Latest news with #SynergyResearchGroup
Channel Post MEA
6 days ago
- Business
- Channel Post MEA
Data Center Capacity is Shifting Rapidly to Hyperscale Operators
The number of large data centers operated by hyperscale companies reached 1,189 at the end of the first quarter, and new data from Synergy Research Group shows that they now account for 44% of the worldwide capacity of all data centers. Over half of that hyperscale capacity is now in own-built, owned data centers with the balance being in leased facilities. With non-hyperscale colocation capacity accounting for another 22% of capacity, that leaves on-premise data centers with just 34% of the total. This is in stark contrast to six years ago, when almost 56% of data center capacity was in on-premise facilities. Looking ahead to 2030, hyperscale operators will account for 61% of all capacity, while on-premise will drop to just 22%. Over that period, the total capacity of all data centers will continue to rise rapidly, driven primarily by hyperscale capacity growing threefold over the next six years. While colocation share of total capacity will slowly decrease, colocation capacity will continue to increase each year at near double-digit rates. After a sustained period of essentially no growth, on-premise data center capacity is receiving something of a boost thanks to GenAI applications and GPU infrastructure. Nonetheless, on-premise share of the total will drop by around two percentage points per year over the forecast period. The number of large data centers operated by hyperscale companies reached 1,189 at the end of the first quarter, and new data from Synergy Research Group shows that they now account for 44% of the worldwide capacity of all data centers. Over half of that hyperscale capacity is now in own-built, owned data centers with the balance being in leased facilities. With non-hyperscale colocation capacity accounting for another 22% of capacity, that leaves on-premise data centers with just 34% of the total. This is in stark contrast to six years ago, when almost 56% of data center capacity was in on-premise facilities. Looking ahead to 2030, hyperscale operators will account for 61% of all capacity, while on-premise will drop to just 22%. Over that period, the total capacity of all data centers will continue to rise rapidly, driven primarily by hyperscale capacity growing threefold over the next six years. While colocation share of total capacity will slowly decrease, colocation capacity will continue to increase each year at near double-digit rates. After a sustained period of essentially no growth, on-premise data center capacity is receiving something of a boost thanks to GenAI applications and GPU infrastructure. Nonetheless, on-premise share of the total will drop by around two percentage points per year over the forecast period. 'Cloud and other key digital services have been the prime drivers behind data center capacity expansion, and the dramatic rise of AI technology and applications is now providing an added impetus,' said John Dinsdale, a Chief Analyst at Synergy Research Group. 'However, the mix of data center capacity is quite different region by region, an example being that hyperscale owned data center capacity is much more prevalent in the US than in either the EMEA or APAC regions. Overall though, the trends are all heading in the same direction. All regions will see double-digit annual growth rates in overall data center capacity over the forecast period, and all regions will see the hyperscale owned portion of that capacity growing by at least 20% per year.'
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
2 Growth Stocks to Invest $1,000 in Right Now
Datadog's cloud monitoring platform is experiencing strong growth as more customers adopt artificial intelligence. Microsoft's software and cloud services are producing robust free cash flow that should make for a rewarding investment. 10 stocks we like better than Datadog › Businesses that are operating in large and growing industries can make the most rewarding investments. Growth stocks can be volatile, but the long-term gains of patiently holding shares of a company experiencing growing demand for its products can lead to monster gains down the road. If you have $1,000 to invest right now, here are two stocks that can multiply that investment over the next 10 years. Businesses continue to migrate their data from on-premise servers to the cloud to take advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) services. As the cloud market expands, it is driving demand for Datadog's (NASDAQ: DDOG) platform that helps companies monitor system performance and security vulnerabilities. Datadog has consistently grown revenue at high rates and reported a 25% year-over-year increase in the first quarter. This outpaced the broader cloud computing market, which grew 23% year over year, according to Synergy Research Group. This is a competitive market, with the leading cloud services offering their own observability tools. But Datadog's platform is integrated with all the leading cloud providers like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. This gives customers more flexibility. Datadog brings everything a user needs to see on a