Telecom Data Center Market Size, Share & Forecast to 2035

The Telecom Data Center Market is valued at USD 20.04 billion in 2026 and is projected to reach USD 38.51 billion by 2035, up from USD 18.54 billion in 2025, a CAGR of 7.58% from 2025 to 2035 (DC Market Insights estimate). Telecom operators are turning copper-era buildings into compute sites: AT&T says more than 100 of its wire centers already carry no customers on legacy services, and it targets copper discontinuation in half of its wire centers outside California (AT&T third-quarter 2026 remarks). At the same time operators have become builders of national artificial intelligence (AI) capacity, led by Deutsche Telekom’s EUR 1 billion Munich cloud with up to 10,000 NVIDIA Blackwell graphics processing units (GPUs) (Deutsche Telekom, November 2025). The 2025 value rests on 5,100 megawatts (MW) of information technology (IT) load that operators run for their own networks and services x USD 3.64 million of yearly spending per MW = USD 18.54 billion, of which USD 13.52 billion is servers, storage and switching. Telco AI and GPU cloud is the fastest workload at 20.48% a year, and Middle East and Africa is the fastest region at 9.56% because Gulf operators are building sovereign AI campuses with state AI companies.

Key Market Statistics: How Big Is the Telecom Data Center Market in 2026?

DC Market Insights values telecom operator data center spending at USD 20.04 billion in 2026, 8.09% above 2025, as GPU halls, cloud-native 5G cores and converted central offices all add load in the same year.

• Telecom data center market size 2025: USD 18.54 billion
• Market size 2026: USD 20.04 billion
• Market size 2030: USD 27.16 billion
• Market size 2035: USD 38.51 billion
• CAGR 2025-2035: 7.58% (low case 5.85%, high case 9.00%)
• Largest component: IT hardware, USD 13.52 billion or 72.9% of 2025 value
• Fastest workload: telco AI and GPU cloud, 20.48% a year to USD 11.82 billion by 2035
• Largest operator type: integrated fixed and mobile operators, USD 9.27 billion in 2025
• Leading region: Asia Pacific, USD 7.42 billion or 40.0% of 2025 value; fastest region: Middle East and Africa at 9.56%
• Largest country: United States, USD 4.51 billion in 2025; fastest large country: India at 12.03%
• Market leaders: Huawei Technologies, ZTE Corporation, Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise in operator servers, and Ericsson and Nokia in network cloud platforms (DC Market Insights assessment)

Executive Summary: Telecom Data Center Market Size, 2020-2035

The Global Telecom Data Center Market size was valued at USD 14.13 billion in 2020, reached USD 18.54 billion in 2025, and is anticipated to reach USD 38.51 billion by 2035, at a CAGR of 7.58% during the forecast period. Growth was 5.59% a year from 2020 to 2025, when operators moved voice and packet cores onto standard servers; from 2025 it accelerates because a GPU rack costs about three times more per MW-year than a network cloud rack.

Attribute	Value
Historical period	2020-2024
Base year	2025
Forecast period	2026-2035
Market size 2025	USD 18.54 billion
Market size 2026	USD 20.04 billion
CAGR 2025-2035	7.58%
Market size 2035	USD 38.51 billion
Segments covered	Component, operator type, workload, facility type, region, 12 countries

Spending is shifting away from legacy core halls: core and central office data centers grow only 3.59% a year to USD 14.25 billion in 2035, while network edge and multi-access edge computing (MEC) sites reach USD 12.71 billion and colocation and hosted cloud USD 11.55 billion. GPU capacity moves telco AI from 9.9% of 2025 value to 30.7% in 2035.

What Counts as a Telecom Data Center?

USD 18.54 billion in 2025: the data center capacity that mobile, fixed, cable and wholesale carriers own or lease to run their own networks and services, counted from the server to the building.

Included: servers, storage and switching in operator sites (USD 13.52 billion); colocation, wholesale and hyperscaler-hosted network cloud fees paid by operators (USD 2.21 billion); uninterruptible power supply (UPS), direct-current power plants, cooling and switchgear in owned sites (USD 2.14 billion); and construction, central office conversion and tenant fit-out (USD 672.27 million). Packet and voice cores, operations support systems and business support systems (OSS/BSS), content caches, MEC nodes and operator-run GPU clouds all count.

