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This data center revolution isn't just about building digital infrastructure; it is also about laying the foundation for sustained economic transformation. Data center and AI-related investments have become a dominant contributor to growth in the US — the leader in global data center capacity — accounting for 80% of private domestic demand growth in the first half of 2025.
Data centers are reshaping the dynamics of economies, capital investment, productivity, and national competitiveness. While the US and China are leading the data center charge, collectively commanding over 60% of global capacity, players across Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific are racing to establish their own digital sovereignty.
This growth story also comes with profound challenges. How should investors and other market participants think about the risks of overbuilding, if AI promises don't materialize as expected? How will stakeholders manage the water required to cool data centers in areas where water sources face pressure? Can supply chains effectively stretch to meet the insatiable appetite for specialized equipment? As AI drives productivity gains concentrated in specific sectors, how could labor markets be reshaped?
In Look Forward: Data Center Frontiers, sponsored by the S&P Global Look Forward Council, we show how data centers are the defining infrastructure of the 21st-century economy. We bring together the best thinking from across S&P Global to examine the data center story from every angle — from our economists tracking the macro impacts to our infrastructure analysts modeling power demand, from our ratings teams assessing credit risks to our sustainability experts examining environmental implications.
Every day, we bring together our data and insights from across S&P Global, Advancing Essential Intelligence and helping you stay a step ahead.
S&P Global
President & CEO, S&P Global
Martina L. Cheung is President, CEO, and a member of the Board of Directors of S&P Global.
Previously, Ms. Cheung was President of S&P Global Ratings and served as the Executive Lead of S&P Global Horizons. Earlier, she was President of S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Ms. Cheung joined the Company in 2010 as Vice President of Operations for S&P Global Ratings and went on to serve as S&P Global’s Chief Strategy Officer. She also was Head of Risk Services for S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Prior to joining S&P Global, Ms. Cheung worked for Accenture’s Financial Services Strategy group and later as a Partner at Mitchell Madison Consulting.
Barron’s recognized Ms. Cheung as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance in 2025. Ms. Cheung was named one of the Most Powerful Women in Finance by American Banker and included on the list of Influential Women in Institutional Investing by Pensions & Investments in 2024. Also in 2024, INvolve named her to its 100 Empower Executives list for the second consecutive year. Ms. Cheung received the Merit Award from The Women's Bond Club in 2022.
Ms. Cheung is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Club of New York.
Ms. Cheung serves on the Board of Trustees for Catholic Charities New York and was a member of the Board of CRISIL, a global analytics company and India’s leading credit ratings agency.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce and a master’s degree in business studies from National University of Ireland, Galway.
Chair, President & CEO of Dominion Energy
In this interview with S&P Global, Robert M. Blue, Chair, President & CEO of Dominion Energy, explains how soaring data center demand is accelerating Dominion’s major build-out of generation and grid capacity to keep energy reliable and affordable.
Partner, Apollo
In this interview with S&P Global, Joseph Jackson, partner at Apollo, highlights Apollo's disciplined approach to data center investing and how its long-term capital base is positioned to help meet rising demand for AI-driven infrastructure.
S&P Global Ratings
Look Forward Council, Sponsor
President, S&P Global Ratings
Yann Le Pallec is President of S&P Global Ratings and a member of the Company’s Executive Leadership Team. He has ultimate responsibility for all aspects of the business, including commercial, analytical, control and operations functions. He is based in Paris and heads the S&P Global Ratings Operating Committee.
Mr. Le Pallec chairs the Board of CRISIL Ltd, a global provider of benchmarks and analytics for the financial community that also owns CRISIL Ratings, a leading credit rating agency in India. CRISIL Ltd is listed on BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange).
Previously, Mr. Le Pallec was the Executive Managing Director and Head of Global Ratings Services which oversees Analytics, Research, and Operations, encompassing more than 2,200 analysts and support staff across 28 countries who cover more than one million outstanding ratings on entities and securities across a range of sectors, including governments, corporations, financial institutions and structured finance.
Since joining S&P Global Ratings in 1999, Mr. Le Pallec has held a diverse array of roles, including Head of Global Corporate Ratings, leading a group of 500 analysts responsible for coverage of more than 4,000 non-financial corporations worldwide. Before that he led S&P Global’s credit ratings business in EMEA, managing a team of more than 900 ratings analysts and support staff across a dozen offices. Previously, he was Head of EMEA Corporate and Government Ratings, after serving in various managerial and analytical positions in the Insurance and Sovereign & Public Sector groups.