single platform. Companies have even reported saving significant money with Datadog, which explains why it continues to grow faster than the cloud market. Customers can use Datadog to spot problems with their applications that are delivering poor user experiences, identify security issues, or see the features that are driving the most interactions. This helps companies improve their products to deliver better user experiences. As companies invest more in AI, it creates even more complexity in their cloud operating environment, resulting in more demand for Datadog. The company said that AI-native customers contributed approximately 6 points of revenue growth in Q1. These trends point to great return prospects for investors. The cloud observability market is estimated at $53 billion and expected to grow 11% per year through 2028. This is a huge opportunity for Datadog with just $2.8 billion in trailing-12-month revenue. For investors looking for a large and relatively low-risk growth stock to hold for the long term, look no further than Microsoft. Cloud and AI services are essential in today's economy, and there's not a business in a better position to benefit than the leading software brand. Microsoft is a large business with $270 billion in trailing revenue, but this isn't keeping it from growing revenue and earnings at high rates to fuel the stock higher. Its momentum in the cloud market is a key factor that has sent the stock up 149% over the last five years. Revenue from Microsoft Cloud grew 20% year over year to $42 billion last quarter. This includes commercial revenue for Microsoft 365 (e.g., Office), LinkedIn, Azure, and other cloud services. The Azure enterprise cloud service saw accelerating demand across every industry last quarter. Microsoft is benefiting from its partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, where it has the rights to use OpenAI's technology across its services, including its Copilot personal assistant and Azure. The growing demand for cloud services means more recurring revenue and cash flows. Microsoft's cash from operations grew 16% year over year to $37 billion. Its $69 billion in trailing-12-month free cash flow provides ample resources to invest in data centers to support growing cloud demand, while paying a growing dividend to shareholders. Microsoft is providing the essential cloud and AI services that every industry will need to remain competitive over the long term. Analysts expect the company's earnings per share to grow at an annualized rate of 12% over the long term, which could be enough for Microsoft stock to outperform the S&P 500. Before you buy stock in Datadog, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Datadog wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $674,395!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $858,011!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 997% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Ballard has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Datadog, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 2 Growth Stocks to Invest $1,000 in Right Now was originally published by The Motley Fool
Globe and Mail
03-06-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
This 1 Thing Is Really Bugging Me About Amazon Web Services
Any investor keeping tabs on e-commerce giant Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) probably already knows how important its cloud computing arm is to the company's bottom line. For those who don't, the bulk of its revenue still comes from selling merchandise to online shoppers, 58% of last year's operating profits came from Amazon Web Services, even though this business only made up 17% of Amazon's total sales. That allows Amazon's sizable cloud-based cash flow to help fund a lot of different growth initiatives. And it is! This proverbial gravy train might not be quite as impressive in the foreseeable future as it's been in the recent past, though. While Amazon Web Services still seems to enjoy a decent degree of pricing power, if AWS' market share trend is any indication, that could be changing soon. This sets the stage for narrower profit margins, and ultimately less net profits. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More » AWS is losing market share Technology market research outfit Synergy Research Group keeps track of the numbers, reporting how much the world spends on cloud computing services each and every quarter. As has been the case for some time now, Amazon Web Services remained the single-biggest name in the business through Q1 of this year, maintaining its lead on Microsoft 's and Alphabet 's Google cloud businesses. That lead is narrowing, though. Indeed, as the chart of Synergy's recent historical data illustrates, Amazon Web Services' share of the world's cloud computing sales fell to a multi-year low (maybe a record low?) 29% during the first quarter of 2025. That lull not only extends a downtrend that's been underway since early 2023, but accelerates it. That's not to suggest Google and Microsoft are solely responsible for this market-share setback. While both clearly gained share through 2022 and into 2023, both of these big names have also struggled to win cloud business of