Europe Data Center Construction Market - Industry Outlook & Forecast 2026-2031

EUROPE DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET KEY TRENDS & DRIVERS

Rising Adoption of Liquid Cooling Techniques in Data Centers

• The data centers in Europe are increasingly adopting liquid cooling techniques as traditional air-based cooling techniques are not sufficient to handle vast amounts of heat generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing workloads (HPC). Therefore, data center operators are increasingly investing in liquid cooling techniques as they offer enhanced thermal management.
• In October 2025, Spode Works Regeneration Ltd, a UK-based company, planned to develop a new data center in Staffordshire, the UK, that will be equipped with a direct-to-chip liquid cooling technique.
• The surge in demand for dissipating large volumes of heat in data centers across European countries, driven by AI and HPC workloads, is increasing the requirement for advanced liquid cooling techniques, such as direct-to-chip and immersion cooling techniques. The data center firms across the European nations are likely to invest substantially to install advanced liquid cooling techniques in data centers during the forecast period.

The Surge in Digitalization Fuelling Data Center Demand

• The European countries are continuously witnessing a rapid surge in digitalization as organisations across a wide range of sectors, including government, banking, finance, healthcare, education, and others, are increasingly adopting digital technologies, such as cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence, big data, Internet of Things, and other digital technologies.
• In May 2025, the government of Sweden revealed that it had launched Sweden’s Digitalisation Strategy 2025-2030 to set a clear direction for boosting digitalization across the country over the next five years. Sweden's Digitalisation Strategy covers five areas, such as digital competence, digitalization of business, digitalization of administration, digitalisation of welfare, and enhancing connectivity infrastructure across the country.
• The rising digitalization across the European countries is anticipated to increase the demand for edge data centers across European nations to collect, store and process data closer to the end users to provide the users with low-latency and high-speed real-time digital services.

The Rise in Artificial Intelligence Adoption Aiding Data Center Investments

• The surge in adoption of Artificial Intelligence is expanding significantly across European countries as organisations across various sectors, including government, education, finance, retail, and manufacturing, increasingly invest in AI technologies to improve productivity, enhance public service offerings, and drive innovation.
• In September 2025, the UK-based AI infrastructure company Carbon3.ai inaugurated a sovereign AI platform in partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and other companies to enhance Artificial Intelligence infrastructure across the country.
• AI workloads demand numerous servers to manage large volumes of data, and the operation of such high-performance computing servers requires reliable power, and they contribute a significant amount of heat, driving the demand for advanced liquid cooling infrastructure. The surge in the adoption of AI across European countries is anticipated to increase the demand for liquid cooling techniques significantly during the forecast period.

Increasing Adoption of Cloud Computing Technologies

• The need for cloud computing technologies across European countries has been increasing rapidly, owing to the stringent data regulation policies in the region, a surge in digitalization, deployment of 5G connectivity services, and other factors.
• In November 2025, OVHcloud, the cloud services provider, inaugurated a third cloud region in Berlin, Germany, increasing resilience and security for European digital infrastructure. The company also launched the OVHcloud AI EndPoint inference platform in collaboration with SambaNova Systems to offer high-performance AI inference services.
• The increasing adoption of cloud-computing services across European countries is likely to increase the need for data centers in the region over the next three to five years, as cloud companies require low-latency and scalable infrastructure to support the expanding digital infrastructure of Europe.

The Surge in Inland and Submarine Cable Connectivity

• Europe is expanding its digital infrastructure by investing in submarine cable connectivity, which plays a crucial role in boosting the region's data transmission speeds and cross-border connectivity to address the increasing demands for Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing, and digitalization across European countries.
• In January 2026, Amazon Web Services planned to develop a new cable landing station (CLS) in Cork, Ireland, marking a significant step in its global infrastructure expansion. The cable landing station is likely to be located at Tullyneasky West, and the project will involve the development of a cable landing station along with a substation, a switch room building, and supporting external plant infrastructure, including generators and fuel tanks.
• The rise in the development of submarine cable connectivity across European countries is anticipated to rise further during the forecast period, which is essential to support the rising need for high-speed internet, cloud services, and digital transformation across Europe, leading to a rise in the demand for data centers across European countries.

Increasing Government Support for Data Centers

• In recent years, governments across Europe have increasingly recognized the critical role of data centers in supporting digital economies and technological advancement. Therefore, the governments across the European countries are introducing various initiatives to encourage data center development, strengthen digital infrastructure, and promote sustainable data center operations across the European countries.
• In January 2026, UK parliamentarians established the Data Centres APPG (All-Party Parliamentary Group), a cross-party initiative that has been designed to enhance understanding of the UK's data center sector. The group aims to examine the role of data centers in driving economic growth, strengthening digital infrastructure resilience, and supporting the UK's net-zero objectives.
• Government support for data centers is anticipated to rise further during the forecast period, particularly through initiatives that encourage renewable energy adoption and collaboration with global technology companies. Europe is likely to attract increased investments from both domestic and international players in the data center sector over the next three to five years.

