Global data center construction costs have climbed steadily as demand for AI and cloud infrastructure accelerates. Between 2020 and 2025, the average global cost to build a data center rose from 7.7 million dollars to 10.7 million dollars per megawatt, a 7 percent annual growth rate, according to JLL's 2026 Global Data Center Market Outlook. JLL forecasts the average global cost will climb another 6 percent in 2026, to about 11.3 million dollars per megawatt.

Those figures cover only the shell and core of a facility. Tenants are typically responsible for their own technology fit-out, which can add as much as 25 million dollars per megawatt for AI-ready infrastructure, pushing all-in costs for the most advanced facilities far higher than standard builds.

JLL projects the global data center sector will expand at a 14 percent compound annual growth rate through 2030, with close to 100 gigawatts of new capacity coming online between 2026 and 2030, roughly doubling global capacity to around 200 gigawatts. That buildout is expected to require about 1.2 trillion dollars in real estate asset value creation and roughly 870 billion dollars in new debt financing. Once tenant spending on fit-out and IT equipment is included, total data center expenditure over the next five years could approach 3 trillion dollars.

The Americas region remains the largest data center market, accounting for about half of global capacity, with the United States driving roughly 90 percent of activity within the region.

Source: JLL -- https://www.jll.com/en-us/insights/market-outlook/data-center-outlook