Investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure is entering a new phase of structural expansion, driven by the rapid adoption of generative AI applications and the growing need to support increasingly complex workloads. According to a report from IDC, IT infrastructure is becoming a critical foundation for enabling the next generation of AI platforms and models.
The surge in spending is largely fueled by hyperscalers and major cloud providers that are aggressively expanding data center capacity and strengthening accelerated computing platforms required for AI training and inference. These companies are investing heavily in high-performance computing environments capable of handling massive data volumes and advanced machine learning models.
The year 2025 marked a turning point for the AI infrastructure market. IDC estimates that global spending on AI infrastructure reached $334 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow rapidly, surpassing $900 billion by 2029. This growth reflects the increasing importance of AI capabilities across industries, from financial services and healthcare to manufacturing and retail.
Within the AI infrastructure ecosystem, servers remain the dominant component of spending. Cloud deployments continue to expand rapidly as organizations prioritize scalable environments to support AI adoption. GPU-based servers play a particularly important role, serving as the backbone for processing generative AI models and other computationally intensive workloads.
At the same time, enterprises face a more complex technology landscape. Factors such as evolving regulatory frameworks, data sovereignty requirements, and shifting geopolitical dynamics are shaping how organizations design and deploy AI infrastructure.
IDC forecasts that by 2028, about 60 percent of multinational companies will deploy AI architectures across multiple sovereign zones. This approach will help organizations comply with regional regulations but will also increase integration costs and add new complexity to IT infrastructure design.
To adapt to this evolving environment, enterprises are expected to rethink their technology strategies by adopting hybrid architectures, federated AI models, and diversified sourcing approaches. These strategies will help companies balance innovation with regulatory compliance while strengthening supply chain resilience.
These developments will be a key focus at the upcoming IDC FutureTech Summit scheduled for April 16 in Milan at the Magna Pars Event Space. The event will bring together CIOs, CTOs, IT architects, and technology leaders to discuss how organizations can design infrastructure and platforms capable of supporting the next wave of AI adoption.
The summit will be opened by Roberta Bigliani, Group Vice President at IDC, and Jennifer Thomson, Associate Vice President at IDC, who will highlight emerging trends shaping the future of enterprise AI infrastructure.
The world’s largest cloud providers – Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta Platforms, and Oracle – are projected to spend more than $600 billion on infrastructure in 2026, representing 36 percent growth compared with 2025. About 75 percent of this spending, or roughly $450 billion, will be directed toward AI infrastructure, including AI servers, GPUs, and hyperscale data centers required for large-scale artificial intelligence workloads.
Among hyperscalers, Amazon is expected to lead the AI infrastructure race with around $200 billion in investment by 2026, primarily focused on expanding AWS data centers, deploying AI chips and servers, and strengthening global cloud capacity to support generative AI workloads.
Google, part of Alphabet, is projected to invest $175 billion to $185 billion in infrastructure, nearly doubling earlier investment levels. The spending will support AI platforms such as the Gemini models, expansion of Google Cloud, and deployment of proprietary AI processors such as TPUs.
Microsoft is forecast to spend more than $130 billion to $150 billion, driven largely by the growth of Azure AI services and partnerships with AI developers. The company’s investment includes large GPU clusters, expansion of data centers, and infrastructure designed to support generative AI applications.
Meta plans to allocate about $130 billion to $140 billion for AI infrastructure as it expands AI data centers to support its Llama models and AI-driven services across social media, advertising, and immersive computing platforms.
RAJANI BABURAJAN
