With global spending on the technology industry expected to reach $5.74 trillion in 2025, CRN breaks down the five largest markets that will reap the most revenue next year, according to new data from Gartner.
Worldwide spending on IT will hit a record $5.74 trillion in 2025 with all areas of technology—from software to communications services—growing by tens of billions of dollars.
IT services will be the single largest tech market by sales with businesses expected to pour over $1.7 trillion dollars into IT services in 2025, while data center systems will be the fastest growing tech sector in terms of sales growth rate, according to a new report by market research firm Gartner.
The $5.74 trillion in global IT spending next year represents an annual increase of 9.3 percent compared to $5.26 trillion in 2024.
The world’s top five largest IT markets in 2025 are: communications services, data center systems, devices, software and IT services.
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One key spending driver in the IT world is artificial intelligence, specifically generative AI (GenAI). Gartner analyst John-David Lovelock said current spending on generative AI has been predominantly from technology companies building the supply-side infrastructure for GenAI.
“CIOs will begin to spend on GenAI, beyond proof-of-concept work, starting in 2025,” Lovelock said in a statement. “More money will be spent, but the expectations that CIOs have for the capabilities of GenAI will drop. The reality of what can be accomplished with current GenAI models, and the state of CIO’s data will not meet today’s lofty expectations.”
CRN breaks down how much revenue each of these five markets can expect in 2025 along with growth figures, according to new data from Gartner.
No. 5: Data Center Systems
Global Spending Forecast In 2025: $367 Billion
Global Spending In 2024: $318 Billion
Worldwide spending on data center systems is expected to reach $367 billion in 2025, up approximately 15.5 percent annually compared to $318 billion in 2024.
Data center systems’ 15.5 percent spending surge represents the highest growth rate out of any market on Garnter’s list.
The roughly $50 billion increase in spending in 2025 will be led by server sales, which are set to almost triple from more than $134 billion in 2023 to $332 billion by 2028—including more than $257 billion in 2025.
“GenAI will easily eclipse the effects that cloud and outsourcing vendors had on previous years regarding data center systems,” said Gartner’s Lovelock. “It took 20 years for the cloud and outsourcing vendors to build up spending to $67 billion a year on servers. The demand of GenAI will help nearly triple server sales from 2023 to 2028.”
Click through to read the other top four IT markets in 2025.
Global Spending Forecast In 2025: $806 Billion
Global Spending In 2024: $736 Billion
Worldwide spending on devices next year will reach $736 billion, representing a 9.5 percent increase compared to 2024.
Gartner said global spending on devices in 2024 reached $736 billion, up 6.2 percent compared to 2023.
IT devices are critical to many aspects of key technology markets, including GenAI and the Internet of Things (IoT).
No. 3: Software
Global Spending Forecast In 2025: $1.24 Trillion
Global Spending In 2024: $1.09 Trillion
Global spending on software will reach $1.24 trillion in 2025, representing a 14 percent annual increase compared to this year. Software 14 percent increase represents the second fastest growth rate market just behind data center systems.
Software spending grew 11.7 percent in 2024 with global sales of $1.09 trillion compared to 2023.
“Software and IT services are a large driver of IT growth,” said Gartner’s Lovelock.
“Spending on these segments is expected to be on AI-related projects, including email and authoring,” he said. “This was a market that, despite its age and having been consolidated down to a small number of players, will add $6.6 billion to global spending in 2024 and $7.4 billion 2025 due in part to GenAI products and services.”
No. 2: Communications Services
Global Spending Forecast In 2025: $1.59 Trillion
Global Spending In 2024: $1.53 Trillion
Worldwide spending on communications services will hit $1.59 trillion next year, representing a annual growth rate of 4.4 percent. This is the smallest year over year growth rate out of the top five spending markets on Gartner’s report.
Global spending on communications services only grew 2 percent in 2024 year over year with spending reaching $1.53 trillion.
It is key to understand that communications services exploded in growth during 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although this market has cooled down over the past two years, it is still the second largest spending industry in the IT world.
No. 1: IT Services
Global Spending Forecast In 2025: $1.74 Trillion
Global Spending In 2024: $1.59 Trillion
The world will spend most of its money on IT services, a similar trend for the past several years.
Global spending on IT services will reach a whopping $1.74 trillion in 2025, which represents a 9.4 percent annual increase.
In 2024, worldwide spending on IT services hit $1.59 trillion, up 5.6 percent compared to 2023.
Gartner said IT services spending is being fueled by AI-related projects.
Looking ahead at 2026 and beyond, Gartner predicts no slowdown in global IT spending.
“Our forecast projects that $500 billion will be added in spending every year in terms of growth rates,” said Lovelock. “With this in mind, IT spending should cross the $7 trillion mark in 2028.”
https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/2024/top-5-tech-markets-to-watch-in-2025-as-it-spending-hits-5-7t?page=5
