Global data centers dealmaking surged to hit another record high this year, driven by a rush to build out the infrastructure required for energy-intensive AI workloads.

That surge came even as investors grew increasingly wary of inflated artificial intelligence valuations and the financing underpinning the rapid expansion of data centers. Global stocks sold off in November as worries of an AI-fueled bubble persisted.

But S&P Global reported that more than $61 billion has flowed into the data center market this year, up slightly from $60.8 billion last year, amid what it called a “global construction frenzy.”

A surge in debt financing contributed to the record high as hyperscalers increasingly tap private equity markets rather than funding the expensive infrastructure themselves.

That trend has sparked concerns from some investors as they question the value of the advanced tech that data centers house.

Shares of cloud company Oracle fell 5% on Wednesday following a report that Blue Owl Capital was pulling out of a deal to back a $10 billion data center in Michigan. Oracle has denied the report, but Broadcom, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices retreated after it was published. The Nasdaq Composite lost 1.81% in its worst day in nearly a month.

Iuri Struta, TMT analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said his team expects market concerns around AI and Oracle to be temporary and unlikely to have a “massive impact” on data center buildout and M&A in the near future.

“The competitive dynamic among frontier AI model providers, like OpenAI, Alphabet and Anthropic, is changing quickly, and this can have an impact on investor sentiment in public markets. But overall, we see demand for AI applications continuing to grow strongly in 2026.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/19/data-center-deals-hit-record-amid-ai-funding-concerns-grip-investors.html