Mr. Le Pallec is the S&P Global Executive Sponsor for the Company's PRIDE People Resource Group, which is dedicated to maintaining a supportive work environment for LGBTQ+ colleagues.
Prior to joining S&P Global, Mr. Le Pallec worked for nine years at Paris-based auditing and financial services firm Salustro Reydel.
Mr. Le Pallec holds a master's degree in Business from the Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economique et Commerciales (ESSEC) in France.
S&P Global Energy
Look Forward Council, Co-Chair
Senior Vice President and Chief Energy Strategist
His areas of expertise include business strategy, commercial analysis, oil markets, energy technologies, climate change and renewables. He has previously led Energy Insight, Research and Analysis and Energy Research teams at S&P Global (Now a part of S&P Global). Dr. Atul previously worked for BP for over 20 years in a number of operational, business, technical and strategic positions around the world. His career includes international leadership experience in a diverse array of energy fields spanning strategy development, business planning, field operations and technology commercialization. His experience includes leadership in solar energy development as well as oil and gas. Dr. Atul has previously served on boards of several companies and institutions and is member of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Advanced Energy Technologies and is 25+ year member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. He is a sought-after speaker and moderator at public conferences, company boards and industry events and a member of the CERAWeek leadership team.
He holds B.S., M.S. and Ph. D. degrees in engineering.
S&P Global Ratings
Look Forward Council, Co-Chair
Global Head of Research and Development
S&P Global Commodity Insights
Sustainability Analyst
Alessandro Badinotti works as Sustainability Analyst within Horizons, S&P Global's centralized source for sustainability intelligence. Together with a global team of analysts, he’s responsible for maintaining and developing the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA), an annual evaluation of companies’ sustainability practices that are both industry-specific and financially material. His cross-industry focus areas are greenhouse gas emissions and transparency in sustainability reporting.
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Data Center Services and Infrastructure Analyst
Mai Barakat is an analyst on the 451 Research Datacenter Services & Infrastructure team at S&P Global Market Intelligence. Her research focuses on datacenter market activity across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Her key research areas include emerging datacenter markets; retail, wholesale and cloud provider activity; industry growth projections; market share analysis; government incentives and regulations; and pricing dynamics.
Before joining the Datacenter Services & Infrastructure team in 2020, her focus was on mobile telecommunications and 5G in Europe. Prior to that she spent more than 10 years at Omdia covering mobile/fixed telecommunications and TV in the Middle East and Africa, with a special focus on mobile banking and fintech initiatives in emerging markets.
Mai holds a Bachelor of Science in international management and French from the University of Bath, UK and an MSc in marketing. She is fluent in Arabic and French.
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Senior Research Analyst, Latin America Country Risk
Veronica Retamales Burford covers political, commercial, security and operational risks in Latin America, with a focus on Peru, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and El Salvador.
Veronica is a Latin America Senior Research Analyst covering political, commercial, operational, and security risk issues for a variety of sectors in the region, including energy, mining, retail, and insurance. She is responsible for the generation of commercially relevant political and violent risks forecasts for Peru, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. Before joining S&P Global, Veronica worked as a Senior Analyst of risk intelligence for a consultancy firm in Canada where she gained extensive experience managing due diligence assignments, and as a Latin America political analyst and journalist based in Chile.
She holds an MSc in Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics and a Journalism Degree from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Research Analyst, Cloud Price Index & Quantum Computing
Ellie Brown is a research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence working across the 451 Research Cloud Transformation channel and the technology, media and telecommunications data team. She manages the Cloud Price Index, the division’s benchmark tracking product for pricing for a selection of cloud infrastructure and managed services around the world. Ellie compiles and maintains a dataset collected from millions of hyperscaler SKUs and looks at trends in pricing, service additions and regional expansion plans for the major public cloud providers.
Ellie’s additional coverage areas include the developing quantum computing and quantum network sectors, with research spanning quantum-suited verticals, new quantum hardware and software developments and the intersection of quantum technology, with key themes including AI and sustainability.
Before joining S&P Global Market Intelligence in 2022, Ellie’s work experience included product strategy/planning and go-to-market activities for SaaS and AI startups, as well as scientific research in astronomy and work as a secondary teacher.
Ellie holds a bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in physics from the University of Utah and is pursuing a master’s degree in environmental policy and management with a concentration in sustainable energy from the University of Denver.
