By Servet Yanatma
Publication Date: 2026-04-27 04:50:00
Data centers are the backbone of artificial intelligence, supporting everything from AI chatbot requests to streamed videos to files stored in the cloud.
ADVERTISING
ADVERTISING
These are large facilities that house servers, storage systems and network devices for storing, processing and distributing data. The more data centers, the more AI. But they use a lot of energy and require a lot of land.
According to the 2026 AI Index Report published by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, data centers are “the place where computing power resides.” The report emphasizes that “their capacity, geographic distribution and underlying supply chains determine which AI systems can be built where.”
Which countries have the most data centers in the world? How many are in Europe? And how does Europe perform in global data distribution?
