AI Investment Booms While Power Constraints Intensify in Europe
The EMEA data centre market roared back to life in the first half of 2025. After a muted Q1—driven by hyperscalers pausing or cancelling early-stage leases—the sector entered a period of rapid acceleration. The result is a market defined by a powerful tension: record-breaking demand fuelled by AI running straight into severe supply and power limitations across Europe.
This analysis is based on JLL, Q2 2025 EMEA Data Centre Report.
Record Take-Up Across FLAP-D
The FLAP-D markets (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin) saw a sharp resurgence in H1 2025, reversing early-year caution.
H1 2025 Highlights
Total Take-Up: 124.2MW
London Leads: 43.5MW
Frankfurt Strong: 31.5MW
Paris Momentum: 22.7MW
Much of this reflects the materialization of 702MW in pre-leasing deals from 2024, now converting to real occupancy. This creates a new baseline of demand—one now powered by the explosive growth of AI infrastructure.
AI Becomes the Primary Growth Engine
AI shifted from “emerging driver” to dominant industry catalyst in 2025. Sovereign strategies, GPU-driven compute demand, and mega-projects are transforming digital infrastructure across EMEA.
Landmark AI-Driven Investments (H1 2025)
US–UK Tech Prosperity Deal:
£150bn investment, 7,600 new jobs, major boost to digital sovereignty.Microsoft UK Expansion:
$30bn commitment over four years, including investment in the Nscale data centre.Nvidia’s UK Growth Plan:
£11bn total, including £500m into Nscale and 120,000 Blackwell GPUs deployed.Sovereign AI Development (UK):
Second AI Growth Zone announced; Blackstone planning a £10bn AI data centre in the North East.OpenAI Stargate (Norway):
230MW initial capacity, scalable to 520MW, built to house 100,000 Nvidia GPUs.
AI investment is now the single largest source of long-term demand—and it is pushing the region’s infrastructure to breaking point.
Vacancy Rates Hit Historic Lows
Dublin: 3.0%
Berlin: 1.4%
London: 7.6% (all-time low)
Dublin: The Extreme Case
Zero new supply in H1 2025
New national requirement:
All new data centre connections must include equivalent on-site dispatchable power.
Developers are turning to on-site generation to maintain delivery certainty.
CyrusOne + E.ON (Frankfurt)
61MW of on-site power secured for a new facility.
Emerging Hubs Rise as FLAP-D Diverges
The industry is becoming a tale of two tiers: core markets under pressure and secondary markets gaining ground.
Divergence Inside FLAP-D
Amsterdam:
70.5MW pre-leased in H1 2025 — a major rebound post-moratorium.Frankfurt:
Pre-leasing slowed to 14MW, despite Europe’s largest pipeline (488MW under construction).
Secondary Markets Step Forward
Madrid:
20MW new supply, 14.7MW take-up — on track for a record year.Berlin:
4MW absorption — continuing its resurgence.
The expansion of demand beyond FLAP-D signals a broader structural shift: markets offering power availability + regulatory clarity are winning.
Strong, But Defined by Power Constraints
The EMEA data centre outlook remains fundamentally optimistic. AI is creating multi-year, multi-gigawatt demand, and sovereign investment is accelerating.
But the road ahead is shaped by one dominant reality:
Power is the ultimate bottleneck.
It will:
Shape development timelines
Dictate site selection
Influence geographic winners and losers
Define competitive advantage for operators and investors
Those who solve power constraints—through grid access, on-site generation, or innovative hybrid solutions—will shape the next decade of European digital infrastructure.
