Summary
- EMEA operational data centre capacity exceeded 12.1GW in H1 2026, up more than 36% in two years.
- The committed pipeline reached 18.3GW, comprising 3.8GW under construction and 14.5GW planned.
- Future development is becoming less concentrated in the traditional FLAPD markets as power and land constraints redirect investment.
Cushman & Wakefield says operational data centre capacity across EMEA has passed 12.1GW, while the region’s committed development pipeline has expanded to 18.3GW as access to power, land, and viable delivery schedules increasingly determines where new capacity is built.
The property consultancy’s H1 2026 EMEA Data Centre Market Update puts operating capacity at more than 12.1GW, an increase of more than 36% over two years. The development pipeline now comprises 3.8GW under construction and 14.5GW planned, taking the total to 18.3GW — more than 34% higher than in H1 2025.
If all of that capacity were delivered, the pipeline would be large enough to more than double the region’s current operational base. That arithmetic does not make delivery automatic. The report’s central finding is that demand remains strong, but the location of new infrastructure is increasingly being decided by whether projects can secure electricity, suitable land, and realistic development times.
That shift is weakening the concentration of future construction in Europe’s established hubs. London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin still account for 43% of operating capacity across EMEA, according to Cushman & Wakefield, but their share of the future pipeline has fallen to 32%, down from 39% six months earlier.
Helsinki has now been added to the consultancy’s group of EMEA “Powerhouse” markets alongside London, Frankfurt, Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam, and Milan. Collectively, Helsinki’s operational and pipeline capacity has passed 1.1GW.
Madrid, Oslo, Warsaw, Vienna, Barcelona, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai are among markets identified as continuing to expand as developers look beyond the traditional hubs. The common advantages are not simply demand growth. They include the prospect of faster power delivery, sites capable of accommodating larger campuses, and sufficient connectivity to support large-scale deployments.
The change is particularly important as AI-related infrastructure increases the size of power requests. Data centre development has long depended on proximity to customers and network ecosystems, but a facility that cannot obtain an electricity connection on a commercially usable timetable remains a paper project regardless of demand.
Cushman & Wakefield’s comparison with its H1 2025 figures shows how quickly the physical market is expanding. At that point, EMEA had about 10.3GW in operation, 2.6GW under construction, and 11.5GW in planning. The latest update therefore indicates growth both in live capacity and in the volume developers are attempting to bring through construction and planning.
The balance between those figures is also revealing. Planned capacity of 14.5GW is almost four times the 3.8GW currently under construction. A large planning pipeline gives operators options, but it also leaves a substantial portion of announced capacity exposed to grid availability, permitting, financing, equipment lead times, and changing customer requirements before it reaches operation.
The consultancy’s wider 2026 market work describes power availability and policy support as increasingly important determinants of EMEA market attractiveness. Grid connection times and permitting pressure are particularly acute in mature hubs, where the concentration of existing infrastructure can make the next increment of capacity harder to deliver.
That does not imply the established markets are disappearing from operator strategies. London, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, and Dublin retain dense fibre networks, cloud ecosystems, enterprise demand, and existing clusters of operators and suppliers. The change is that those advantages now have to compete more directly with the ability to energise a site.
For developers, that raises the value of markets where power can be secured earlier even if the surrounding data centre ecosystem is less mature. It also increases the importance of the distinction between announced megawatts and deliverable megawatts. An 18.3GW pipeline is an indication of intent and demand pressure; the portion that reaches service will be decided by grids, planning systems, supply chains, and construction execution.
The next phase of EMEA expansion is therefore likely to remain geographically broader than the last. Demand has not removed the traditional hubs from the map, but constraints are giving operators stronger reasons to build elsewhere — and giving secondary markets a route into projects that would once have defaulted to Europe’s largest clusters.
