AI Boom Fuels Record Data Center Deals; Investments Top $61 Billion in 2025

• Global data center investments are set to exceed $61 billion in 2025, driven by the increasing demands of AI and energy-intensive workloads, surpassing 2024's $60.8 billion.
• Debt-based funding has become a critical driver for record data center investments, with large tech companies relying on private equity and debt markets for expensive infrastructure.
• Investor concerns about high AI company valuations and substantial funds raised for data centers led to a global stock market sell-off in November, fearing an 'AI bubble'.
• Despite market concerns and incidents like Oracle's share dip, S&P Global and ING predict strong, continued demand for AI applications and sustained data center investment into 2026.
• The US leads with over 100 data center deals in 2025, followed by Asia-Pacific, while Gulf countries are rapidly emerging as a global AI hub; debt issuance nearly doubled to $182 billion.

Why It Matters: AI demand propels data center investments past $61 billion in 2025, despite investor concerns.