Data centres: scale, investment and unanswered questions
A preliminary evidence review across 15 selected countries, with four project examples and a separate look at space and offshore concepts. It explores John A Brown’s question: how much of the infrastructure boom may prove productive, speculative or excessive?
What this review provides
Dated directory counts, attributed capacity estimates, selected investment announcements, source links and downloadable evidence tables.
What remains open
Most national construction and proposal totals, verified spending, returns, stranded assets and comparable environmental costs are not established here.
Read the review
- Country listings and capacity estimates
- Four projects and their cost scopes
- Testing the overspending hypothesis
- Space and offshore concepts
- Methods and limitations
- Sources and evidence register
What the evidence supports
Forecast investment and company commitments are large, but scale alone does not establish waste. Low vacancy in surveyed colocation markets is evidence of demand for space, not AI profitability. Cancelled announcement values do not measure money already lost. [C4] [C5] [C6]
Dates and coverage
Editorial evidence pass: 1 November 2026, Brisbane. Underlying observations range from November 2025 directory listings to 2026 announcements and explicitly labelled forecasts. Access dates are not observation dates. Earlier precise Grok compilation times are supplied metadata and are not independently verified here.
This is a selective preliminary review. “Not established in this review” does not mean no information exists elsewhere. No national or global investment total is calculated.
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Contributions and AI assistance
Research compiled by Grok under instruction from John A Brown, The Blue•Print Research Unit. Editorial integration and source checks used ChatGPT assistance at John’s direction.
The original question and scope came from John. AI assistance produced drafts, tables and website code and helped check cited sources. John approved publication of this edition. Checking cited material is not independent verification of underlying claims.
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Registry reference: PCR-20261031-7A5A82E2E9157692DF3F3DDA. This is a registrant declaration, not independent verification or endorsement of the research.