Excluded: radio access network equipment at cell sites, fibre and transmission gear, the electricity bill, and the colocation space that operators sell to outside customers (for example China Mobile’s external internet data center business, which belongs to the colocation market).

How the segments fit together: every split (component, operator type, workload, facility type, region) sums to the same USD 18.54 billion in 2025 and USD 38.51 billion in 2035. The model is built in MW: 5,100 MW in use in 2025, of which 969 MW is leased, 1,377 MW sits in edge and converted central office sites and 179 MW runs on GPU racks.

Why Do Telecom Data Center Market Estimates Differ?

Published figures for this market name differ by several times because they count different things; the DC Market Insights value of USD 20.04 billion in 2026 covers only capacity operators use for their own networks and services.

Broader definitions add the data center space that operators rent out to enterprises and cloud providers. That business is large in China: China Mobile served outside customers from more than 1.5 million standard racks in 2025, and China Telecom reported RMB 34.5 billion of AI data center revenue (company annual results, March 2026). Other studies add radio access and transmission equipment, network software licences or the carrier-neutral data center companies that operators have sold. Narrower studies count only buildings and miss the 84.8% of 2025 spending that goes to IT hardware and hosting fees.

Element	In this report	Why
Servers, storage, switching in operator sites	Yes, USD 13.52 billion (2025)	Capacity the operator buys and runs
Colocation and hosted network cloud fees	Yes, USD 2.21 billion	Capacity the operator leases
Power, cooling, construction of owned sites	Yes, USD 2.81 billion	Data center infrastructure
Network edge, MEC and converted central offices	Yes, USD 5.01 billion (within the lines above)	Server-class compute in the network
Colocation sold to outside customers	No	Counted in the colocation market
Radio access and transmission equipment	No	Network equipment, not data center
Network software licences	No	Software market
Electricity bill	No	Operating cost, not capacity

Small operators are in scope: a regional cable company with two core sites and a leased cage is counted the same way as a national incumbent. Colocation sold to outside customers, radio equipment and software licences stay out of scope throughout this estimate.

Why Are Telecom Operators Spending More on Data Centers?

Three drivers lift spending from USD 18.54 billion in 2025 to USD 27.16 billion in 2030: copper retirement, cloud-native 5G cores carrying fast-growing traffic, and operator-built sovereign AI clouds.

Copper Retirement Turns AT&T Wire Centers into Compute Sites

AT&T told investors on 21 October 2026 that more than 100 wire centers have no customers left on legacy services and that it targets copper discontinuation in 50% of wire centers outside California, a program central to USD 4 billion of yearly cost savings by the end of 2028 (AT&T, October 2026). The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) removed network change filings for copper retirements in March 2026. Each closed copper switch frees power and floor space that operators consolidate into fewer, denser network cloud sites, which is why core and central office data centers still absorb USD 10.01 billion of 2025 spending.

5.15 Million Chinese 5G Base Stations Feed Cloud-Native Cores

China had 5.154 million 5G base stations at the end of July 2026, 39.4% of all mobile base stations, and 1.303 billion 5G users; mobile internet traffic rose 17.6% in January-July 2026 (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, August 2026). In the United Kingdom mobile data use rose 18% in 2025 to more than 1.2 billion gigabytes a month and 5G data grew 53% (Ofcom, November 2025). Standalone 5G runs its core as software on data center servers, so DC Market Insights puts core network and network cloud at USD 5.75 billion in 2025, the largest workload.

Deutsche Telekom and SK Telecom Build Sovereign AI Clouds

Deutsche Telekom’s EUR 1 billion Industrial AI Cloud with NVIDIA, launched in Munich in February 2026, holds up to 10,000 Blackwell GPUs and 0.5 exaflops and is expected to raise Germany’s AI computing power by about 50% (Deutsche Telekom, November 2025). SK Telecom is developing the 100 MW SK AI Data Center Ulsan with Amazon Web Services (AWS) for 2027 and plans to scale it to 1 gigawatt (GW) (SK Telecom, April 2026). DC Market Insights counts the operator’s own share of these campuses in telco AI and GPU cloud, worth USD 1.83 billion in 2025.

