Gartner: AI spurs 25% surge in data center systems spending

Generative AI is driving significant IT spending growth, according to Gartner’s most recent global forecast, with data center infrastructure seeing the biggest spike. The research firm is forecasting 25.3% growth in data center systems, largely due to AI services and GPU-based specialized services for AI workloads.

The forecast exceeds Gartner’s predictions from earlier this year “primarily due to the explosive growth in AI server demand,” according to John-David Lovelock, distinguished vice president analyst at Gartner, who shared details of the IT spending projections during a Gartner webinar on the research. The total server spend is now projected to double from $70 billion in 2022 to $140 billion by 2025 and then triple to $200 billion by 2028, Lovelock explained.

Service providers are projected to spend nearly $100 billion on AI-specific servers this year, and the supply of GPUs appears to be the main limiting factor in this market, with demand expected to outstrip supply for several years to come, he said. Lovelock emphasized that this surge in AI server spending is creating a substantial foundation for generative AI capacity, which will have flow-through effects across other IT categories.