The ongoing boom in artificial intelligence (AI) is fuelling a surge in both the number and capacity of hyperscale data centres worldwide.
New data from Synergy Research Group shows that the number of hyperscale data centres in operation increased to 1,136 at the end of 2024.
This number represented a doubling in the number of such data centres over the past five years.
Large data centres are not only growing in number, however, but also in the data capacity that they are able to process.
The data also shows that it has taken less than four years for the total capacity of operational hyperscale datacentres to double, with the speed of this capacity growth continuing to ramp up.
Synergy forecasts that total capacity will double again within the next four years.
An estimated 130-140 new hyperscale centres are predicted to become operational each year in that timeframe.
The remaining surge in total data capacity will be provided by increases in the capacity of individual centres.
In a research note, Synergy said that “overall capacity growth will be driven more by the ever-larger scale of those newly opened datacentres [and] generative AI technology is the prime reason for that increased scale”.
Figures looked at 19 of the world’s biggest data centre operators
There is no universally accepted definition of what constitutes a ‘hyperscale’ data centre, but they are generally held to be massive facilities operated by major tech companies.
Synergy’s criteria involved looking at large data centres operated by 19 of the world’s major cloud and internet service firms.
These included Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Tencent ByteDance and other operators based primarily in Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), online search, social networks, e-commerce and gaming.
Synergy’s data also showed that hyperscale data centres were dominated by the US, with more than half (54%) of such facilities located in the country.
A further 16% were located in China and 15% in Europe, with the remaining 15% divided between other markets.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and Google each has significant data centre operations in both the US and Europe, and together accounted for 59% of all hyperscale datacentre capacity in the world.
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