S&P Global Ratings
Look Forward Council, Co-Chair
Global Head of Research and Development
S&P Global Ratings
Global Climate Transition Specialist
S&P Global Ratings
Managing Director, Credit Ratings
S&P Global Commodity Insights
Executive Director, Americas Gas & Power
S&P Global Ratings
Global Chief Economist
Paul Gruenwald is the Global Chief Economist at S&P Global Ratings based in New York. He leads the economic research agenda and serves as the primary spokesperson on macro-economic matters for the company.
Before joining S&P Global Ratings in 2013, Paul spent almost five years at the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) as the Asia Pacific Chief Economist, where he was responsible for helping set and direct ANZ’s Asian and global economic research agenda, as well as building the bank’s economic research efforts and profile in the region. Previously, Paul worked at the International MonetaryFund(IMF) for nearly 16 years, where he led the team producing the IMF’s Asian regional outlook reports. He was also the IMF Resident Representative to Hong Kong and Korea, the Deputy Chief of the China Division, and did considerable work on both public (Paris Club) and private (London Club) debt restructuring issues.
Paul has a Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in Economics/Mathematics from the University of Texas.
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Chief Analyst, Industry & Company Data, 451 Research
Eric Hanselman is the chief analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence. He coordinates industry analysis across the broad portfolio of technology, media and telecommunications research disciplines, with an extensive, hands-on understanding of a range of subject areas, including information security, networks and semiconductors and their intersection in areas such as SDN/NFV, 5G and edge computing.
Eric helps S&P Global’s clients navigate these turbulent waters and capitalize on potential outcomes. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a Certified Information Systems Security Professional and a VMware Certified Professional. He is also a frequent speaker at leading industry conferences and hosts the Next in Tech technology podcast.
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Associate Director and Head of Desk, Country Risk – Middle East and North Africa
Jack specializes in political risk and violent trends across the MENA region, with a particular focus on Egypt, the Gulf states, and the eastern Mediterranean. Prior to S&P Global, Jack was lead Middle East analyst for a business and political risk consultancy firm in Scotland.
Jack holds an MLitt in Middle East and Central Asia Security Studies from the University of St Andrews and an MA in Arabic and Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh.
S&P Global Energy
Head of Energy Transition Narratives & Policy
S&P Global Ratings
Global Nature Specialist, Sustainability Research and Methodologies
S&P Global Ratings
Chief Analytical Officer, Corporate Ratings
Gregg Lemos-Stein is a Managing Director and Chief Analytical Officer for Corporate Ratings at S&P Global Ratings. He is also co-chair of the Global Credit Conditions Committee, a cross-asset class group of senior analysts and economists. In his Chief Analytical Officer role, Gregg is responsible for analytical excellence and ratings consistency, the quality and timeliness of credit publications, and the creation and coordination of cross-sector and thematic research.
Gregg joined S&P Global Ratings in 2002 and has had a wide range of analytical and managerial roles in New York and London. Prior to his current position, Gregg was head of Analytics & Research for Corporate Ratings. He was previously Analytical Manager for the EMEA real estate sector and also led a team of analysts covering diversified sectors in Israel. Prior to that, he was analytical manager for the U.S. telecom and cable ratings team. He was a senior analyst in the U.S. autos and auto suppliers team from 2006 to 2010.
Before joining S&P Global Ratings, Gregg worked for The Dreyfus Corporation and its parent Mellon Financial Corp. Gregg was also a business reporter for The Associated Press for several years.
Gregg holds a Masters of Business Administration from Columbia University in New York and a bachelor of arts from The University of Chicago. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
S&P Global Energy
Associate Director, Energy Research
Tony Lenoir is an analyst with the S&P Global Energy Energy Research team.
Specializing in the US renewables space, he has published research on the expansion of solar and wind energy and also of battery storage; the REC market; and energy communities as defined by the Inflation Reduction Act, among other topics.
Tony holds an MBA with a specialization in international finance from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.
S&P Global Energy
Associate Director, Americas Gas & Power
Ben led the research, design and development of "Power Crunch," an alternative power market outlook for North America that explores the potential for much stronger electricity demand growth and greater headwinds to renewables than those outlined in the Planning Case. Ben is also the lead analyst covering electrification trends in North America as well as the PJM power market.
Ben has authored numerous market briefings, insights and strategic reports covering a wide range of power market topics, including electrification, datacenters, renewables permitting and siting, demand response, federal and regional environmental credit markets, global power market trends, and electrolytic hydrogen production. With nearly a decade of experience in the electricity sector, he has shared his research at numerous client briefings and presentations at S&P Global Energy events, trade group conferences, and independent system operator stakeholder meetings and has been cited by several major media publications.