late. Much of Amazon's recent loss of market share is to mostly unknown "other" providers. This makes sense -- as the industry matures, cloud computing clients are looking for the more specialized options and features that only the smaller cloud computing companies may offer. Regardless, Amazon Web Services is clearly losing market share. And it certainly doesn't want to. Still profitable enough ... for now It hasn't mattered much yet. Indeed, AWS' revenue is still technically growing faster than the arm's operating costs are, allowing for still-widening profit margins through the first quarter of 2025. Think bigger picture, though, and longer term. The cloud computing business is clearly competitive, and even its smaller players are now in a position to push back against the so-called "Big Three." While there's been enough industrywide growth for all these service providers to go around, we may be at a turning point on this front. If its growth rate slows -- as is usually the case once a business matures -- look for cloud's commoditization to kick off a price war. Price wars, of course, punch profit margins. Just keep your finger on the pulse of this business Don't panic if you currently hold a stake in Amazon; this isn't exactly a reason in and of itself to avoid a position in Amazon, either. There's still good money to be made in the business, and Amazon is well-positioned to earn its fair share of it. Don't be naïve, either, however. Amazon stock has been and remains priced as if AWS will remain the powerhouse profit producer it's been up until this point. Now this once-reliable presumption is in question. Even the smallest red flag on this front could take an oversized toll on Amazon stock, sparked by unexpected disappointment. In other words, just keep your finger on the pulse of this business to make sure you're not completely blindsided by one of its upcoming quarterly reports. One of the two charts above is going to have to change directions sooner or later, and likely sooner than later. Should you invest $1,000 in Amazon right now? Before you buy stock in Amazon, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Amazon wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $651,049!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $828,224!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is979% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to171%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2025 Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. James Brumley has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Structured Cabling Market to Worth More than US$ 36.20 Billion By 2033
The structured cabling market is experiencing significant growth, driven by increasing demand for high-speed data transmission, rising adoption of IoT devices, and expanding data centers globally, supporting digital transformation across industries. Chicago, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global structured cabling market was valued at US$ 13.97 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach US$ 36.20 billion by 2033 at a CAGR of 11.20% during the forecast period 2025–2033. Within the structured cabling market, hyperscale cloud providers continue their worldwide building spree and are demanding unprecedented port densities together with ever-longer trunk counts. Synergy Research Group verified 992 hyperscale data centers in operation at the close of 2023, with a further 230 locations already under concrete. A single 96-MW campus in Mesa, Arizona alone required 1.2 million fiber cores and 85,000 Category 8 copper links to support 400 GbE spine-leaf fabrics and top-of-rack management ports. These absolute numbers, rather than vague growth ratios, reveal the tangible volume that cabling vendors must position in build-to-stock warehouses. Request Sample Pages: The structured cabling market is simultaneously moving from component distribution toward design-build contracts that guarantee optical loss budgets before ribbon fiber even ships. Amazon Web Services now insists on factory-polished MPO-16 connectors with measured insertion loss below 0.22 dB and refuses deliveries lacking the full data set in machine-readable XML. To meet such specifications, leading suppliers installed automated interferometers able to clear 9,600 connector endfaces per shift, while Asian subcontractors added robots that coil high-density trunks into zero-memory reels—cutting onsite installation time at an Atlanta facility by 4,200 labor hours. These concrete efficiencies are redefining economics across the market. Key Findings in the Structured Cabling Market Market Forecast (2033) US$ 36.20 billion CAGR 11.20% Largest Region (2024) North America (35%) By Cable Type Fiber Optic Cables (51%) By Application Data Center (45%) By Industry Vertical IT & Telecom (34%) Top Drivers Hyperscale data-center builds driving demand for fiber and copper interconnects Campus Wi-Fi 7 upgrades necessitating higher bandwidth Cat6A cabling deployments PoE++ powered smart buildings increasing consumption of high-quality copper links Top Trends Shift toward pre-terminated fiber assemblies accelerating modular, rapid data-center installations Growing preference for low-smoke, zero-halogen