Capacity Europe 2025

Why collaboration, community and capacity must define the next decade of digital infrastructure 

In October, parts of the atNorth Strategy & MarComm team joined operators, hyperscalers, network providers, investors and policymakers from across the globe at Capacity Europe. With AI demand accelerating at unprecedented speed, data center growth targets reaching new highs across Europe, and a wave of digital infrastructure projects in planning, the conversations this year felt more urgent and more interconnected than ever. 

Across the speaker and event conversations this year, one message came through clearly: Europe is not yet ready for the capacity that AI will require, but it has the opportunity to be. 

The race to AI-ready infrastructure 

AI is no longer a future consideration; it is reshaping digital infrastructure requirements today. As McKinsey has referenced, global data center capacity demand could almost triple, with about 70% of that demand coming from AI workloads by 2030. This means that data centers will need to be far more distributed, flexible and regionally integrated than the large, centralized models of the past  

The way people interact with information is already shifting – where a traditional search once returned a list of links, users are increasingly turning to generative AI systems for direct answers instead. This change may seem subtle, but it requires vastly more compute capacity. In the US, 6.8GW of capacity was leased in a single quarter this year, almost matching what Europe delivered across an entire year. 

As our Marketing Director, Tracey Pewtner, reflected, “One of the strongest messages from this year’s event was that Europe isn’t yet ready for the scale of AI adoption that’s coming – from infrastructure setup to power supply and beyond there is still a major opportunity. As we heard from many speakers, the organizations who work collaboratively, plan ahead and focus on long-term ecosystem value, rather than just capacity delivery, will be the ones who shape the future landscape.” 

The growing significance of the Nordic region 

Among the regions discussed, the Nordics stood out. In particular, the panel: “Build today or buy forever: the role of European data centres in facilitating the AI explosion” noted that by 2030, the Nordics may be the only truly AI-ready region in Europe. 

This aligns with what we are seeing across atNorth facilities and market planning, where the Nordics benefit from: 

• Abundant renewable power and energy stability 

• Cooler climates that support efficient operations 

• Land availability to scale responsibly 

• Strong subsea and terrestrial connectivity into Europe and beyond 

These regions are not just about where capacity can be built, but where it can be built well. 

“One of the themes that landed with me this year was the clear shift away from relying solely on Tier 1 markets. Many of these regions are reaching saturation, and the conversation has moved to where scalable capacity can be built responsibly and at speed,” commented Louise Boulet, Strategy Manager. “It was encouraging to see more openness across the industry to explore new regions, new power models and new partnership structures. This aligns closely with what we are already seeing in the Nordics, where renewable energy availability and space to grow are enabling more strategic, long-term development.”  

Collaboration and ecosystem thinking will define success 

A theme reinforced throughout the week is that the next phase of digital infrastructure will be deeply collaborative. No single operator, hyperscaler or network provider can meet AI-scale requirements in isolation. Infrastructure has always been interconnected, but the level of coordination now required across power, network, policy, design and community engagement is on a new level. 

Mardís Heimisdóttir, our Director of Strategy Implementation, shared her viewpoints on the discussions around AI workloads and the evolution of the edge: “There was a strong consensus that the edge of tomorrow may not look like the edge of today, especially as agentic AI and large language model systems mature. What really stood out was the shared understanding that planning for flexibility now is essential. The organizations who design infrastructure that can evolve will be the ones best positioned to support changing customer requirements.” 

“Another clear message was the need for more integrated ecosystems. No single provider can solve for power, sustainability, connectivity and time-to-market challenges in isolation. Collaboration isn’t just a good intention; it’s becoming a prerequisite for the industry to move forward effectively.” 

Community engagement is crucial 

One of the most notable shifts in conversation this year was the focus on community engagement, not as an afterthought, but as a guiding principle. 

“Community engagement came up time and time again, and for good reason,” shared Bylgja Pálsdóttir, Senior Communications Manager. “As an industry, we now have a real responsibility to show the positive role data centres play in how societies function and grow. People already understand what data centres are; the next step is helping them understand why they matter, and how they can be integrated into local communities in ways that are transparent, sustainable and genuinely beneficial.” 

Is Europe ready? 

When speakers were asked to score Europe’s AI readiness from 1 to 10, the average response was around 6. Some said 3. The Nordics scored closer to 8. 

While we are certainly progressing, we are not there yet. But we believe that Europe is greatly positioned to close this gap with a strong focus on renewable power, responsible community-integrated development, and a skilled workforce. Because as was said on stage: AI won’t replace you; but someone who understands AI might.