Prior to joining S&P Global Energy, Ben was a corporate development and strategy analyst for DTE Energy and a manager of economic analysis at Deloitte. Ben holds a BA from Northwestern University in Applied Math and Economics and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
S&P Global Ratings
Managing Director
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Senior Research Analyst
Perkins Liu has joined the Datacenter team as a Senior Research Analyst covering datacenters in APAC and datacenter technology more broadly. Perkins is based in Rhode Island and has been in the datacenter industry for over 20 years, most recently as a Leader of Strategy and Business Development for the Cloud and Service Provider segment at Schneider Electric. Perkins has worked with global web giants and datacenter providers on their facility construction and operation plans worldwide, including years of experience working with providers in China, where he received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in electrical engineering. Perkins also has an MBA from the University of Rhode Island. He is fluent in Mandarin and English.
S&P Global Energy
Associate Director, Gas, Power, and Energy Futures
Patrick Luckow, an associate director of S&P Global Energy Gas, Power, and Energy Futures, focuses on regional and national carbon policy and associated markets, including the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the linked, economy-wide greenhouse gas markets in California and Quebec.
Patrick is experienced in the use of simulation and forecasting tools to conduct economic analysis and long-term scenario planning to support renewable and carbon market analyses. He produces regularly updated allowance price outlooks for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and California-Quebec carbon markets. Patrick also contributes to S&P Global Energy REC market outlooks, forecasting pricing associated with state renewable portfolio standards. Prior to joining S&P Global, Patrick was the modeling lead at Synapse Energy Economics, where he used industry-standard models for resource planning and market forecasting, as well as expert testimony for regulatory proceedings.
Patrick holds a Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University, United States, and a Master of Science degree from the University of Maryland, United States.
S&P Global Sustainable1
Senior Editor, Thought Leadership Editorial Manager, S&P Global Sustainability Quarterly
Matt MacFarland is the industry editor for nonbank financial services news at S&P Global Market Intelligence. His coverage includes investment banking, asset management, financial technology and capital markets. A particular focus is equity market structure, which he covered as a reporter for SNL Financial.
Matt holds a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Virginia and a bachelor’s degree in English from Hampden-Sydney College.
S&P Global Ratings
Managing Director
S&P Global Ratings
Director, Corporate Ratings
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Research Director, Data Center Infrastructure, 451 Research
Kelly Morgan is a research director in the 451 Research technology research group at S&P Global Market Intelligence. She is responsible for the Datacenter Services & Infrastructure team as well as the M&A practice. Her research includes analysis of datacenter providers, market size, supply/demand, new technology and datacenter industry trends, as well as M&A activity.
Before joining S&P Global Market Intelligence in 2019 via acquisition, Kelly spent more than 18 years covering datacenters and telecommunications at both 451 Research and in private equity. She also worked for several years in Paris at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, managing the organization’s budget process.
Kelly holds a BA degree with honors from Wesleyan University and an MA from Tufts, where she studied international business and economics.
S&P Global Ratings
US Chief Economist
Satyam Panday is a Senior Economist in the Global Economics and Research Group at S&P Global Ratings, based in New York. In this position, he develops U.S. economic forecasts for ratings, provides insight into U.S. macroeconomic outlook, and develops thought pieces on economic policy actions. Before joining S&P Global Ratings in July of 2013, Satyam taught undergraduate and graduate economics courses at Boston College and Brandeis University from 2011 to 2013. Previously, he had been a research fellow in the macroeconomic analysis division at the Congressional Budget Office in Washington D.C. Earlier in his career, he spent several years at MassMutual Financial Group as an actuarial analyst in their mortality research and quantitative modeling team. Satyam holds a Ph.D. in International Economics and Finance from Brandeis University. He specialized in macroeconomics, development economics and applied econometrics. He has an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from St. Olaf College in Minnesota and received his MBA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management. Dr. Panday is a member of American Economic Association, National Association of Business Economists, and ECOMOD Global Economic Modeling Network. He is originally from Nepal.
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Head of Research, 451 Research
Brian Partridge is head of research for both the 451 Research technology research and Kagan media research groups within S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Brian has responsibility for leading the analyst team, research process and syndicated research products. This includes driving the overall research agenda and ensuring that S&P Global Market Intelligence delivers the data and insights to help clients make better decisions regarding emerging technologies and innovation.
