Not long ago, data centres were a thing rarely discussed outside of IT departments.
In 2026, however, they are headline news, thanks in large part to the rise of AI.
AI has made data centres one of the defining forces in global energy markets. The International Data Center Authority's (IDCA) 2026 Global Energy Report puts a number on just how far that shift has gone.
Today, the world's data centres consume 67.7GW of electricity, a figure that represents 1.9% of all global generation, up from 1.7% a year earlier.
And while that percentage may sound insignificant at first glance, the rate at which it is growing is not, especially when you look closer at the world’s data centre hubs.
