Insights from the Global Data Centre Strategies Panel

AI demand and emerging investment markets dominated discussion on the “Global Data Centre Strategies” panel at Data Centre LIVE: The London Summit.

Moderated by Ben Craske, Senior Editor at Data Centre Magazine, the session featured these speakers:

• Giampiero Frisio, President, ABB Electrification at ABB
• Alex Bennett, Global Strategy Realisation & Transformation Director at NTT Global Data Centers
• Justin Lawson, Regional Managing Director, Europe at CBRE
• Craig Doyle, Senior Director of Data Centre Solutions EMEA at Wesco Anixter
• Nomin Chinbat, Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Communications of Mongolia at Government of Mongolia.

Across the panel, speakers examined both how operators and governments adapt to fast-growing infrastructure demand fuelled by AI.

AI pushes data centres into giga scale

Giampiero Frisio said the industry is rapidly moving beyond traditional facilities measured in tens of megawatts towards AI campuses operating at a much larger scale.

“As we were seeing already this morning, the data centre business is growing in an amazing way, and what we did was try to help our customers move from the traditional data centre business that was measured in tens of megawatts.

“We are helping them move to AI data centres where we talk about hundreds of megawatts, or even gigawatts in some cases.”

He also explained how ABB is scaling production capability and electrical infrastructure to support next-generation facilities.

“What we did at ABB was try to ramp up people, service activity, capability and production solutions for the data centre of the future, moving also from AC to DC design.”

Giampiero highlighted ABB’s work with Applied Digital in the US.

“We helped them build, in record time, 400MW of data centre in North Dakota, and now we are working with them to deliver 300MW of data centre in the south of the United States.”

Alex Bennett said NTT Global Data Centers increasingly manages infrastructure growth through a global strategy rather than regional operations.

“I think you just have to look from a global lens and understand where we came from. From our perspective, we were regional businesses: Americas, Europe, India, Asia Pacific.”

He said AI demand reshapes customer expectations around scale and delivery.

“The demand is unprecedented. We can move from speculative build to colocation to cloud demand to AI demand.”

Governments compete for investment

Nomin Chinbat said governments are viewing data centres as a standalone industry requiring coordinated policy support.

“I'd like to say that I think this industry was viewed as just power, but I think governments are actually shifting in the way that it is viewed as an industry itself.”

She explained that policymakers now align infrastructure, energy and public policy planning more closely.

“We are actually looking at our policy framework more coherently and collaboratively, to actually include everything from energy to the level of consumer health.”

She said governments require agile policy structures capable of responding to rapid technology development.

“So in a way, policy makers are looking at it as an individual industry that requires a policy that is agile enough to develop at the same speed as the industry is developing.”

Nomin noted Mongolia as an emerging destination for data centre investment due to geography, climate and political stability.

“In a country like Mongolia – I want to say the size of the country, which is 1.5 million square kilometres, which is 15 times bigger than Iceland – with natural cooling and also as a democratic country in the region, we are looking at data centre builders to come into the country.”

She encouraged operators to examine alternative markets beyond traditional data centre hubs.

“For us it's important to make sure that everybody looks at different landscapes and different locations rather than typical locations.”

Flexibility becomes critical

Craig Doyle said Wesco Anixter increasingly uses AI tools to support supply chain planning and operational efficiency.

“When it comes to enabling the services that we offer, we utilise AI as much as we possibly can.”

He addressed concerns around AI replacing jobs.

“A very common thread in the public debate about AI at the moment is that AI is going to take individuals' jobs.

“I think the reality is that the person utilising AI – if you're able to utilise it in the right way – is able to gain a lot of efficiency and a lot of insight.”

Justin Lawson said operators must maintain consistency across global markets while adapting to local regulations and workforce requirements.

“One of the most important things for us is having a physical, present footprint in certain geographies and regions.”

He also noted how smaller edge facilities can present operational challenges. In his words: “Sometimes the more difficult jobs to deploy for us are the smaller, edge-type jobs.”

From AI megacampuses to emerging investment regions, the panel highlighted how global data centre strategies continue to evolve at pace.