Operational data centre capacity across Europe, the Middle East and Africa has passed 12.1GW, while another 18.3GW is under construction or planned as access to electricity increasingly determines which digital infrastructure projects can progress into operation.
Research from Cushman & Wakefield shows that operational EMEA capacity increased by 36% from 8.9GW in the second quarter of 2024 to more than 12.1GW during the first half of 2026. The development pipeline has grown by more than 34% over the past year.
Approximately 3.8GW is currently under construction, with another 14.5GW at the planning stage. The scale of that pipeline demonstrates the continuing appetite for cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure, although planned capacity is becoming less useful as a market measure unless developers can also demonstrate a viable route to power.
Andrew Fray, Chairman EMEA Data Centres at Cushman & Wakefield, described the regional market as “fundamentally supply constrained”. Demand continues to outpace available capacity in much of EMEA, but grid connections, permitting and deliverability are increasingly separating viable projects from development proposals with no dependable operating date.
London remains the region’s largest data centre market, with 1.38GW of operational capacity and a development pipeline of around 1.77GW. Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin together still account for approximately 43% of operational EMEA capacity, representing 5.2GW in service and 1.17GW under construction.
Their share of future capacity is gradually declining as infrastructure constraints redirect new investment. Mature hubs retain dense fibre connectivity, established customer ecosystems and experienced engineering supply chains, but available land and electricity are increasingly difficult to secure at the scale demanded by hyperscale and AI projects.
Scandinavia has consequently strengthened its position. The region now has approximately 2.1GW of operational capacity, 20% more than a year ago, with more than 3GW in planning. Helsinki has moved into Cushman & Wakefield’s highest-tier Powerhouse classification as access to lower-carbon electricity and developable land attracts further investment.
Southern European markets are also becoming more prominent. Madrid, Barcelona and Zaragoza are among the locations attracting additional interest, alongside Oslo, as operators assess markets where large sites can still be combined with credible electricity connections and sufficient fibre infrastructure.
Amsterdam remains a major established hub with 927MW of operational capacity, 102MW under construction and another 251MW planned. Growth in the Netherlands is increasingly distributed towards locations including Eemshaven and Middenmeer, where large developments can obtain the space and power difficult to secure around the most congested metropolitan areas.
The geographical shift does not remove the engineering requirement behind the headline capacity. Each additional megawatt of IT load requires electrical distribution, transformers, switchgear, cooling plant, backup power and controls before servers can begin useful work.
Artificial intelligence is raising those requirements further because high-density compute clusters concentrate more electricity and heat into each hall. Operators are adopting liquid cooling and revisiting power architecture as rack densities move beyond the levels around which many existing facilities were designed.
ABB’s recently launched Infinitus architecture illustrates the equipment response to those higher loads, combining medium-voltage conversion, DC distribution, protection and cooling technologies for AI infrastructure. Comparable investment is spreading across transformers, generators, cables and other critical power systems.
Long manufacturing lead times for that equipment can become a project constraint even after a grid connection has been agreed. Large transformers and high-voltage switchgear serve utilities, renewable projects, industrial users and data centres simultaneously, leaving developers competing for production capacity in the same factories.
Cushman & Wakefield sees little evidence of general oversupply despite concern around the scale of AI investment. Vacancy remains below 10% across most operational markets, while a significant portion of capacity under construction has already been pre-let before completion.
The 18.3GW development pipeline should nevertheless be read cautiously. Planning figures contain projects competing for the same customers, electricity infrastructure, capital and equipment, and not every announced megawatt will reach construction on its original timetable.
That increasingly makes deliverability more revealing than headline development scale. A site with land and planning consent but no firm power route can remain stalled for years, while a less established location with available grid capacity can move more quickly despite having a smaller existing data centre ecosystem.
The next stage of EMEA growth is therefore likely to be determined as much by electrical engineering as by computing demand. AI and cloud customers continue to require more capacity, but electricity networks, substations and equipment factories now decide where a growing proportion of those servers can physically be installed.
