Inside JLL’s 2026 Outlook: Power constraints and the new data center playbook
by Andrea Zander
Following accelerating artificial intelligence (AI)-driven demand and intensifying power constraints, JLL recently published its 2026 Global Data Center Outlook, outlining $3 trillion in total investment over the next five years, including $1.2 trillion in real estate asset-value creation and approximately $870 billion in new debt financing, marking an infrastructure investment supercycle. Building on those findings, Institutional Real Estate, Inc. spoke with three senior JLL leaders – Matt Landek, global division president for data centers and critical environments; Andrew Batson, global head of data center research; and Carl Beardsley, senior managing director and data center leader within JLL Capital Markets – to explore how power availability, emerging technologies, capital-markets evolution, and shifting development priorities are reshaping risk and opportunity across the data center landscape.