jackets meeting sustainability mandates nationwide Integration of automated testing tools certifying 400-GbE channel performance reliability Top Challenges Supply-chain constraints on fire-retardant compounds prolong copper and fiber lead-times Skilled labor shortage delaying large-scale installations and raising project costs Increasing channel power densities heightening thermal, electromagnetic interference management complexity 5G And Open-RAN Rollouts Intensify Telecom Structured Cabling Performance Requirements Across the structured cabling market, mobile network densification has shifted operator spending from radio antennas to the physical layer that feeds them. GSMA Intelligence counted 1.6 million live 5G macro base stations by June 2023, each demanding at least two 25 Gbps front-haul fibers and a PoE-enabled copper pair for timing units. Inside central offices, Telefónica's Madrid hub expanded fiber trays from 72 to 288 slots to accommodate O-RAN traffic. Such quantifiable site counts translate into linear-kilometer orders, and the structured cabling market now books almost as many connectors for telecom projects as for data centers. In practical terms, operators want hybrid bundles that carry power and data in one sheath, avoiding new utility permits. Commscope's FLX-Power solution, released in February 2024, combines a six-strand single-mode ribbon with twin 16-AWG conductors and is already running in 2,700 Deutsche Telekom small cells. Meanwhile, the O-RAN Alliance lists 50 service providers with active open front-haul links, and every deployment specifies pre-terminated trunk cable kits to shorten rooftop work to 90 minutes. Vendors that can demonstrate field failure rates below five incidents per ten thousand terminations are moving up preferred-supplier ladders, a shift that unmistakably boosts mindshare and revenue inside the structured cabling market. Hybrid Workplaces Drive Enterprise Campus Investments In Future-Ready Cabling Topologies Flexible work patterns are rewriting enterprise campus topologies in measurable ways. According to BICSI's 2024 Infrastructure Survey, the median Fortune 100 headquarters now supports 7,800 Wi-Fi 6E access points, 12,400 environmental sensors, and 2.1 petabytes of daily east-west traffic. To absorb this load, facilities departments are replacing legacy Category 5e with Category 6A shielded runs that sustain 10 Gbps over the full 100-meter channel. A recent retrofit at Microsoft's Redmond campus consumed 640,000 modular jacks and 2,300 kilometers of horizontal cable, underscoring the physical scale involved. Because moves, adds, and changes peak every Tuesday when hybrid staff reshuffle seating, network managers demand zone architecture that relocates up to 96 workstations by repatching a single consolidation point. This requirement pushes the market toward field-configurable cassettes whose rear MPO aperture can flip between copper keystones and duplex LC in thirty seconds. Corning's EDGE Rapid Connect, deployed in 54 buildings at JPMorgan Chase's new Manhattan headquarters, cut change-order tickets by 310 per month. The structured cabling market thus evolves from one-time product sale to an agile service backbone that grows with unpredictable workplace patterns. Smart Buildings Converge Power And Data Over Unified Cabling Backbone Commercial developers are converging lighting, security, and environmental controls onto Ethernet, and that convergence pivots heavily on cabling. The Continental Automated Buildings Association logged 47,600 North American properties where LED luminaires run on 90-watt PoE++ as of October 2023. Brookfield's 660-foot Manhattan West tower illustrates the practical effect: the building required only 360 electrical conduits yet installed 1,460 copper runs for low-voltage power and data, shrinking ceiling plenum height by four inches. Such hard project numbers clarify why the structured cabling market is now inseparable from sustainable building design. Smart-building analytics add another quantitative layer for the structured cabling market. At Atlanta's 1.4-million-square-foot CODA tech complex, a single cabling backbone feeds 14,200 occupancy sensors that publish data every eight seconds, amounting to 150 million MQTT messages daily. To handle that stream with headroom, consultants specified OM5 multimode for risers and color-coded Category 6A for horizontals. Panduit supplied plenum-rated cable with 28-AWG conductors, reducing copper weight by 1.9 tons without compromising PoE reach. With deliverables documented in digital twins, property managers can query any outlet's installation torque. These measurable efficiencies reinforce the structured cabling as a cornerstone of modern real estate and underpin rising demand for transferable cabling-as-a-platform contracts across the market. Public Sector Mandates Encourage Sustainable Structured Cabling Practices And Documentation Legislative directives are steering procurement toward documented sustainability. Under the US General Services Administration's 2024 Low-Carbon Materials Pilot, any federal construction exceeding 10,000 square feet must report embodied carbon for wiring products. Belden responded by issuing cradle-to-gate Environmental Product