Which Trends Are Reshaping Telecom Data Centers?

Capital is moving from radio networks to computing, and edge sites grow 9.76% a year as operators reuse their real estate for MEC.

Chinese Operators Shift Capital Expenditure to Computing Power

China Mobile reached 92.5 exaflops (EFLOPS) of intelligent computing at the end of 2025 while cutting capital expenditure 8.0% to RMB 150.9 billion; China Unicom guides about RMB 50 billion of 2026 capital expenditure, more than 35% of it for computing, after building seven 100 MW-class AI data center campuses (company results, March 2026). China Telecom reported more than 3.2 GW of rack power capacity and 46 EFLOPS of self-owned AI computing (China Telecom 2025 annual results). DC Market Insights values China at USD 3.89 billion in 2025, growing 8.33% a year.

MEC Phase 4 Standards Push Compute into Central Offices

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) released its first MEC Phase 4 specifications in October 2025 (ETSI, October 2025), and in India 5G carried about 42.75% of wireless data in January-March 2026 (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, June 2026). DC Market Insights forecasts network edge and MEC sites to grow from USD 5.01 billion in 2025 to USD 12.71 billion in 2035; the Multi-Access Edge Computing Market report covers the platform layer of the same build-out.

Japanese Operators Reuse a Former Sharp Factory for AI

SoftBank Corp. plans an AI data center of more than 150 MW, expandable to more than 400 MW, on the former Sharp plant in Sakai (SoftBank, June 2024), and KDDI plans its own Sakai site with about 1,000 NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 units (KDDI, June 2024). The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry approved up to JPY 72.5 billion of AI compute subsidies in April 2024, including about JPY 10.24 billion for KDDI. Japan accounts for USD 1.02 billion of 2025 telecom data center spending.

What Limits Telecom Data Center Investment?

Two limits keep the forecast at 7.58% a year: flat telecom revenue that caps capital budgets, and new energy duties on data centers in the European Union (EU).

Flat Service Revenue Caps Operator Capital Budgets

China’s telecom revenue rose only 0.7% to CNY 1.75 trillion in 2025 (MIIT, January 2026), and AT&T guides capital investment of USD 22-23 billion a year for 2027 and 2028, a range that must also fund fibre and wireless. Operators fund GPU halls by cutting radio spending, not by adding budget. In the DC Market Insights low case, slower AI cloud uptake cuts 2035 spending to USD 32.73 billion, USD 5.78 billion below the base case.

EU Energy Rules Reach Every Operator Site Above 500 kW

The Energy Efficiency Directive requires data centers with at least 500 kilowatts (kW) of installed IT power to report energy and water data, and only 770 sites, about 36% of those in scope, reported in the first round (European Commission, September 2026). On 21 September 2026 the Commission proposed an EU rating scheme for data centers, with minimum performance standards planned for the second quarter of 2027. EU data centers used about 70 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2024, heading to 115 TWh by 2030 on figures the Commission cites. Europe’s operators spend USD 3.89 billion in 2025 and grow 6.79% a year, below the global rate.

Where Are the New Telecom Data Center Opportunities?

The two largest new pools are Gulf sovereign AI campuses and hosted network cloud, which adds USD 8.03 billion of yearly spending by 2035.

Saudi Arabia’s stc and HUMAIN Joint Venture

stc’s data center arm center3 and HUMAIN formed a joint venture for Saudi AI data centers of up to 1 GW, starting with up to 250 MW (stc results presentation, 2026). DC Market Insights forecasts Saudi Arabia’s telecom data center spending to grow from USD 333.75 million in 2025 to USD 1.00 billion in 2035, 11.61% a year, and Middle East and Africa to reach USD 2.77 billion.

Hosted Network Cloud and Leased Capacity

Colocation and hosted cloud grows from USD 3.52 billion in 2025 to USD 11.55 billion in 2035, 12.61% a year, as operators place cores in leased halls and on hyperscaler-hosted platforms instead of building new owned sites. For the providers covered in the Data Center Colocation Market report, telecom operators pay USD 2.21 billion of fees in 2025. The EU Digital Networks Act proposal of 21 January 2026 requires national copper phase-out plans, which will free more central office space in Europe (European Commission, January 2026).

