North American AI Data Center Expansion Drives 2026 CapEx of Top Nine CSPs to US$830 Billion, Says TrendForce

TrendForce’s latest findings on the AI industry highlight that several major North American CSPs have recently raised their 2026 capital expenditure (CapEx) guidance in response to strong AI demand. As a result, TrendForce has revised its forecast for the combined CapEx of the world’s top nine CSPs—Google, AWS, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, ByteDance, Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu—up to approximately US$830 billion in 2026, with the annual growth rate raised from 61% to 79%.

Taking a look at the four major U.S. CSPs, Microsoft has increased its CapEx outlook to $190 billion, implying approximately 130% YoY growth. Around roughly $25 billion is attributable to rising component costs. Similarly, Google has raised its guidance from $175–185 billion to $180–190 billion, with growth exceeding 100%. Meta has revised its CapEx range upward from $115–135 billion to $125–145 billion, representing approximately 85% YoY growth. Lastly, AWS is expected to exceed $230 billion in CapEx this year, with growth of over 50% driven by demand for AI cloud services.

TrendForce notes that the pace of CapEx expansion among North American CSPs exceeds the global average, underscoring that AI infrastructure has become a core long-term strategic priority. Investment is increasingly concentrated in the deployment of high-performance GPU clusters, in-house ASIC development, and next-generation data centers designed to support high-power-density computing.

The sharp rise in CapEx also signals sustained momentum in data center construction, led primarily by AWS, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Oracle. As of the end of 2025, these five North American CSPs had deployed 800–900 data centers globally, with AWS accounting for the lion’s share.

Among Chinese CSPs, Alibaba and ByteDance are the main drivers of expansion—though their strategies diverge. Alibaba is focusing on localized nodes and sovereign cloud offerings through Alibaba Cloud to penetrate emerging markets. Since announcing expansion plans in 2025, the company has established new regions in Brazil, France, and the Netherlands, enlarging its global footprint to 29 regions and 94 availability zones.

In contrast, ByteDance is aggressively expanding overseas through TikTok, with operations established across eight countries, including the U.S., Brazil, and Ireland, and major investments in Europe, Thailand, and Malaysia. This makes it the most geographically aggressive Chinese CSP.

TrendForce further notes that sustained AI demand will continue to drive global data center growth, with total installed power capacity expected to reach approximately 155 GW in 2026 (~+29% YoY). AI servers are also projected to surpass general-purpose servers in total electricity consumption in 2026 due to significantly higher power consumption per unit. 

Further jumps in power consumption are expected in 2027–2028 as platforms such as GB300/Rubin and ASIC-based AI servers enter mass production. This trend will, in turn, support growth in key components such as HVDC power systems and liquid cooling systems.