EUROPE DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET SEGMENTATION INSIGHTS

• The rising demand for hyperscale data center infrastructure is significantly boosting data center investments in the Europe data center construction market owing to the increasing demand for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC). In November 2025, the hyperscale giant, Google, revealed its plans to invest over $6.38 billion to expand its data center footprint in Germany. The company intends to develop a new data center in Dietzenbach and expand its existing data center in Hanau as part of its investment.
• Companies across a wide range of sectors, including technology, finance, energy, education, and others, are significantly investing to develop their own data center facilities to support their digital workloads and manage digital data. The investments in enterprise data center facilities are slated to increase significantly during the forecast period, driven by the surge in rapid digitalization. In January 2026, the energy firm UK Industrial Fusion Solutions Ltd (UKIFS) planned to invest around $10.6 million in the development of an enterprise data center in the UK to manage the company’s digital workloads.
• Colocation operators are the major contributors to adding data center power capacity in the Europe data center construction market. In 2025, the colocation data centers accounted for over 68.30% of the Europe data center construction market’s power capacity share. The colocation operators like nLighten, EdgeMode, Bulk Infrastructure, Iron Mountain, and other colocation operators are increasingly signing power purchase agreements (PPAs) with renewable energy firms to source renewable energy to power data center operations to advance sustainability.
• Several data center operators across European countries are prioritising the development of AI-optimized data centers, which host advanced liquid cooling technologies, high-density racks, Graphic Processing Units (GPUs), and higher IT capacity loads. The requirement for AI-optimized data centers is projected to increase significantly during the forecast period. In December 2025, Argyll Infrastructure Holdings (AIH) secured financing, worth approximately $19.97 million to develop an AI-optimized data center in Scotland, the UK.
• The demand for sustainable power infrastructure has been increasing rapidly across data centers in the European region. The companies are increasingly investing in battery energy storage systems, and sustainable batteries like lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries to replace traditional lead-acid batteries in the data centers. For example, the MAN1-Chester data center, operated by nLighten in Cheshire, the UK has been equipped with lithium-ion batteries to reduce the facility’s climate impact.
• Several data center operators have been investing in renewable energy-powered backup generators to minimize their environmental impact. The adoption of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) powered generators is gaining momentum in the Europe data center industry in recent years. This trend is likely to rise significantly over the next five years. In October 2025, the data center operator, Telehouse, initiated the construction of a new data center, which will be equipped with Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) powered backup generators in London, the UK.
• The demand for liquid cooling technologies is increasing significantly across European data centers, owing to the rapid surge in advancements of emerging technologies like Artificial intelligence. Data center operators are installing GPUs in data centers to process Artificial Intelligence workloads efficiently, which will generate more amounts of heat. The traditional air-based cooling technologies are not sufficient to dissipate such huge amounts of heat, requiring companies to install liquid cooling technologies. In 2025, liquid cooling technologies contributed to generating around 30.38% of the cooling technique investments, which is projected to increase to approximately 36.52% by 2031.
• Data center operators are also investing in chilled-water cooling technologies and free cooling technologies to reduce water and energy consumption in data centers, thereby reducing the facilities’ carbon emissions and environmental impact. For example, the LON-East data center, operated by Green Mountain in London, the UK, is equipped with chilled-water cooling technology to reduce water consumption. Additionally, CyrusOne’s FRA1 data center in Frankfurt, Germany, is equipped with free cooling technology to reduce electricity consumption.
• The data center operators are prioritising investment in installing high-density racks in data centers to efficiently support high-performance computing and AI workloads. For instance, Lefdal Mine Datacenters’ data center facility in Maloy, Norway, has been installed with high-density racks, which can offer rack densities of over 50 kW per rack.
• Installation of BMS/DCIM software in data centers minimize power consumption and carbon emissions in data centers, helping data center companies to reduce operational costs and carbon emissions. Digital Realty’s FRA18 data center facility in Frankfurt, Germany, is equipped with a 24/7 remote hands facility.