How Much Does an Operator Spend per MW of Data Center Capacity?

USD 3.64 million per MW in use in 2025, DC Market Insights estimates, rising to USD 4.61 million by 2035 as GPU racks lift hardware spending per MW.

Year	Operator IT load in use (MW)	Total spending per MW	IT hardware per MW	Colocation and hosting rate (USD per kW-month)
2020	4,400	USD 3.21 million	USD 2.37 million	USD 172
2025	5,100	USD 3.64 million	USD 2.65 million	USD 190
2030	6,280	USD 4.33 million	USD 3.04 million	USD 201
2035	8,350	USD 4.61 million	USD 3.19 million	USD 208

Public anchors: Deutsche Telekom’s EUR 1 billion for up to 10,000 GPUs works out to about EUR 100,000 per GPU including the hall. China Unicom’s guidance puts more than RMB 17.5 billion of its 2026 capital expenditure into computing. A telco AI rack costs USD 8.20 million per MW-year of servers in the DC Market Insights model in 2025, against USD 2.45 million for network cloud servers.

Which Rules Shape Telecom Data Center Design?

At least seven named rules decide how operators retire copper, where they place compute and how they report energy, and they touch all USD 18.54 billion of 2025 spending.

• FCC Report and Order 26-19: adopted 26 March 2026, removed network change disclosure filings for copper retirements (Source: Federal Communications Commission)
• EU Digital Networks Act proposal: adopted 21 January 2026, mandatory national copper phase-out plans (Source: European Commission)
• EU Gigabit Infrastructure Act: in effect from 12 November 2025, fibre-ready in-building infrastructure for new buildings (Source: European Commission)
• EU Energy Efficiency Directive Article 12 and Delegated Regulation 2024/1364: yearly reporting for sites of 500 kW or more; rating scheme proposed 21 September 2026 (Source: European Commission)
• ETSI MEC Phase 4: first specifications released in October 2025 (Source: European Telecommunications Standards Institute)
• Japan Economic Security Promotion Act cloud program: up to JPY 72.5 billion of AI compute subsidies decided 19 April 2024 (Source: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry)
• China national computing statistics: 2,185 EFLOPS of intelligent computing and 71.4% rack use at end-June 2026 (Source: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology)

Telecom Data Center Market Segmentation: Which Segment Spends Most?

The largest component is IT hardware at USD 13.52 billion in 2025, integrated fixed and mobile operators the largest operator type at USD 9.27 billion, and core and central office sites the largest facility type at USD 10.01 billion.

By Component

Servers, storage and switching hold 72.9% of 2025 value; colocation and hosted network cloud grows fastest at 10.96% a year.

Component	2025 (USD million)	Share 2025	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025-2035
IT Hardware	USD 13,521.38 million	72.9%	USD 26,614.79 million	7.01%
Colocation and Hosted Network Cloud	USD 2,209.32 million	11.9%	USD 6,252.48 million	10.96%
Electrical and Mechanical Infrastructure	USD 2,138.94 million	11.5%	USD 4,056.44 million	6.61%
Construction and Fit-Out	USD 672.27 million	3.6%	USD 1,585.89 million	8.96%

By Operator Type

Integrated fixed and mobile operators spend USD 9.27 billion in 2025 because they run both broadband and mobile cores; other operators, including satellite and neutral-host providers, grow fastest at 10.72% a year.

Operator Type	2025 (USD million)	Share 2025	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025-2035
Integrated Fixed and Mobile Operators	USD 9,270.96 million	50.0%	USD 18,484.60 million	7.14%
Mobile Network Operators	USD 4,264.64 million	23.0%	USD 8,857.21 million	7.58%
Cable and Broadband Operators	USD 2,225.03 million	12.0%	USD 4,236.06 million	6.65%
Wholesale and International Carriers	USD 1,668.77 million	9.0%	USD 3,850.96 million	8.72%
Other Operators	USD 1,112.51 million	6.0%	USD 3,080.77 million	10.72%

By Workload

Core network and network cloud is the largest workload at USD 5.75 billion in 2025, but telco AI and GPU cloud passes it by 2035 at USD 11.82 billion.

