According to the latest AI Server industry research from TrendForce, driven by super-large cloud service providers (CSPs) expanding their investments in servers and AI infrastructure, the total capital expenditure of the global top nine CSPs is projected to exceed $957 billion in 2026, representing a year-over-year growth of 106%. By 2027, this figure is expected to break through $1.5 trillion, with a year-over-year increase of 60%, both surpassing previous forecasts.
TrendForce noted that the nine major CSPs include Google (GOOGL.US), Amazon (AMZN.US), Meta (META.US), Microsoft (MSFT.US), Oracle (ORCL.US), as well as ByteDance, Tencent (00700), Alibaba (09988), and Baidu.
The upward revision of the 2027 total capital expenditure growth for these nine companies from 50% to 60% primarily reflects three factors: first, anticipated increases in complete server prices; second, higher quotations for related components due to shortages; and third, some component suppliers requiring customers to prepay to ensure supply, prompting CSPs to disburse cash earlier.
Abundant capital is driving strong procurement momentum, with AI server shipment growth expected to expand to nearly 36% in 2027. As CSP investment remains robust, demand for AI server procurement is simultaneously heating up. Beyond super-large CSPs, Tier-2 data center players such as Tesla and CoreWeave have also continued to purchase AI servers recently. Considering the strong overall demand growth, TrendForce's latest estimate puts AI server shipment growth at 32.2% year-over-year in 2026.
Looking ahead to 2027, the AI market will still be driven by super-large CSPs, supplemented by Neoclouds, sovereign AI projects, and large language model providers rolling out new AI models and application services, further boosting procurement momentum. AI server shipments are projected to grow by nearly 36% year-over-year again.
From a value perspective, AI servers, with their high unit prices and steady shipment performance, are expected to generate approximately $479 billion in output value in 2026, accounting for nearly 75% of the total server output value of about $639.2 billion (including general-purpose and AI servers). In 2027, end-customer orders will mainly consist of rack-scale solutions such as NVIDIA (NVDA.US) GB300, VR200, and AMD (AMD.US) Helios series. Due to shortages and rising prices of key components, particularly memory, the average selling price of next-generation AI server racks will climb. It is estimated that in 2027, not only will total server output value cross $1 trillion for the first time, but AI server output value will also surge to nearly $920 billion, with a year-over-year growth exceeding 90%, raising its share of total server output value to around 81%.
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