Platform Global 2025: Looking Ahead to the Next Decade in Data Centers

From September 7 to 9, Platform Global 2025 took place in Antibes, France—a landmark summit dedicated to leaders building and financing digital infrastructure worldwide. The event brought together C-level executives from the data center, cloud, edge, and networking sectors, as well as investors, technology leaders, policymakers, regulatory authorities, real estate experts, energy transition specialists, consultants, and analysts, providing a comprehensive forum to explore market trends and growth opportunities.

The program featured over 100 speakers, conferences, and networking sessions covering topics such as AI-driven development, land and energy strategies, long-term energy solutions, mergers and acquisitions, sustainable investments, global geopolitical risks, quantum computing, emerging markets, demand and leasing, cloud sovereignty, how inference is reshaping the edge landscape, and the latest lessons learned by hyperscalers in liquid cooling.

In short, the challenges and outlook for the data center industry can be summarized across four “fronts”: energy, policy (regulation), AI, and sustainability. Energy constraints in the FLAP-D region are driving projects to areas with large available energy blocks. On the policy side, increasingly strict regulations and local issues already emerging in some markets (restrictions and opposition from authorities or local communities) are putting pressure on developers. Large-scale AI deployment is primarily occurring in North America and China, while sustainability remains important, however, outside of Europe, has not yet received the same level of attention.

Below is a summary of some of the most relevant ideas and conclusions for the data center industry from Platform Global 2025.

Investments & Market Growth

According to Nicola Hayes, Director at Platform Markets, global investments in data centers have increased by 53% this year. Tomas Peshkatari (Global Infrastructure Partners / BlackRock) explained that this demand will lead to a doubling of capacity over the next five years, with an annual growth rate of 22%. In addition, contracts have extended to 10–15 years, with investment returns of 8–9%. Against this backdrop, Wes Cummins from Applied Digital highlighted that the U.S. remains ahead of Europe, where finding land and energy for new projects is much more challenging, while China is rapidly building and scaling infrastructure. “The amount of capital we are spending now is enormous—it’s shocking even for me,” said Wes Cummins. Smaller companies like Nebius and Lambada Labs are also growing rapidly, adapting to increasing demand. Charles Antoine Beynet (DataOne) added that while in the U.S. you can deploy 100 MW in a year, in countries like France, the UK, or Germany, the process takes much longer due to limited access to electricity and strict regulations.

Energy Challenges and Solutions

On the energy front, Nathan Luckey (Macquarie Group) explained that energy in Europe is greener but more prone to intermittency, which can lead to blackouts, as recently seen in Spain. Pablo Ruiz-Escribano (Schneider Electric) added that, although energy is available, access takes too long. Building new transmission lines can take up to 10 years, according to Neil Cresswell (Virtus), who noted that, for example, data center power in the UK doubles every five years—from 100 MW to 250 MW, to 500 MW. Richard Bienfait from Stack Emea highlighted that energy costs are much higher in Europe than in the U.S., raising the question, “Why build here?” Sean James (Microsoft) explained that data centers tend to develop in clusters in certain regions, requiring huge amounts of energy, and energy quality can be affected if a large load is suddenly shut down.

On the solutions side, Ash Evans from Google noted that lower-cost locations will emerge as AI monetization evolves, and that the tech giant prefers to control all MEP systems (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing), even though leasing remains an option. Solutions discussed include generators to relieve grid load, batteries (e.g., Tesla Megapacks – xAI DC), and specialized software to optimize energy usage. For example, at Google, on average, only 66% of contracted power is actually used, according to Ash Evans.

Data centers can accelerate energy access when standard grid connections are unavailable using several strategies. According to McKinsey, these include:

• Selecting new locations with shorter connection times (e.g., emerging cities, provinces such as Aragon);
• Leveraging existing infrastructure (e.g., abandoned industrial sites, former coal plants, industrial parks);
• Building on-site generation capacity and microgrids (e.g., gas plants, small modular reactors);
• Accelerating the development of energy capacity together with suppliers (e.g., PPAs, joint grid investments, restarting or extending the life of nuclear/gas/coal plants).

McKinsey’s analysis also shows that data center operators are increasingly exploring behind-the-meter (BTM) options to secure energy directly at the source, including:

• Solar and wind: Highly variable due to intermittency, but aligned with sustainability goals; requires storage capacity and large land areas. A feasible long-term solution (after 2030) if storage costs decrease.
• Hydropower: Seasonal variability (reduced output in dry season), limited construction opportunities near dams, and additional connectivity costs.
• Natural gas: Controlled variability (can be turned off when not needed), proximity to the source is essential to minimize transport investment; long-term sustainability remains debatable, though cheaper Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies could offset this.
• Nuclear (SMR): High reliability, zero carbon emissions, most promising BTM option, but realistic only after 2030.

Conclusion: BTM feasibility before 2030 is limited, depending on cost reductions in storage and CCS; in the long term, nuclear power is the most likely dominant solution.