EUROPE DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS

• In the Europe data center construction market, the majority of the data center investments are generated by Western Europe due to the presence of strong digital hubs. In 2025, Western Europe contributed approximately 68.24% of the market’s overall investments, followed by the Nordics and Central & Eastern Europe. In Western Europe, the FLAP-D market has been dominating data center investments for many years. In 2025, the FLAP-D market accounted for over 72.92% of the data center investments in Western Europe.
• In 2025, Sweden accounted for the highest hyperscale data center power capacity in the Europe data center construction market. The Swedish government is making substantial efforts to advance Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital infrastructure across the country to boost the nation’s digital economy. In May 2025, the Swedish government launched Digitalization Strategy 2025-2030 to focus on boosting the nation’s digital infrastructure.
• In terms of power capacity, the UK led Europe data center construction market in 2025, accounting for around 17.46% of the market’s power capacity share. In December 2025, the UK’s Renewable Energy Association introduced a new Data Center Coalition to help data center companies easily secure clean and reliable electricity to power data center operations across the UK.
• Several primary markets across Europe, including the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, and others, are witnessing a lack of electricity, leading data center operators to prioritize emerging markets like Norway, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Finland, Poland, Austria, and others for the development of data centers in recent years.
• Most of the data center operators are increasingly prioritising investment across the Nordic countries to develop data centers, as the region has the presence of abundant renewable sources, helping data center operators to minimize their climate impact. Additionally, the region’s cool climate supports the companies to leverage free-cooling technologies to minimize electricity consumption in data centers, thereby reducing data center operational costs. The Nordic region is emerging as one of the prominent AI hubs worldwide, attracting local and global data center companies to invest in the development of AI-optimized data center campuses. The countries like Sweden, Norway, and Finland are positioning themselves as prominent destinations for the development of data centers across the Nordic region.
• In Europe, data center construction costs vary significantly from one country to another. Switzerland is one of the most expensive countries in Europe in terms of data center construction costs, and the cost of constructing data centers in Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the UK, and Germany is comparatively higher than in France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Poland, Greece, and other European countries.
• France is committed to reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030, and the nation aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Data center operators are making significant efforts to reduce their environmental impact. For example, in December 2025, the data center operator, nLighten, signed an agreement with renewable energy company Axpo to procure renewable energy to power nLighten’s data center operations in France.
• In the Netherlands, the Dutch Data Center Association (DDA) oversees the development of data centers across the country, and it promotes the development of sustainable data centers across the country, aiming to position the Netherlands as one of the key hubs for digital infrastructure in the European region.
• The Swiss Data Center Association is a leading organization that represents commercial data center operators and ICT companies across Switzerland. It works as a common platform for the data center industry by supporting data center operators and ICT companies. It works with government and regulatory authorities to promote the development of data centers across Switzerland, while strengthening the nation’s digital infrastructure.
• The Danish Data Center Industry (DDI) is a non-profit organization that represents the entire data center industry in Denmark, including data center operators, technology companies, utility providers, municipalities, and other industry participants. It aims to position Denmark as an attractive destination for sustainable data center development. It also works closely with government authorities, regulators, and policymakers to support the Danish data center sector.
• Finland is considered an attractive business destination because of its strategic location between Western Europe and Asia. The country offers strong connectivity, which is beneficial for data center operations. In January 2026, the data center operator, Prime Data Centers, revealed its plans to invest around $2 billion in the development of an AI-ready data center in Helsinki, Finland.
• Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development supports data center companies by offering preferential lending to buy domestically made engineering infrastructure, including cooling equipment, fire suppression systems, and other components to install in data centers. The Russian government is actively supporting Russian companies to manufacture essential data center equipment domestically to minimize reliance on foreign countries to source essential infrastructure.
• Italy consist of approximately eight Special Economic Zones (SEZs) across multiple locations, including Abruzzo, Campania, Adriatic, Ionian, Calabria, Eastern Sicily, Western Sicily, and Sardinia. These Special Economic Zones offer enterprises across various sectors, including data centers, by offering a wide range of benefits like tax incentives, essential infrastructure like water, power and network, and other benefits to establish and operate businesses efficiently.
• In Austria, data center companies and technology firms are increasingly transitioning towards sustainability, aligning with the nation’s broader sustainability goals to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. The cost of industrial power in Austria ranges between $0.15 to $0.25 per kWh.

