Gartner Forecasts Global IT Spending to Reach $6.31 Trillion in 2026 on AI Demand

The rapid expansion of generative AI applications is driving enterprises and cloud service providers to continue buying servers, chips, storage equipment and networking systems, putting AI infrastructure at the heart of global IT investment. Gartner's 2026 forecast shows that AI has expanded beyond software applications into large-scale data center construction and is reshaping how companies allocate technology budgets.

Gartner's latest forecast puts global IT spending at $6.31 trillion in 2026, including about $2.6 trillion in worldwide AI spending, with AI infrastructure representing the largest spending category. Driven by demand for AI computing capacity, spending on data center systems is projected to rise 55.8% year on year in 2026, the fastest growth among all IT spending categories.