Currently, the cheapest on-site microgrids from a Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) perspective are based on gas generators. However, in most cases, grid power remains cheaper than microgrids, with differences depending on technology and country. Additionally, partnerships between energy companies and data center operators are becoming more frequent.

According to McKinsey, data center operators can leverage energy company opportunities to generate an additional 2–4% revenue. Practically, data centers become active participants in grid management, not just consumers, contributing to stability and energy efficiency. This can be achieved through several mechanisms:

• Peak Shaving & Load Levelling: Adjusting energy consumption to reduce demand peaks that strain the grid, maximize solar energy capture, and efficiently use capacity during low-demand periods;
• Frequency Regulation: Data centers can rapidly increase or decrease supply to maintain grid frequency (50/60 Hz) during unforeseen events;
• Voltage Control: Managing reactive power to maintain near-constant voltage amid increasing volatility;
• Price Arbitrage: Buying and selling energy based on hourly or minute-by-minute price variations, optimizing costs and avoiding additional peak-hour charges.

Locations, Regulations & Markets

In addition to immediate access to energy and fast construction permits, flexible data center design—allowing adaptation to future demand—is equally important. Eric Boonstra (Kevlinx Data Centers) emphasized that location choice is primarily dictated by clients. For example, cities like Brussels are currently under-supplied and will soon attract new data center investments, while established hubs such as Frankfurt and Amsterdam face energy-related challenges. Milan, although seemingly saturated, has the potential to surpass Amsterdam if the current growth trend continues.

Amine Kandil (N+One Datacenters) sees major future developments in North Africa, particularly Morocco, while Umberto Sordino (EAE) highlighted strong growth in the Nordic countries, Greece, India, and the Philippines. Dan Thomas (GreenScale) noted that the Nordics and Portugal offer cheap energy and the newest networks, although energy access times remain long, they are expected to improve. Oliver Schiebel (hscale) stressed the importance of having multiple high-quality sites for clients to choose from, and Robert Bath (FoundDigital DS) added that 2N redundant power path designs will become increasingly common.

• According to McKinsey, the geographic strategy of data centers in Europe is shifting due to rising AI demand and energy shortages in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. Development is moving toward Tier 3 cities, new provinces, and areas around Tier-1 hubs.
• New locations must meet criteria such as energy cost and type, connectivity, latency, proximity to Availability Zones (AZs), and the level of support from the local ecosystem.
• Typical time to access energy: over 5 years in Tier-1 cities, 3–5 years in secondary cities, and 2–3 years in emerging locations.

Design, Flexibility & Cooling Technology

According to experts at Platform Global 2025, although data centers are often developed based on demand, a significant portion is built speculatively due to the importance of time-to-market, making financial risks and design assumptions crucial. Safi Farooqui (Brookfield Asset Management) highlighted the importance of hybrid cooling systems and the construction of high-density data centers. Pablo Ruiz-Escribano (Schneider Electric) noted that the industry has changed completely over the last 30 years: data centers are now part of the grid, white space impacts grey space, and the talent shortage for design, construction, and operation remains a challenge.

Wes Cummins provided an example illustrating the growing importance of flexibility. The first Applied Digital data center used 100% liquid cooling and 25% air-based cooling, whereas now the company designs buildings with a flexible mix of up to 50% air-based cooling. Vincent Barro (Schneider Electric) added that DCIM systems are increasingly becoming true copilots, using AI to automate operations and optimize consumption. The Schneider representative also emphasized the growing importance of microgrid developments. Tom Kingham (CyrusOne) believes that in the near future, data centers will require 600V or even 800V systems, while Andy Hayes (Polar) spoke about the increasing demand for Neocloud and AI colocation, especially in the pharmaceutical industry.

AI Demand & Leasing

AI-focused data centers, such as Neocloud, are already being largely built in Europe. The demand for AI is enormous and real—not just hype—and adoption rates are increasing rapidly, says Christina Mertens (Virtus). According to her, the way data center space is leased has also changed: from flexible contracts of a few years for a few racks or 1 MW in a large facility, leasing has evolved to entire floors or even entire sites being leased by a single client, with longer-term and more secure contracts. The more a data center is customized for a client, the stronger the relationship and commitment become.

• Global demand for data centers is expected to triple, reaching over 180 GW
• By 2030, AI/ML and HPC workloads will account for 71% of the total, while GenAI will grow from 14% in 2025 to 40%.
• According to McKinsey, although significant capacity increases are announced through 2030, supply may remain below estimated demand after 2027. In Europe, the gap could reach 10 GW.
• This gap will put pressure on energy grids in key regions but will also create opportunities for new hubs and the entry of new market players.
• McKinsey estimates that Europe will account for approximately 15% of global workload volume by 2030, much of it driven by AI inference services.

Platform Global 2025 showed that data centers are more than just infrastructure—they’re hubs of innovation, where energy, AI technologies, and smart development strategies will shape who leads the next digital wave.