EUROPE DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION MARKET VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Segmentation by Facility Type

• Hyperscale Data Centers
• Colocation Data Centers
• Enterprise Data Centers

Segmentation by Infrastructure

• IT Infrastructure
• Electrical Infrastructure
• Mechanical Infrastructure
• General Construction

Segmentation by IT Infrastructure

• Server Infrastructure
• Storage Infrastructure
• Network Infrastructure

Segmentation by Electrical Infrastructure

• UPS Systems
• Generators
• Transfer Switches & Switchgear
• PDUs
• Other Electrical Infrastructure

Segmentation by Mechanical Infrastructure

• Cooling Systems
• Racks
• Other Mechanical Infrastructure

Segmentation by Cooling Systems

• CRAC & CRAH Units
• Chiller Units
• Cooling Towers, Condensers, and Dry Coolers
• Other Cooling Units

Segmentation by Cooling Techniques

• Air-based
• Liquid-based

Segmentation by General Construction

• Core & Shell Development
• Installation & Commissioning Services
• Engineering & Building Design
• Physical Security
• Fire Detection & Suppression
• DCIM

Segmentation by Tier Standard

• Tier I & II
• Tier III
• Tier IV

Segmentation by Geography

• Western Europe
  • UK
  • Germany
  • France
  • Netherlands
  • Ireland
  • Switzerland
  • Italy
  • Spain
  • Belgium
  • Portugal
  • Greece
  • Other Western European Countries
• Nordics
  • Denmark
  • Sweden
  • Norway
  • Finland
  • Iceland
• Central & Eastern Europe
  • Russia
  • Poland
  • Austria
  • Czechia
  • Other Central & Eastern European Countries

Prominent Support Infrastructure Providers

• 3M
• ABB
• AERMEC
• Aggreko
• Airedale
• Alfa Laval
• Aksa Power Generation
• AVK
• Baudouin
• Carrier
• Caterpillar
• Condair
• Cummins
• Cyber Power Systems
• D’Hondt Thermal Solutions
• Daikin Applied
• Danfoss
• DEIF
• Delta Electronics
• Eaton
• EMICON
• ENGIE
• Enrogen
• GE Vernova
• GESAB
• GRUNDFOS
• Güntner
• HiRef S.p.A
• Hitachi Energy
• HITEC Power Protection
• Honeywell
• INNIO Group
• KyotoCooling
• Legrand
• Mitsubishi Electric
• Munters
• NetNordic Group AS
• Piller Power Systems
• Rehlko
• Rittal
• Rolls-Royce
• Saft
• Schneider Electric
• Siemens
• Socomec
• STULZ
• Submer
• Systermair Group
• Toshiba
• Trane
• Vertiv
• ZIEHL-ABEGG
• Bosch
• FläktGroup

Prominent Data Center Contractors & Subcontractors

• 2bm
• ACIES Civil and Structural
• ACS Group
• AECOM
• AEON Engineering
• Altron
• AODC
• APL Data Center
• ARC:MC
• Arcadis
• Ariatta
• ARSMAGNA
• Artelia
• Arup
• Astron Buildings
• AtkinsRéalis
• Aurora Group
• Basler & Hofmann
• Benthem Crouwel Architects
• BladeRoom Data Centres
• Bouygues Construction
• Bravida
• CapIngelec
• Caverion
• Collen Construction
• Colliers
• Coromatic AB
• COWI
• CREATE Architecture
• CTS Group
• DataDome
• Deerns UK
• Designer Group
• Dipl-Ing.H.C. Höllige
• Dornan
• DPR Construction
• EIDA Solutions
• Eiffage
• Elecnor Group
• Engexpor
• Ethos Engineering
• Ferrovial
• Fluor Corporation
• Flynn
• Future-tech
• Generale Prefabbricati S.p.A.
• Gleeds
• Gottlieb Paludan Architects
• Granlund Group
• Green MDC
• GSE Group
• H&MV Engineering
• Haka Moscow
• Hanley Pepper Consulting Engineers
• HDR
• Hill International
• HOCHTIEF
• ICT Facilities
• IDOM
• IMOS
• INFINITI IT
• JCA Engineering
• JERLAURE
• John Sisk & Son
• Kirby Group Engineering
• KKCG Group
• Laing O'Rourke
• Linesight
• LPI Group
• M+W Group (Exyte)
• Mace
• Marsh
• McLaren Construction Group
• Metnor Construction
• Mercury
• MiCiM
• MT Højgaard Danmark
• NORMA Engineering
• PM Group
• PORR Group
• PQC
• Quark Unlimited Engineering
• Ramboll
• RED Engineering Design
• Reid Brewin Architects
• Renco
• Rider Levett Bucknall RLB
• RKD
• Rosenberger
• Royal HaskoningDHV
• RWO Associates
• Salboheds
• Skanska
• SPIE
• Starching
• STO Building Group
• STRABAG
• STS Group
• studioNWA
• Sudlows
• Sweco
• Sweet Projects
• Techbau
• Techko
• Tetra Tech
• TPF Ingenierie
• TTSP
• Turner & Townsend
• Warbud
• Winthrop Technologies
• YIT
• ZAUNERGROUP

