Explosive Growth in Hyperscale Data Center Capacity Signals Infrastructure Shift

Over the next decade, the hyperscale data center industry is expected to experience a dramatic increase in IT capacity demand, even though the number of physical facilities added each year is stabilizing. According to projections from Synergy Research Group (see chart below), the number of new hyperscale data centers added annually will plateau around 2024, but the IT capacity added per year will continue to rise sharply through 2030.

This divergence indicates a trend toward larger and more powerful facilities, driven by AI workloads, cloud computing, and high-performance storage demands. The flattening of physical data center growth suggests increased efficiency through vertical scaling—that is, adding more compute power within each center—rather than expanding by number.

As hyperscale operators shift toward building fewer but much larger facilities, this evolution is expected to place significant pressure on supporting infrastructure, including power availability, cooling systems, and fiber optic networks with high-density and low-latency performance. Multi-core fiber (MCF) and space-division multiplexing (SDM) are anticipated to be among the enabling technologies.

Source: Synergy Research Group (Image)