AI Infrastructure and HBM Demand Surge Reshapes Global IT Spending to $6.3 Trillion - kmjournal.net

The global IT market is not just growing. It is being rewritten. A sharp rise in AI infrastructure investment and high-bandwidth memory demand is pushing total worldwide IT spending to an estimated $6.3 trillion in 2026, according to Gartner. That marks a 13.5 percent increase from last year, and a notable revision upward from earlier forecasts. But the bigger story is not the size of the market. It is where the money is going. Data Centers Lead the AI Spending Boom Data centers are now the fastest-growing segment in global IT spending. Gartner projects data center system spending will reach $787.9 billion in 2026, growing by 55.8 percent year over year. That is even faster than last year’s already strong growth. The reason is simple. AI workloads are exploding. Training and running AI models require massive computing power. Companies and hyperscalers are racing to expand infrastructure, investing heavily in servers, accelerators, and high-performance computing systems. Gartner’s Senior VP John-David Lovelock explains that the rise in AI workloads is directly driving data center investment, which in turn is accelerating demand for advanced computing technologies. For chipmakers and infrastructure providers, this shift is opening up a wave of new growth opportunities. IT Services Still Dominate in Total Spending While data centers are growing the fastest, IT services remain the largest category overall. Spending on IT services is expected to hit $1.87 trillion in 2026, growing at 9 percent. This includes application development, managed services, and cloud infrastructure like IaaS. Software is also seeing strong momentum. Global software spending is projected to reach $1.44 trillion, up 15.1 percent. Growth is being fueled largely by generative AI, with model development spending expected to more than double compared to last year. In other words, AI is not just driving hardware demand. It is reshaping the entire software ecosystem. HBM Boom Turns Memory into a High-Profit Market One of the most striking changes is happening in the memory market. High-bandwidth memory, or HBM, has become a critical component for AI computing. Demand is surging, while supply remains tight. That imbalance is pushing prices to record levels. For semiconductor companies, this is changing the game. The memory market has traditionally been volatile, driven by cycles of oversupply and price drops. Now it is shifting toward a more stable, high-margin structure. Lovelock notes that HBM has quickly become one of the most profitable segments in the semiconductor industry. Device Growth Slows as Costs Rise Not every part of the IT market is moving at the same pace. Device spending, including smartphones and PCs, is expected to reach $856.1 billion in 2026. Growth is projected at 8.2 percent, noticeably slower than other segments. Higher memory costs are pushing up average selling prices, which in turn is dampening replacement demand among consumers. This highlights a clear divide in the market. AI-driven sectors are accelerating, while consumer hardware faces pressure from rising costs and slower upgrade cycles. Hyperscalers Are Redefining IT Investment Behind much of this shift are hyperscalers. Major cloud providers are pouring billions into building data centers and expanding AI infrastructure. Their aggressive investment strategies are lifting overall market growth and reshaping how IT budgets are allocated. The result is a fundamental change in market dynamics. In 2026, success in the IT sector is less about overall expansion and more about strategic positioning. Investment is concentrating around three key pillars: AI infrastructure, advanced memory like HBM, and AI-driven software. Everything else is growing more slowly, or in some cases, being left behind. A Selective Growth Era for the Global IT Market The global IT industry is entering what can be called a selective growth phase. Capital is no longer spread evenly across sectors. It is flowing into areas that directly support AI. Data centers, semiconductors, and AI software are pulling ahead. Traditional segments are struggling to keep up. That gap is likely to widen as AI continues to scale. For companies across the tech ecosystem, the message is clear. Growth is still there, but it depends entirely on where you stand in the AI value chain. by Ju-baek Shinㅣ[email protected]