The price tag for the AI revolution just got a number attached to it, and it’s large enough to make central bankers squint. Morgan Stanley Research estimates that cumulative global data center capital expenditure will hit approximately $2.9 trillion between 2025 and 2028, with a massive chunk of that funded by debt rather than corporate piggy banks.
Where the money goes, and where it comes from
Morgan Stanley’s breakdown splits the total into two major buckets. Around $1.3 trillion is earmarked for physical infrastructure and construction costs, the bricks-and-mortar side of building massive computing facilities. The remaining $1.6 trillion goes toward IT hardware, meaning the chips and servers that actually do the computing.
The hyperscale giants, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta, are expected to cover roughly $1.4 trillion of the total through their own internal free cash flows. That leaves a financing gap of approximately $1.5 trillion.
Morgan Stanley’s report, titled “Bridging a $1.5tr Data Center Financing Gap,” maps out where that money is likely to come from. The lion’s share, roughly $800 billion, is projected to flow from private credit markets. Another $200 billion is expected from corporate debt issuance, with $150 billion coming through securitized products.
