The Interlude: The next Infrastructure wave is already here
The next infrastructure wave is forming before the last one is even finished.
Hyperscale cloud continues to expand, but AI is already changing the infrastructure equation. The requirements are enormous: power, compute, land, connectivity and capital.
We call this period The Interlude: the transition between the infrastructure model that built hyperscale cloud and the one now taking shape around AI.
This transition will be at the center of infra/STRUCTURE Summit 2026.
The market is changing again
AI is doing more than creating another source of data centre demand. It is changing who builds infrastructure, who finances it, who consumes it and where it gets deployed.
Structure Research's latest AI Infrastructure research maps a potential increase in critical AI IT capacity from approximately 2.3 GW to 150 GW by 2030.
At the same time, the hyperscale story continues. We project the global hyperscale cloud market to grow from approximately $295 billion in 2025 to more than $1 trillion by 2030.
Then there is the emergence of the neocloud.
We project the global AI Cloud market to grow from approximately $9.2 billion in 2025 to $186 billion by 2030.
These neocloud providers will need GPUs, but they will also need data centre capacity, power, connectivity, financing and partners. In many respects, neoclouds are the next generation of the infrastructure service provider market that preceded hyperscale cloud.
The difference is that this cycle is moving much faster.
Power, capital and capacity converge
The constraints are also changing.
Our 2026 environmental research estimates that global data centre energy consumption increased from approximately 198,746 GWh in 2020 to 362,329 GWh in 2025. Energy availability is increasingly determining where infrastructure can be built and how quickly it can come online.
Capital is just as important. AI infrastructure is creating extraordinary financing requirements across data centres, compute, power generation, land and supporting infrastructure.
These are no longer separate conversations.
Power influences location. Location influences connectivity. Compute requirements influence facility design. Capital influences who can build. And customer demand ultimately determines which projects get financed.
That interconnected market is what infra/STRUCTURE is designed to address.
Why infra/STRUCTURE is different
There are plenty of digital infrastructure conferences.
We don't want infra/STRUCTURE to be another one.
Structure Research is a research firm first.
We spend the entire year researching the digital infrastructure market. We maintain proprietary datasets, build market models, track service providers and speak with operators, investors, hyperscalers, technology companies and infrastructure users.
Our research is also global. Our analyst team operates across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, with expanding coverage of Latin America.
That perspective matters because AI infrastructure is increasingly global. Power constraints in one market can redirect investment to another. Sovereign requirements can create entirely new ecosystems. Capital can originate in one region and finance capacity in another.
The summit is where that research comes together in person.
The agenda is informed by what our analysts are seeing in the market, and the audience reflects the ecosystem we work with throughout the year.
Research first. Event second.
Beyond traditional conference networking
We also want the summit to produce tangible business outcomes.
Last year, we piloted private hyperscale and neocloud 1:1 meetings in Las Vegas. Procurement and research teams met directly with data centre operators, land, energy suppliers and more.
We are expanding the program in 2026.
We will also host a Neocloud Forum on October 6 and a Hyperscale & Neocloud 1:1 curated meeting program focused on infrastructure procurement, financing and the challenges of scaling this new generation of providers.
The objective isn't simply to put more people in a room.
It's to bring together the people who actually need to do business with one another.
Data centre operators need power. Neoclouds need capacity. AI platforms need compute. Developers need land. Investors need to understand customer and technology risk. Hyperscalers need infrastructure partners capable of supporting extraordinary scale.
Those pieces increasingly depend on each other.
The next few weeks
Over the next few weeks, Structure Research will use The Interlude to examine the questions shaping this transition.
We'll look at AI infrastructure demand, hyperscale, neoclouds, power, capital, infrastructure procurement and the changing geography of the global market.
We'll share proprietary research and perspectives from our analysts around the world and connect those findings to the discussions taking place in Las Vegas.
Because the hyperscale era isn't ending.
Something new is being built on top of it.
And for the companies building, financing, operating and procuring the infrastructure behind that next wave, this is an important moment to understand where the market is going.
Welcome to The Interlude.
infra/STRUCTURE Summit 2026
October 6–8, 2026
Wynn Las Vegas
Explore the agenda here: https://www.infrastructuresummit.io/agenda-2026