Global Data Center RoundUp – January 2026: Infrastructure Sets the Limits
From power and permitting to grid access and policy, this month traced how physical constraints now determine where AI capacity can be delivered.
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Dear Friends,
The AI narrative is consolidating around a harder constraint: infrastructure, not technology. AI scale is now governed by power procurement, grid access, zoning, interconnection, and permitting. These factors, more than models or chips, determine where compute can be delivered.
This month’s analysis highlights risk that remain underpriced. Renewable PPAs are tightening, early AI capacity carries development risk that traditional infrastructure capital struggles to absorb, and new frameworks such as Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN model reflect attempts to re-sequence risk rather than eliminate it.
Capital is responding at unprecedented scale. Hyperscalers and sovereign-backed investors are underwriting regions instead of cities. North America’s $600B pipeline, Asia-Pacific’s industrial-scale expansion, and coordinated buildouts across the Middle East, Africa, and South America signal a market reorganizing around power, policy, and delivery certainty.
Beneath both risk and capital, infrastructure fundamentals now dominate. Zoning, land control, grid access, and cooling capacity have become durable sources of advantage, ultimately determining whether AI capacity can be built at all.
This month’s stories show where capacity can be delivered and who is positioned to capture durable advantage.
In case you missed any of the analysis, here is the full roundup of what we published this month.
Substack
Deep Dives
Detailed breakdowns on risks, strategic models, and long-term shifts.
The AI Data Center Crisis No One Is Talking About – [Read here]
The Renewable PPA Squeeze Inside America’s AI Buildout – [Read here]
Does HUMAIN’s $1.2B Saudi Framework Signal a New Model for AI Data Centers? – [Read here]
Is Digital Realty Quietly Rewriting the Data Center Playbook in Malaysia? – [Read here]
Big Market Shifts
Major strategic moves by hyperscalers and what they signal.
North America: $600B Redefines the Scale of AI & Data Center Infrastructure – [Read here]
Asia-Pacific: $150B+ AI Data Center Infrastructure Enters the Industrial Phase – [Read here]
Middle East & Africa: $100B+ AI and Data Center Buildout Redefines the Region – [Read here]
South America: $60B+ AI Buildout from Sovereign Zones to Cross-Border Lanes – [Read here]
Infrastructure Fundamentals
Core constraints and capabilities shaping AI-ready compute.
The Zoning Moat Is Now the Asset – [Read here]
The Invisible Backbone of the AI Economy - Data Centers – [Read here]
LinkedIn
The Hidden Constraint Inside Every “AI-Ready” Data Center – [Read here]
The Data Center Bottleneck No One Is Underwriting Correctly – [Read here]
The $910B H2 2025 Global AI Buildout: What the Market Just Revealed – [Read here]
H2 2025 Was a Breakout for Data Centers in South America. Here Are 10 Moves That Changed Everything. – [Read here]
H2 2025 Was a Breakout for Data Centers in North America. Here Are 10 Moves That Changed Everything. – [Read here]
H2 2025 Marked the Turning Point for Data Centers in Asia-Pacific. Here Are 15 Moves That Industrialized AI Infrastructure. – [Read here]
H2 2025 Was the Inflection Point for Data Centers in the Middle East & Africa. Here Are 12 Moves That Operationalized Sovereign AI. – [Read here]
Is Digital Realty Quietly Rewriting the Data Center Playbook in Malaysia? – [Read here]
Twitter/X
U.S. data center bottlenecks are now about zoning, not power.
Rooted in county approvals, community opposition, and political alignment (Prince William Digital Gateway, 142 groups, 24 states), this thread shows why $64B in stalled projects proves permission matters more than land or power and why front-loading zoning strategy separates winners from stranded assets. [Read here]
MEA’s AI strategy isn’t about capital, it’s about energized megawatts.
Anchored in multi-gigawatt platforms, sovereign-backed execution (Saudi HUMAIN 6GW, Morocco 500MW renewable campuses), and capital-heavy JVs, this thread shows how power, policy, and integrated infrastructure not announcements will determine who captures Africa & the Gulf’s AI upside and who stalls. [Read here]
Asia’s data center game isn’t megawatts, it’s node control.
Centered on interconnection density, enterprise colocation, and phased capital deployment (Digital Realty’s Malaysia strategy, TelcoHub 1), this thread shows why network leverage, switching costs, and ecosystem control not sheer power will define the next decade of Asia’s AI and cloud infrastructure. [Read here]
AI didn’t break the grid, it exposed it.
Structured around concentrated renewable PPAs, locational deliverability, and capacity market signals (PJM $329/MW-day, Virginia GS-5, Texas load rules), this thread shows why clean power isn’t a “green input” anymore it’s the binding platform that will decide who wins America’s AI infrastructure race. [Read here]
Thanks for catching up with this month’s roundup.