports-second-quarter-2025-results

• CyrusOne — “CyrusOne Plans Pioneering New London Facility with Sustainability At Its Core.” https://www.cyrusone.com/resources/press-releases/cyrusone-plans-pioneering-new-london-facility-with-sustainability-at-its-core

• DataCenterDynamics — “Iron Mountain tops out Miami data center.” https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/iron-mountain-tops-outs-miami-data-center/

• Reuters — “Vantage Data Centers plans $25 billion AI campus in Texas.” https://www.reuters.com/business/vantage-data-centers-plans-25-billion-ai-campus-texas-2025-08-19/

Editors
Serge Boudreaux – AI Hardware Technologies
Montreal, Quebec

Peter Jonathan Wilcheck – Co-Editor
Miami, Florida