The AI Data Center Buildout

Cash capital spending by Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta, the demand signal every other layer of this sector trades on. Combined spend roughly doubled between 2023 and 2025 to about $376B, and that excludes finance leases, so the true figure is higher still.

How strained the tenants are. Amazon now reinvests nearly all of its operating cash flow, and the group has shifted from comfortably self-funded (30 to 50 percent) toward levels where external financing and finance leases carry more of the buildout.

The cleanest public confirmation that committed capex is converting into deployed AI infrastructure. Gear orders, construction, and power demand all follow this line with a lag of quarters.

Primary-market capacity under construction peaked at 6,350 MW at year-end 2024 and eased to 5,994 MW at year-end 2025, the first decline since 2020, as permitting and power delivery stretched timelines. Most of the pipeline remains preleased.

The flagship campuses, from Stargate to Colossus. Claimed gigawatts and dollar figures are sponsor statements that mix ambition with contracted spend; the status column is the part to watch.

The AI-specialized GPU clouds that anchor much of the new leased capacity. Their contract backlogs are enormous relative to revenue, which is either the sector's growth runway or its credit risk, depending on how AI demand develops.