Inside Towers Intelligence’s second volume of its 2026 Market Analysis Report surveys the AI infrastructure gold rush across the digital ecosystem, interviewing leaders at data center firms, tower companies, fiber providers, and Wall Street analysts. DataBank CEO Raul Martynek is featured prominently in the report’s data center section, offering a valuable assessment of where the industry stands and where it is headed.
The numbers tell the story. North American data center capacity absorption stood at 2.4 GW in 2022. Following the launch of ChatGPT, it nearly doubled to 4.3 GW in 2023, climbed 50 percent to 6.8 GW in 2024, and then doubled again to 15.6 GW in 2025.
Wells Fargo projects global data center power demand will reach 160 to 200 GW by 2030, with roughly half occurring in the U.S. Vacancy rates in major markets are hovering around 1 percent, with some hyperscalers signing leases before facilities are even built.
“AI has completely turbocharged activity in our sector. Capacity absorption has gone from 2.4 gigawatts in 2022 to 15.6 gigawatts in 2025, and we’re just getting started. The next five years are going to be a period of heavy investment. All this infrastructure has to work together to create the digital world that we live in.”
— Raul Martynek, CEO, DataBank
While some developers are chasing power in remote locations, DataBank’s strategy is deliberate: build where the people are. The company is developing 800 MW worth of facilities across Dallas, Atlanta, Northern Virginia, New York, Kansas City, Houston, San Diego, and Minneapolis, and recently announced a joint venture with Goodman Group for a new 32 MW facility in Los Angeles.
Martynek also addresses community pushback, efficiency improvements in AI chips, the $12 million per megawatt cost of building a data center, and the larger question of whether AI investment will ultimately deliver returns. The next five years will be a period of heavy investment, and all of this infrastructure has to work together to deliver the digital world people already depend on every day.
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Despite AI hype and unprecedented capital deployment, 2026 will see tighter financing, constrained power, and gradual enterprise adoption as the industry returns to fundamentals.
The fundamentals that worked for decades no longer apply in data center construction. Single campuses now require 4,000 workers instead of 750 as the industry adapts to unprecedented scale.
The Truth About Data Centers: a factual response to legitimate concerns: tech demand, power, water, batteries, generators, community impact, and more.
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