Projects, campuses and capacity
Follow construction, expansion, lease, delivery and commissioning milestones while separating announced, energized and billable capacity.
TOPIC GUIDE · DATA CENTER MARKET
Data center market
tracker and reports.
IDC Atlas serves investors, researchers and operators tracking data-center construction, capacity conversion, power, cooling, networking and AI infrastructure demand. Every material update retains a traceable public source.
Open the data center project and company trackerPower, cooling and networks
Track grid access, clean power, electrical distribution, liquid cooling and high-speed interconnects that shape deployment timing.
CAPEX and public companies
Connect hyperscaler capital spending, long-term data-center leases and company disclosures to campus construction and infrastructure orders.
AI CAPEX: compare the accounting basis before the amount
These historical disclosures cover different periods and currencies. Cash payments, finance leases and future plans describe different obligations; they should not be added into a ranking. Follow the primary sources and each article’s research cutoff.
| Company | Period / announcement | Basis | Amount / currency | Comparison boundary | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft | FY2026 Q4 | Actual cash spending | US$35.8bn | Cash paid for property and equipment; excludes the finance leases below. | Primary disclosure |
| Microsoft | FY2026 Q4 | Finance leases | US$5.6bn | Asset acquisition, not equivalent to cash paid in the quarter; mainly large data-center sites. | Primary disclosure |
| Microsoft | FY2027 Q1 guidance (2026-07-29) | Management guidance | Over US$50bn | Includes lease reclassification from the useful-life update; not completed spending. | Primary disclosure |
| Alibaba | FY2026, ended 2026-03-31 | Actual group CAPEX | RMB126.063bn | Disclosed in group investing cash flows; not all attributable to Alibaba Cloud or AI. | Primary disclosure |
| Alibaba | Announced 2025-02-24, next three years | Investment plan | At least RMB380bn | Cloud and AI infrastructure plan; neither a one-year budget nor cash already spent. | Primary disclosure |
CAPEX becomes usable capacity only after power connection, equipment installation and customer deployment. Cash returns also depend on utilization, cloud margins and replacement spending.
Related research
- Cloud giants keep spending on AI. When does cash catch up?
- After 43% Azure Growth: How Microsoft’s Capital Spending Becomes Cash Returns
- AI Reaches 30% of Alibaba Cloud External Revenue: Turning Qwen Usage into Cash Returns
- The AI earnings season: revenue is growing, but what proves capital returns?
Microsoft research · Alibaba research · GDS colocation context
How to use the tracker
IDC Atlas is an independent data-center and AI-infrastructure research site, unaffiliated with International Data Corporation. Content is for information and research and does not constitute investment advice.
News leads and primary disclosures are shown separately. Use the original source attached to each item when checking capacity, delivery, commissioning and product specifications.
Read the data center glossary · Explore the infrastructure map · Read the columns · Review the methodology
Read the AI value chain from paid demand to cash returns
Data centers are one part of this chain. Use these six perspectives across companies and reporting periods, then follow each study’s sources and research cutoff. Demand, efficiency, prices and deployment timing determine how value reaches each business.
Applications and models: who pays for useful work
Start with enterprise purchases, paid use and renewals; compare revenue per accepted task with inference costs. Usage growth needs pricing, task success and retention to explain profit.
Read: product revenue, renewals, inference costs and gross-margin disclosures.
When agents take on longer work, who converts usage into profit?
Chips and servers: how compute becomes orders
Separate GPUs, custom accelerators and complete systems; compare training and inference workloads, delivered systems and customer concentration. Efficiency per task changes purchasing volumes and supplier profit shares.
Read: product specifications, customer purchasing, delivery timing and segment margins.
NVIDIA versus AMD: the contest moves from chip prices to cluster returns
Memory and packaging: qualification, yields and capacity
Track qualified HBM and DRAM shipments, packaging yields, prices and expansion spending. Announced capacity needs customer qualification and delivery; cash returns also depend on product mix and costs.
Read: qualification and volume-production progress, supply agreements, prices and expansion cash spending.
What determines memory profits after HBM4 enters production?
Networking and optics: connections inside and outside the rack
Distinguish chip interconnects, campus networks and inter-campus transport; compare bandwidth, topology, distance and customer purchasing cycles. The same compute investment creates different needs for switches, optical modules and line systems.
Read: network architecture, bandwidth upgrades, customer orders and revenue from delivery.
Ciena’s AI-network growth: higher sales, lower margin guidance
Power, cooling and data centers: when equipment becomes usable
Connect power and grid access, cooling, installation, customer deployment and billable capacity; separate plans, construction and commissioning. Revenue from contracted capacity depends on delivery terms and utilization.
Read: power agreements, project milestones, lease terms and billable capacity.
When data centers bring their own power, who pays for unused capacity?
Cloud and capital: whether revenue covers investment
Compare cash CAPEX, finance leases, depreciation, operating cash flow and funding maturities with cloud and software revenue. Assess returns using utilization, replacement cycles and contract terms; investment plans do not translate directly into supplier revenue.
Read: financial statements, lease notes, debt maturities, management guidance and actual spending.
A $35 billion AI financing: who repays the principal within five years?
Explore the industry map · Browse all research · Read the source methodology