Before arriving at S&P Global Market Intelligence via acquisition, Brian was VP of research at 451 Research and head of research at Yankee Group. At 451 Research, he founded the IoT research practice. Prior to his research career, which began in 2005, Brian served in marketing leadership roles at leading networking vendors, including 3Com and Cabletron Systems.
As a researcher, Brian actively contributes to the IoT, 5G, enterprise wireless and edge computing research agendas and has subject matter expertise in telecom systems and strategy, enterprise mobility and enterprise networking domains.
Brian holds a BS degree in business administration from the University of New Hampshire and an MBA degree from Plymouth State University.
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Head of APAC and Latin America Analysis
His team provides comprehensive economic forecasts, country-risk scores, and geopolitical analyses on 48 economies across Asia-Pacific. Aries has published widely on a range of topics, from China's banking system and energy sector to Asia-Pacific's semiconductor industry and the global green bond market. He previously worked as the editorial lead, also at S&P Global Market Intelligence, overseeing the coverage of banking, insurance, financial services and real estate in the Asia-Pacific.
Before joining S&P Global in 2018, Aries had worked for the Wall Street Journal as the chief of its Hong Kong and Taipei newsrooms. He was also a finance editor at Caixin Global in Beijing. A Hong Kong native, Aries has a Master of Public Policy from the University of Oxford. He is also a lecturer for the Global Studies undergraduate program at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Research Analyst, Datacenter Services & Infrastructure
Matthew Richesin is an analyst on the 451 Research Datacenter Services & Infrastructure team at S&P Global Market Intelligence. His research focuses on datacenter market activity across North America. His key research areas include emerging datacenter markets; retail, wholesale and cloud provider activity; industry growth projections; market share analysis; government incentives and regulations; and pricing dynamics.
Before joining the Datacenter Services & Infrastructure team in 2025, Matthew was lab manager in the Autonomic Nervous System and Wellness Lab and instructor of record at the University of Tennessee, followed by a short stint as a research analyst covering various aspects of training AI models.
Matthew holds a Ph.D. in experimental psychology with a focus on behavioral neuroscience from the University of Tennessee.
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Principal Research Analyst, Datacenter Services & Infrastructure (451 Research)
Dan Thompson is a principal research analyst in the 451 Research technology research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence. He leads the Datacenter Services and Infrastructure team, which is charged with keeping tabs on the datacenter industry globally to better understand its trends and growth areas. His research includes analyses of datacenter providers, market size and supply/demand in key and emerging markets around the world. Dan also provides coverage of datacenter providers offering services beyond colocation, such as managed and cloud-type services.
Dan also provides research on the sustainability of the datacenter industry. Beyond just renewable energy purchasing and carbon offsetting, he has been investigating full life cycle emissions, including supply chain emissions, as well as efficiency gains and water usage.
Before joining S&P Global Market Intelligence, Dan spent 15 years as a practitioner in the IT industry, the last 10 years at a top managed/cloud service provider. Dan has worn many hats in the IT world, from systems administration to management, and was most recently an enterprise architect. In that role, he not only assisted in the launch of the company's security practice, but also created security-specific products and designed security into every solution launched to the customer base.
In addition to a good many IT industry certifications, Dan currently holds degrees in network security and forensics and information technology.
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Head of S&P Global Market Intelligence Middle East and Northern Africa economic forecasting team
Ralf Wiegert is Head of S&P Global Market Intelligence Middle East and Northern Africa economic forecasting team.
Ralf is Head of S&P Global Market Intelligence Middle East and Northern Africa economic forecasting team. Aside from the regional economic overview, he is covering and presenting on Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iraq in particular. Prior to that, he has held a number of positions at S&P Global Market Intelligence and preceding companies, including in the Economics and Country Risk (ECR) consulting team, and in the European economic forecasting team. He joined the company in 2004.
Ralf is a German national. He has a Ph.D. degree in economics from Potsdam University, where he graduated in 2002. He earned a Master degree (Diplom) in 1997 from the same university. He is fluent in German (mother tongue) and English and has proficient knowledge of Russian and French.
Among the projects he was working on prior to joining the MENA team, a landmark study for a German industry consortium featured that examined the linkage between energy costs, competitiveness and growth for Germany.
Ralf was chief economic adviser for the National Energy Strategy study which S&P Global Market Intelligence conducted for the Oman Public Authority of Electricity and Water. He also worked on national energy strategies with other government clients in similar roles.
Key support and contributions by: Brianne Paschen, Matt Tompkins, Diana Mumford, James Mantooth, Christie Van Gaal, Carla Donaghey, Ellen White, Meha Dave, Kurt Burger, and Camille McManus