Workload	2025 (USD million)	Share 2025	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025-2035
Core Network and Network Cloud	USD 5,747.99 million	31.0%	USD 9,627.39 million	5.29%
OSS BSS and Corporate IT	USD 4,635.48 million	25.0%	USD 6,161.54 million	2.89%
Edge Computing and Content Delivery	USD 2,781.29 million	15.0%	USD 6,161.54 million	8.28%
Telco AI and GPU Cloud	USD 1,833.79 million	9.9%	USD 11,818.60 million	20.48%
Backup Security and Other Workloads	USD 3,543.36 million	19.1%	USD 4,740.53 million	2.95%

By Facility Type

Core and central office data centers hold 54.0% of 2025 value; colocation and hosted cloud grows fastest at 12.61% a year.

Facility Type	2025 (USD million)	Share 2025	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025-2035
Core and Central Office Data Centers	USD 10,012.63 million	54.0%	USD 14,248.55 million	3.59%
Network Edge and MEC Sites	USD 5,006.32 million	27.0%	USD 12,708.17 million	9.76%
Colocation and Hosted Cloud	USD 3,522.96 million	19.0%	USD 11,552.88 million	12.61%

Telco AI Factory Tracker: 9 Operator Programs and 1,200 MW Announced

DC Market Insights lists 9 named operator AI data center programs from company releases and filings in this tracker, 9 inputs in all, with 1,200 MW of disclosed campus load. It shows that Asian and Gulf operators announce capacity in MW, while European operators announce GPU counts and euro budgets.

Operator	Program	Date	MW announced	GPUs or compute	Type
Deutsche Telekom	Industrial AI Cloud, Munich (Tucherpark), EUR 1 billion with NVIDIA, 0.5 exaflops	Feb 2026	not disclosed	up to 10,000 Blackwell GPUs	Sovereign AI cloud
SK Telecom (SK Group)	SK AI Data Center Ulsan with Amazon Web Services, planned to scale to 1 GW	Apr 2026	100	Manufacturing AI Cloud: 2,000+ RTX PRO 6000 GPUs	AI campus
SoftBank Corp.	Sakai AI data center on the former Sharp plant, expandable to 400+ MW	Jun 2024	150	not disclosed	AI campus
KDDI	Sakai AI data center on the former Sharp plant site	Jun 2024	not disclosed	about 1,000 GB200 NVL72 units	AI campus
stc (center3) with HUMAIN	Saudi AI data center joint venture, up to 1 GW	2026	250	not disclosed	Sovereign AI campus
China Unicom	Seven 100 MW-class AI data center campuses	Mar 2026	700	45 EFLOPS	AI campuses
China Telecom	3.2+ GW of rack power capacity, 46 exaflops self-owned	Mar 2026	not disclosed	91 EFLOPS self-owned and accessed	Network and AI data centers
Telenor	AI Factory in Norway, GPU capacity raised four-fold toward end-2025	May 2025	not disclosed	NVIDIA H100 base	Sovereign AI cloud
Swisscom (with Fastweb)	Up to CHF 100 million of AI infrastructure with NVIDIA	Jan 2024	not disclosed	31 DGX H100 systems at Fastweb	Sovereign AI cloud

Reading the tracker: the 1,200 MW of disclosed load is 6.7 times the 179 MW of operator GPU capacity in use in 2025 in the DC Market Insights model, because most of these campuses also sell capacity to outside customers and come online after 2026. Only the operator’s own use is counted, which keeps telco AI and GPU cloud at USD 1.83 billion in 2025 and USD 11.82 billion by 2035.

Which Region Leads the Telecom Data Center Market?

Asia Pacific leads with USD 7.42 billion, 40.0% of 2025 value, and Middle East and Africa grows fastest at 9.56% a year to USD 2.77 billion by 2035.