Data Center Investors

• 3data Premium Data Centers
• P4 Group
• Aire Networks
• Amazon Web Services
• Apple
• AQ Compute
• Ark Data Centres
• Artnet
• Aruba SpA
• AtlasEdge
• Atman
• atNorth
• Atomdata
• Bahnhof
• Beyond.pl
• Borealis Data Center
• Box2Bit
• Bulk Infrastructure
• CapitaLand
• China Mobile International
• CloudHQ
• Colt Data Centre Services
• Conapto
• CyrusOne
• DataCenter United
• DataPro
• DENV-R
• Data4
• Datum Datacentres
• Digital Realty
• Echelon Data Centres
• EcoDataCenter
• EdgeConneX
• Eni
• Equinix
• Etix Everywhere
• FirstColo
• Global Switch
• Global Technical Realty
• GlobalConnect
• Goodman
• Google
• Green
• Green Mountain
• GREYKITE
• Iron Mountain
• IXcellerate
• K2 STRATEGIC
• Kao Data
• Keppel Data Centres
• Kolo DC
• LCL Data Centers
• Lefdal Mine Data Centers
• Linxdatacenter
• Lumen Technologies
• Magnora ASA
• maincubes SECURE DATACENTERS
• Mainova WebHouse
• MERLIN Properties
• Meta
• Microsoft
• MTS
• Nabiax
• Nation Data Center
• nLighten
• NorthC
• NTT DATA
• OpCore
• Orange Business
• Penta Infra
• Portus Data Centers
• Pure Data Centres Group
• QTS Data Centers
• Rostelecom
• Selectel
• Servecentric
• Serverfarm
• STACK Infrastructure
• STACKIT
• Switch
• Sparkle
• Telehouse
• Thésée DataCenter
• Telia
• Vantage Data Centers
• Verne
• VIRTUS Data Centres
• Yandex
• Yondr Group

New Entrants

• 1911 Data Centers
• Ada Infrastructure
• Adriatic DC
• AI Pathfinder
• SWI Group
• AmpTank & Greensky Energy
• Anglesey Land Holdings
• Apatura
• Apto
• Arcem
• Argaman Group
• Aroundtown SA
• Art Data Centres
• Asia Pacific Land (APL)
• 3E Network Technology Company
• AVAIO Digital Partners
• Azora
• Bilt Technology
• Bitzero Holdings
• Blue Star
• Brookfield
• Caineal LLP
• Era4
• Claesson & Anderzén AB
• Cegeka
• Compass Datacenters
• Compute Nordic
• Corscale Data Centers
• DAMAC Digital
• Dante Group
• DATA CASTLE
• Data Center Partners
• DataHall
• dataR GmbH
• DayOne
• Deep Green
• Digital Reef
• Digital Land & Development
• Domyn
• Drax Group
• ECO-LocaXion
• EDC One
• EdgeNebula
• Edora
• EID LLP
• Elite UK REIT
• Energia Group
• EngineNode
• evroc
• BADEN CLOUD
• FCDC Corp
• FF Ventures
• Firebird.ai
• FlexBase Group
• Form8tion Data Centers
• G42
• GARBE Data Centers
• GreenScale Data Centres
• Greenweaver
• Greystoke
• Herbata
• Hillwood
• House of Data
• ICADE
• ILI Group
• Nostrum Group
• Kennedy Wilson
• Keysource and Namsos DataSenter
• Latos Data Centres
• Liberum Navitas
• Link Park Heathrow
• MSAI - Media StreamAI
• Mistral AI
• NEOIX
• NETHITS IT SOLUTIONS
• Northtree Investment Management
• Norwich Research Park
• NXN Datacenters
• Origin Energy Services & Woodlands Investment Management
• Osae
• Panattoni
• PATRIZIA SE
• PGIM Real Estate
• Polarise
• Polarnode
• Portland Trust
• Prime Data Centers
• Prologis
• PPC
• Red Admiral DC
• Regant
• Grupo Samca
• DATA for MED
• Scale42
• SDC Capital Partners
• SEGRO plc
• Sesterce
• Shelborn
• Sierra DC
• sineQN
• Skygard
• Solano Renovables España
• Solaria Energía y Medio Ambiente
• Stoneshield Capital
• Suomen Energiainsinöörit Oy
• Teesworks
• Thylander
• Tritax Group
• Truman Estates
• Valencia Digital Port Connect
• Valore Group
• VDR
• VITALI SPA Società Benefit
• VSDATA
• Wilton International
• WS Computing AS
• X5 Group
• XTX Markets

KEY QUESTIONS ANSWERED