Data centres are the backbone of artificial intelligence and power everything from AI chatbot queries, streamed video, and cloud-stored files.
They are large facilities that house servers, storage systems and networking equipment used to store, process, and distribute data. The more data centres, the more AI. But they use large amounts of energy and require a lot of land.
Data centres are “where compute is housed”, according to the AI Index Report 2026, published by Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. The report emphasises that “their capacity, geographic distribution, and underlying supply chains shape what AI systems can be built and where.”
Which countries host the most data centres worldwide? How many are located in Europe? And how does Europe compare in the global distribution of data centres?
US leads by a wide margin