Region	2025 (USD million)	Share 2025	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025-2035
Asia Pacific	USD 7,416.77 million	40.0%	USD 16,559.14 million	8.36%
North America	USD 5,006.32 million	27.0%	USD 9,242.30 million	6.32%
Europe	USD 3,893.80 million	21.0%	USD 7,509.37 million	6.79%
Latin America	USD 1,112.51 million	6.0%	USD 2,426.10 million	8.11%
Middle East and Africa	USD 1,112.51 million	6.0%	USD 2,772.69 million	9.56%

Asia Pacific

Asia Pacific spends USD 7.42 billion in 2025 and grows 8.36% a year. Chinese operators earned 25.7% of telecom revenue from cloud, big data, internet of things and data center businesses in 2025 (MIIT, January 2026), and India adds the fastest large-country growth at 12.03% a year.

North America

North America spends USD 5.01 billion in 2025 and grows 6.32% a year, the slowest region, because AT&T and other carriers are closing copper wire centers faster than they open new compute sites.

Europe

Europe spends USD 3.89 billion in 2025, growing 6.79% a year. In the United Kingdom, 5G standalone is available in 83% of the country from at least one network (Ofcom, November 2025), and Germany ranks first in the region at USD 741.68 million with Deutsche Telekom’s Munich AI cloud.

Latin America

Latin America spends USD 1.11 billion in 2025 and grows 8.11% a year; Brazil is the region’s largest country at USD 482.09 million, rising to USD 1.04 billion by 2035 as operators move 5G cores onto data center servers.

Middle East and Africa

Middle East and Africa spends USD 1.11 billion in 2025 and is the fastest region at 9.56%, led by Saudi Arabia, where stc’s center3 plans up to 250 MW of AI capacity in a first phase with HUMAIN.

Top 12 Countries in the Telecom Data Center Market

The United States is the largest country at USD 4.51 billion in 2025, 24.3% of the global total; India is the fastest large country at 12.03% a year.

Rank	Country	Region	2025 (USD million)	Share 2025	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025-2035
1	United States	North America	USD 4,505.68 million	24.3%	USD 8,279.56 million	6.27%
2	China	Asia Pacific	USD 3,893.80 million	21.0%	USD 8,664.66 million	8.33%
3	Japan	Asia Pacific	USD 1,019.81 million	5.5%	USD 1,848.46 million	6.13%
4	India	Asia Pacific	USD 741.68 million	4.0%	USD 2,310.58 million	12.03%
5	Germany	Europe	USD 741.68 million	4.0%	USD 1,386.35 million	6.45%
6	United Kingdom	Europe	USD 611.88 million	3.3%	USD 1,155.29 million	6.56%
7	South Korea	Asia Pacific	USD 593.34 million	3.2%	USD 1,270.82 million	7.91%
8	France	Europe	USD 519.17 million	2.8%	USD 962.74 million	6.37%
9	Brazil	Latin America	USD 482.09 million	2.6%	USD 1,039.76 million	7.99%
10	Canada	North America	USD 463.55 million	2.5%	USD 924.23 million	7.14%
11	Saudi Arabia	Middle East and Africa	USD 333.75 million	1.8%	USD 1,001.25 million	11.61%
12	Italy	Europe	USD 315.21 million	1.7%	USD 577.64 million	6.24%

China ranks second at USD 3.89 billion and closes the gap with the United States by 2035, because its three state operators keep adding AI computing. South Korea ranks seventh at USD 593.34 million and grows 7.91% a year on SK Telecom’s Ulsan campus.

How Large Could the Telecom Data Center Market Be in 2035?

Between USD 32.73 billion and USD 43.90 billion in 2035, with USD 38.51 billion as the DC Market Insights base case.

Scenario	2035 (USD million)	CAGR 2025-2035	What it assumes
Low	USD 32,733.16 million	5.85%	Operators lease GPU capacity instead of building it; AI racks at 15% of MW
Base	USD 38,509.60 million	7.58%	8,350 MW in 2035, 30% leased, AI racks at 21% of MW
High	USD 43,900.94 million	9.00%	Faster sovereign AI build-out in Europe, the Gulf and India

Low Scenario

USD 32.73 billion in 2035 if operators rent GPU capacity from cloud providers and flat service revenue holds capital budgets at today’s levels.

Base Scenario

USD 38.51 billion in 2035, with operator IT load rising from 5,100 MW to 8,350 MW and GPU racks rising to 21% of it.

High Scenario

USD 43.90 billion in 2035 if more operators follow Deutsche Telekom, SK Telecom and stc into owned AI campuses.