Declarations for 850 copper part numbers, detailing energy consumption in megajoules per spool. Similar transparency is emerging in the European Union, where the revised Green Public Procurement criteria include a mandatory take-back scheme for off-cut cable reels. These mandates ripple directly into the structured cabling market because tenders now award additional points for third-party verification of flame-spread data and halogen content. To comply, Prysmian shifted forty manufacturing lines in North Carolina to halogen-free compounds, eliminating 870 barrels of PVC annually. Concurrently, the Telecommunications Industry Association ratified Addendum 2 to TIA-568.3-D, tightening maximum optical insertion loss to 1.4 dB for four-connector links in public facilities. Specifiers can therefore preload modeling software with certified figures, trimming post-installation troubleshooting visits by 600 truck rolls across California's community-college modernization program. The market is consequently aligning performance, safety, and environmental objectives in a single dossier. Emerging Markets Demonstrate Accelerated Adoption Of High-Density Cabling Solutions Trends Emerging economies are turning connectivity gaps into infrastructure booms that reverberate across the structured cabling market. India's Digital Economy Vision saw 750 new co-location halls commissioned in 2023, adding 230 megawatts of IT power and consuming 18,000 kilometers of single-mode fiber. In Lagos, Amazon Web Services is fitting a 32-megawatt edge region where every cabinet will ship with a pre-terminated 12-fiber MPO harness, shortening on-site work amid skilled-labor shortages. These concrete installations counter outdated narratives that global cabling demand is limited to mature markets. Sector diversification further expands the structured cabling market. Brazil's state-run miner Vale upgraded six iron-ore plants with mine-rated armored fiber featuring 15,000-newton crush resistance, while Indonesia's new Nusantara capital plan specifies 30,000 PoE drops for CCTV and traffic lights. Suppliers able to meet International Electrotechnical Commission ingress codes as well as tropical humidity ratings are booking multi-year framework agreements worth hundreds of junction boxes, not merely reels. Clear, verifiable project counts demonstrate that the market is no longer a homogeneous domain but a mosaic of vertical-specific opportunities. Consolidation, Services, And Innovation Reshape Competitive Structured Cabling Landscape Dynamics Competitive dynamics intensified in 2024 when Legrand acquired the optical connectivity division of Molex, adding three Mexican plants and forty laboratory engineers to its roster. The deal created an integrated portfolio of copper, fiber, and intelligent patch panels that can be bundled under a single twenty-five-year performance warranty. Such integration reflects a shift from volume selling to outcome guarantees that measure link stability and rapid mean-time-to-repair—both hard metrics valued by facilities operators. This service-centric approach is redrawing revenue maps inside the structured cabling market. Anixter now stages 64,000 of its 91,000 North American cabling orders through its RapidPay project platform, where contractors receive serialized bundles that align precisely with floor-by-floor pull schedules. The model trimmed waste by 19 miles of off-cut cable across 112 projects in 2023. Looking forward, vendors are embedding NFC tags into every cassette—Vertiv alone shipped 1.4 million tagged units last year—so digital maintenance logs follow the hardware. These concrete differentiators elevate brand equity in the structured cabling market far more effectively than raw conductor counts. Modify Report as Per Requirements: Artificial Intelligence And Security Shape Future Structured Cabling Design Paradigms Artificial intelligence is now guiding physical-layer planning with the same rigor it brings to application performance tuning. Autodesk's 2024 AutoBIM plug-in can ingest architectural blueprints and propose cable-tray routes that reduce pathway overlap by 290 linear feet in a typical five-story office. At Oracle's new Hillsboro facility, the tool's suggested layout was adopted without revision, trimming installation labor by 260 man-hours and freeing rack space for another twelve compute nodes. Security considerations cap the outlook for the structured cabling market. With the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency publishing its Cross-Sector Cyber-Physical Guidance in March 2024, medical and airport operators must now document port-level access events for ten years. Fluke Networks' new Link-Secure sensorized patch cord registers unplug events with a signed timestamp and has already shipped 140,000 units to European hospitals. Combined with AI-driven layout optimization, such tamper-evident hardware confirms that the market is evolving into an autonomous, self-reporting infrastructure foundation for critical digital enterprises. Global Structured Cabling Market Major Players: ABB Ltd Anixter International Inc. Belden Inc. Legrand SA CommScope Holding Co. Inc. Cisco Systems Inc. Corning Inc. Datwyler Holding Inc. Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd. Hubnetix Corp. Nexans Siemens AG Other Prominent Players Key Market Segmentation: By Cable Type Copper Cables Cat 5E Cat 6 Cat 6A Cat 7/7A Others (Cat 8) Fiber Optic Cables Single-mode fiber Multi-mode fiber By Application Data Center Local Area Network (LAN) Wide Area Network (WAN) Campus Networks Telecommunications By Industry Verticals IT & Telecom Commercial Offices Retail Government Industrial Manufacturing Energy Healthcare Education Residential Transportation By Region North America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa (MEA) South America Explore Report Details Before You Buy: About Astute Analytica Astute Analytica is a global market research and advisory firm providing data-driven insights across industries such as technology, healthcare, chemicals, semiconductors, FMCG, and more. We publish multiple reports daily, equipping businesses with the intelligence they need to navigate market trends, emerging opportunities, competitive landscapes, and technological advancements. With a team of experienced business analysts, economists, and industry experts, we deliver accurate, in-depth, and actionable research tailored to meet the strategic needs of our clients. At Astute Analytica, our clients come first, and we are committed to delivering cost-effective, high-value research solutions that drive success in an evolving marketplace. Contact Us:Astute AnalyticaPhone: +1-888 429 6757 (US Toll Free); +91-0120- 4483891 (Rest of the World)For Sales Enquiries: sales@ Follow us on: LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube CONTACT: Contact Us: Astute Analytica Phone: +1-888 429 6757 (US Toll Free); +91-0120- 4483891 (Rest of the World) For Sales Enquiries: sales@ Website: in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Channel Post MEA
17-02-2025
- Business
- Channel Post MEA
Datacenter M&A Deals Break Records In 2024
Data from Synergy Research Group shows that after a relative lull in 2023, the value of data center-oriented M&A deals that closed in 2024 blew past the $70 billion milestone and finally reached $73 billion. 2024 was already in record-breaking territory, before a Blackstone-led acquisition of AirTrunk closed at the end of December. At almost $16 billion, that acquisition set a new benchmark for the biggest deal ever closed. Previously, 2022 had been the peak in terms of the aggregate value of all deals formally closed, at $52 billion. In 2023 there was a drop off with total value falling by 50% to $26 billion. However, 2022 numbers were boosted by the two biggest deals that had ever been seen in the industry, each valued at $11 billion or more. If mega-deals of $2 billion or more are separated out, then the trend in the flow of what might be termed 'regular deals' shows a different pattern. 2021 was the peak, 2022 dropped off by 32%, 2023 dropped again but only by 7%, and 2024 jumped by 133%. Looking to 2025, over $7 billion in deals have already closed and there is another $15 billion agreed but not yet formally closed. Synergy is also aware of some $20 billion in possible future deals, where companies are seeking new sources of funding or considering strategic options. Since 2015 Synergy has logged a total of 1,514 data center-oriented M&A deals, with an aggregate value of $324 billion. Most of this comes from company acquisitions, but the numbers also include minority equity investments, investments in joint ventures, acquisitions of individual data centers, share sales and acquisition of land for data center development. Prior to late 2024, the four largest deals ever were each valued at $10 billion or more and closed in 2021 and 2022. These were the acquisitions of CyrusOne, Switch, CoreSite and QTS, who all feature in the worldwide top 15 ranking of colocation operators. Apart from the Blackstone acquisition or AirTrunk, the biggest deals closed in 2024 were two separate equity investments in Vantage Data Centers, which combined were valued at $9.2 billion. In two separate deals, Vantage also received $3.1 billion equity investment in its EMEA operations. Other large 2024 deals were equity investments in EdgeConneX and DataBank. Apart from the rapid rise in overall data center M&A activity over the ten-year period, the most notable feature has been the extent to which private equity has flooded into the market. In 2020 private equity accounted for 54% of the value of closed deals, rising to 65% in 2021, and since then it has remained in the 80-90% range. 'There has been a tremendous increase in the demand for data center capacity, driven by cloud services, social networking and a range of both consumer and enterprise digital services. There is no end in sight to this trend, with generative AI technology and services adding a further boost to already strong demand,' said John Dinsdale, a Chief Analyst at Synergy Research Group. 'Specialist data center operators have either not been able or were not prepared to fund those investments themselves, while private equity investors have been more than willing to step in and fund growth initiatives. Looking at pending deals and the future pipeline, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that 2025 will be another boom year for data center M&A.' 0 0
