Hey everyone,
I'm excited to share two major updates that highlight the incredible momentum and innovation within our data center community. From the launch of the highly anticipated AFCOM State of the Data Center Survey 2026—your chance to shape the future of our industry—to the inspiring discussions at the Norton Rose Fulbright x AFCOM event in Chicago, these moments underscore the critical trends shaping digital infrastructure. Whether it’s AI workloads, power optimization, or community-first planning, the insights and collaboration happening right now are paving the way for what’s next. Let’s dive in!
🆕 Two Big Community Updates
1. 📊 AFCOM State of the Data Center Survey 2026 Is Live
This is the benchmark report for where our industry is headed next:
- AI workloads
- Liquid cooling adoption
- Power and sustainability
- The talent pipeline
⏱️ Takes 5–10 minutes
🎁 First 100 respondents → $10 Amazon gift card
📅 Deadline: November 14
👉 Take the survey: https://lnkd.in/gh_sGr4i
2. 🎤 Norton Rose Fulbright x AFCOM Event Chicago
Had the honor of delivering a keynote and joining discussions on:
- Distributed power generation
- AI construction and design impact
- Community-first data center planning
The collaboration, ideas, and energy were amazing.
We have a truly special community.
📌 Full recap:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/billkleyman_datacenters-aiinfrastructure-afcom-activity-7387327793962885120-5dzi
🌍 Insight Spotlight
I recently spoke about what’s unfolding in Africa’s digital infrastructure landscape and why AI + energy + talent access is the defining challenge of the next decade.
⚡ Power, Scale & The Future of Digital Infrastructure
If there’s one theme that stood out both at Oracle AI World and across the industry right now, it’s this:
Power is becoming the primary constraint and the primary competitive advantage.
We’re watching the conversation shift from “How many GPUs can you deploy?”
to
“How much power can you secure, optimize, and sustain?”
A few signals worth calling out:
🔌 Data Center World POWER 2025: Power Is the New Currency
The event made it crystal clear: energy access now determines data center scale, margin, and speed to market.
This isn’t a side conversation anymore, it’s the conversation.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251002582677/en/Data-Center-World-POWER-2025-Proves-Power-Is-the-New-Currency-of-the-Digital-Age
⚡ Texas Is Emerging as a Strategic Power Hub
At the recent industry forum, leaders highlighted Texas’s unique position to support massive private power generation for data centers.
Future buildouts: 20–40 GW of new demand by 2035.
That’s not incremental growth, that’s foundational.
https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/energy-power-supply/texas-data-center-potential-unveiled-at-industry-power-forum
🌍 Africa’s Next Digital Leap — But Power & Talent Will Decide the Outcome
Africa is emerging as one of the most strategically important regions for data center and AI expansion.
Demand for compute and cloud services is growing fast — but two constraints are rising even faster:
- Power availability
- Technical talent capacity
Current forecasts show:
- Data center energy demand growing ~25% annually
- Reaching ~8,000 GWh in the coming years
That level of growth requires new power procurement models, regional infrastructure planning, workforce development, and cross-border collaboration.
This isn’t a challenge story — it’s an opportunity story for the next decade of digital ecosystems.
📎 Industry context:
https://businessday.ng/technology/article/ai-energy-shortages-talent-retention-crisis-threaten-africas-digital-gold-rush/
📈 Forecast & energy demand analysis:
https://nairametrics.com/2025/10/10/africas-data-center-power-demand-grows-25-annually-to-reach-8000-gwh-experts/
Let’s keep building. And scaling. And questioning everything.
Until next time
Stay tuned, stay curious, and stay excited!
Best,
Bill Kleyman
CEO, Apolo
Program Chair, AFCOM Data Center World