Digital Infrastructure in 2026: Why Talent Is Becoming the Defining Variable
Digital infrastructure has stopped being a tech topic and become an energy, industrial and competitiveness topic. In 2026, the same forces are reshaping both Europe and the US:
AI is driving a new build-cycle for data centres and networks.
Power availability and interconnection queues are now as decisive as capital.
Regulation around resilience and data governance is tightening.
And the availability of specialised talent is starting to dictate the pace of growth.
Those combined pressures are also reshaping how companies think about capability, leadership and team structures, a shift we see across the energy transition and critical-infrastructure ecosystem every day.
Forecasts now converge on one point: global data-centre capacity is expected to nearly double by 2030, driven by hyperscale and AI demand. JLL projects roughly 97 GW of new capacity between 2025 and 2030.
So the 2026 question isn’t “will demand exist?” It’s “can the ecosystem deliver fast enough?”
Europe in 2026: Constrained Power, Tightening Rules, and New Sovereignty Pressures
1) Power and grid access are now the gating factors
Electricity prices across Europe vary significantly — Eurostat’s 2025 non-household data shows Ireland and Italy on the higher end, with the Nordics on the lower end.
Those cost differences are increasingly influencing location strategy for AI-scale workloads.
The EU has also raised the benchmark for transparency and efficiency through updates to its EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres.
The implications:
Operators are diversifying across multiple countries.
Power-sourcing and heat-reuse plans must be auditable.
Permitting, community engagement and grid-connection expertise have become core operational skills.
2) Security and governance requirements are stepping up sharply
Three pieces of legislation define Europe’s 2026 landscape:
NIS2 (stricter cybersecurity and incident-response expectations)
EU Data Act (major implications for data portability and platform design)
Cyber Resilience Act (vulnerability reporting requirements from September 2026)
Digital infrastructure is increasingly being treated like other critical infrastructure, with expectations to match.
3) Connectivity itself is becoming strategic
Investment in subsea resilience continues. AWS, for example, announced a new dedicated transatlantic cable between the US and County Cork.
The US in 2026: Scale, Speed and a Grid Under Pressure
1) AI demand is now a nationally recognised energy-system challenge
The US EIA highlights large computing centres as a core driver of rising electricity consumption and S&P Global Commodity Insights forecasts 75.8 GW of US data-centre demand by 2026, exceeding 100 GW by 2030.
2) Regulatory frameworks are being rewritten in real time
In December 2025, FERC directed PJM to produce new rules for serving large loads, including co-located generation with clear standards for transparency and reliability.
This puts energy-market fluency, interconnection strategy and behind-the-meter capability firmly at the centre of digital-infrastructure planning.
What This Means for the Workforce: Capability Is Becoming Infrastructure
At a high level, digital-infrastructure companies in both Europe and the US are converging on the same hiring realities:
Understanding power procurement, congestion constraints, interconnection processes and flexibility markets is now fundamental for any leader operating AI-scale facilities.
Companies need people who can deliver multi-site build programmes, manage complex supply chains and de-risk commissioning in high-pressure timelines.
Legislation like NIS2, the Data Act and the CRA require embedded operational capability, not just policy-level oversight.
Reliable 24/7 operations, strong technical training pathways and mature incident-response processes often determine whether organisations can scale sustainably.
These shifts don’t just affect hiring, they change how teams are structured, how adjacent industries talent is leveraged, and how organisations think about long-term capability building.
As digital infrastructure continues to converge with energy systems, grid planning and national policy, the conversation is shifting from theoretical capacity to real-world delivery.
The shift from ambition to execution is also shaping the discussions we’re increasingly having with operators, investors and technical leaders across Europe and the US, including those we’ll be speaking with in our upcoming season of Conversation in Cleantech. Focused on digital infrastructure, we'll be focusing on what gets built, why, and who has the capability to build and run it.
