JLL: FLAPD Data Center Markets Set for Record Growth Year, Middle East Pipeline Paused

Europe's key data center hubs—Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin (FLAPD)—are on track for a record year of expansion, even as development activity in the Middle East has come to a standstill, according to a new report from real estate services firm JLL.

In its EMEA Mid-Year Data Center Report 2026, JLL said the FLAPD markets have collectively reached a live capacity of 3.8GW, with an additional 453MW expected to come online by the end of the year. Paris led the region's growth, adding 75.2MW in the first half of 2026—already surpassing its full-year forecast.

The Middle East, by contrast, is experiencing a pause in its development pipeline, with 2.6GW currently under construction. Live capacity across the region has reached 1.6GW, while a further 13.8GW sits in the planning stage. JLL noted that although regional conflict has stalled completions, the Middle East is still likely to quadruple its capacity by 2030, as schemes are being deferred rather than cancelled outright.

Artificial intelligence remains the primary driver of growth across EMEA, JLL said. High-performance compute workloads are demanding larger sites, more power, and faster delivery timelines than traditional data center projects. The firm expects the four largest hyperscalers to spend a combined $725 billion during 2026, a 77 percent year-on-year increase in capital expenditure. The bulk of that investment is directed toward AI and data center infrastructure, with JLL estimating that AI workloads will account for roughly half of all global data center capacity by 2030.

"We're seeing a fundamental change in how data center infrastructure is planned. Historically, operators built as close as possible to major population centers, but today's growing AI training infrastructure follows a different logic," said Assad Noori, head of data centers, work dynamics, EMEA at JLL. "The determining factor is increasingly where sufficient power can be secured, rather than simply where demand exists. Data centers are being brought to where the power is, not the other way around."

Despite the rapid growth across EMEA, supply continues to lag demand. Vacancy rates across FLAPD remain tight at 6.4 percent. Power and land availability constraints are reshaping the development landscape, with greenfield projects now representing 39 percent of Europe's future pipeline, compared to just eight percent over the past three years, according to JLL.

"Europe's core markets will remain critical because enterprise demand isn't going anywhere. However, hyperscale AI infrastructure requires a completely different scale of power and land," said Martin Jensen, EMEA division president for data centers at JLL. "These requirements are accelerating investment into secondary markets, greenfield developments and entirely new locations capable of supporting the next generation of AI capacity."