The EMEA area would require greater than £422 billion of capital funding to ship the information centre infrastructure that has been promised to date.
That’s in line with the newest EMEA Knowledge Centres Report from world property consultancy Knight Frank, which famous that £122 billion of capital expenditure was introduced for the area in simply the primary half of 2025.
It’s not stunning to see the quantity of funding required for information centre improvement throughout EMEA is within the a whole lot of billions, particularly because the US tech giants are all opening their chequebooks and promising to spend huge on AI information centres. In reality, it’s estimated that OpenAI alone might want to make investments over $1 trillion to fulfill its compute capability targets.
In line with Knight Frank, the present operational information centre inventory within the EMEA area is estimated to be price £226 billion, with progress of 11.4% anticipated in 2025 alone. Evidently, that progress is more likely to speed up additional because the AI race heats up.
Elsewhere within the report, it was revealed that combination provide throughout the area has surpassed 50GW, up 27.8% on 2024 as of H1 2025. Dwell IT capability stands at 11.3GW after 649.6MW of recent tasks have been delivered to date this 12 months. An extra 39.1GW sits within the pipeline as dedicated, underneath development or at early planning, with 2.8GW already underway.
How the information centre market is heating up
We’ve already touched on the explanations behind the large improve in funding within the information centre market, which is partially being pushed by the AI increase, though Knight Frank additionally notes that the rising public cloud can also be driving additional progress. In reality, in line with the corporate’s report, public cloud suppliers accounted for 61% of funding exercise over the previous 12 months, whereas AI contributed round 12%.
In fact, the expansion of the information centre sector isn’t occurring on the identical tempo all throughout the EMEA area. In reality, a lot of the funding inflow is hitting areas that have been already well-established information centre hubs, albeit the funding is reaching new heights.
Paris, for instance, has emerged because the fastest-growing hub and a significant magnet for brand new capital. The market now requires £32.9 billion, together with £17.2 billion added in H1 2025, with provide progress forecast at 22.3%. Complete provide has risen 75.1% to nearly 3.4GW, whereas stay IT capability has climbed to 611.2MW. Progress is being accelerated by rising AI necessities, together with the French Authorities’s collaboration with Bpifrance, Scaleway, Nvidia and Mistral AI to develop a 1.4GW AI-focused campus.
Frankfurt leads for leasing exercise and reveals a £30.4 billion complete capital requirement alongside a £19.4 billion market valuation. Take-up hit 207MW over the previous 12 months, with 159MW accomplished within the final two quarters, 93% pushed by public cloud.
London stays the area’s largest market, requiring over £44 billion of improvement capital and valued at £32 billion. Capability has grown 15.3% to five.1GW, with stay IT capability edging in the direction of 1.4GW.
Elsewhere different areas are rising in reputation, Milan requires over £33 billion and is forecast to develop by 47.9% this 12 months, the quickest charge within the area. Dublin illustrates maturity with a relatively modest £14.8 billion requirement however a excessive market valuation of £25.7 billion. Past Europe, Johannesburg can also be displaying momentum, with 34.3% provide progress forecast in 2025 from a smaller base.
Emptiness and pre-leasing squeeze
Regardless of file construct, provide is struggling to maintain tempo with necessities. The stay colocation emptiness charge throughout EMEA is 9.5%, however this drops to five.2% for necessities above 2MW and to 2.9% above 5MW. In key hubs emptiness is already effectively under the regional common: Frankfurt 0.6%, Dublin 1.3%, Paris 3.4%, London 5.9% and the UAE 2.4%. Close to-term availability for big footprints is both extraordinarily restricted or absent.
Pre-leasing is locking up future capability. Knight Frank experiences that 55.2% of all area underneath development is pre-let, whereas 22.1% of dedicated capability is already secured. Dublin, Milan and London are the clearest examples of demand outstripping provide, with pre-leasing charges of 94.8%, 92.6% and 87.8%, respectively.
Stephen Beard, Head of Knowledge Centres, Knight Frank, famous, “The story of 2025 to date is considered one of scale colliding with shortage. We’re seeing file ranges of provide delivered and deliberate throughout EMEA, but demand from AI and cloud is rising even quicker. Markets like Paris, London and Frankfurt are increasing at tempo, however emptiness charges and pre-leasing ranges reveal simply how little actually out there capability stays.”