Who Are the Key Companies in the Telecom Data Center Market?

Huawei Technologies, ZTE Corporation, Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise together hold about 45% of the USD 13.52 billion of 2025 operator IT hardware spending (DC Market Insights estimate); facility power and cooling supply is more spread out.

• Huawei Technologies
• ZTE Corporation
• Ericsson
• Nokia
• Dell Technologies
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• Lenovo
• Inspur Information
• Cisco Systems
• NVIDIA
• Schneider Electric
• Vertiv
• Eaton
• Delta Electronics
• Microsoft (Azure Operator Nexus)
• Equinix
• Digital Realty

Company facts: China Mobile’s AI data center revenue rose 35.4% in 2025 while its total data center revenue grew 8.7% (China Mobile annual results, March 2026). Telenor said in May 2025 that it would raise the GPU capacity of its AI Factory four-fold toward the end of 2025 (Telenor, May 2025). Swisscom planned up to CHF 100 million of AI infrastructure with NVIDIA, and its Italian unit Fastweb bought 31 DGX H100 systems (Swisscom, January 2024). SK Telecom plans to buy more than 2,000 NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPUs for its Manufacturing AI Cloud (SK Telecom, November 2025).

Server Supplier Concentration, 2025

Chinese suppliers lead with about a quarter of operator server value because China is the second-largest country market; outside China, Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Lenovo share most operator server spending, while Ericsson and Nokia supply the cloud-native core software that runs on it (DC Market Insights estimate).

Recent Developments in the Telecom Data Center Market

Six dated events from the last twelve months changed the 2026 outlook of USD 20.04 billion.

• In October 2026, AT&T reported more than 100 wire centers with no customers on legacy services and a copper exit target for 50% of wire centers outside California (Source: AT&T)
• In September 2026, the European Commission proposed an EU rating scheme for data centers under the Energy Efficiency Directive (Source: European Commission)
• In August 2026, MIIT reported 5.154 million 5G base stations in China at the end of July 2026 (Source: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology)
• In April 2026, SK Telecom set 2027 for the 100 MW SK AI Data Center Ulsan with AWS (Source: SK Telecom)
• In March 2026, China Telecom reported more than 3.2 GW of rack power capacity and 91 EFLOPS of AI computing (Source: China Telecom)
• In February 2026, Deutsche Telekom launched its Industrial AI Cloud in Munich with up to 10,000 GPUs (Source: Deutsche Telekom)

Research Methodology: How DC Market Insights Sized the Telecom Data Center Market

The USD 18.54 billion 2025 value is a bottom-up DC Market Insights model of 5,100 MW of operator IT load in use, about 11% of the roughly 46 GW of enterprise and colocation capacity inside the 116 GW installed base, priced component by component; see the DC Market Insights research methodology.

Model Inputs

Operator IT load in use of 4,400, 5,100, 6,280 and 8,350 MW in 2020, 2025, 2030 and 2035; leased share 14%, 19%, 25% and 30%; GPU share 0.5%, 3.5%, 13% and 21%; edge and converted central office share 24%, 27%, 31% and 33%. IT hardware costs USD 2.45 million per network cloud MW-year and USD 8.20 million per AI MW-year in 2025; colocation and hosting average USD 190 per kW-month, so 969 leased MW x USD 190 x 12 = USD 2.21 billion. Owned-site electrical and mechanical spending is USD 2.14 billion and construction and fit-out USD 672.27 million. Sibling estimates use the same base: the Retail Data Center Market at about 8% of enterprise and colocation load, and network edge sites are a subset of the Edge Data Center Market.

Bound Checks

Ceiling 1: USD 18.54 billion is 3.3% of the DC Market Insights global data center market of USD 570.04 billion in 2025, between retail (3.0%) and banking (5.9%). Ceiling 2: China’s USD 3.89 billion is 9.8% of the RMB 285.5 billion (about USD 39.8 billion) that China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom spent on capital investment in 2025. Floor: China Telecom’s 3.2 GW of rack power and the 1,200 MW in the tracker show operator data center load in the gigawatts, consistent with 5,100 MW of own use worldwide. Every split sums to the total in every year, and the CAGR is recomputed from the 2025 and 2035 endpoints.