Gartner Estimates Worldwide IT Spending at $6.31T for 2026
Gartner recently forecast that worldwide IT spending will total $6.31 trillion in 2026, a 13.5% increase from 2025. Sectors experiencing the largest growth include data center systems, software, and IT services.
"This latest forecast underscores the accelerating momentum in AI infrastructure and advanced memory," said John-David Lovelock, distinguished VP analyst with Gartner, in a statement. "As AI workloads scale, data center investment is ramping rapidly, which in turn is driving increased demand for high‑performance compute. This dynamic is creating meaningful growth opportunities for companies delivering AI‑optimized processors, accelerators, and enabling technologies."
Data center systems are projected to see the largest 2026 growth, up 55.8% from 2025 (after experiencing 51.6% growth during 2025 over 2024). Meanwhile, IT services — including application implementation, managed services, infrastructure implementation, managed services, and IaaS — will see the largest overall spending at $1.87 billion. The software vertical is forecast at $1.44 billion in spending, a 2026 growth of 15.1%; communication services forecast at $1.36 billion in spending, a growth of 4.8%; and devices forecast at $856 million, a growth of 8.2%, according to the news release.
"Robust demand combined with supply constraints has resulted in record price increases for high-bandwidth memory. This surge positions the memory segment as a lucrative area for semiconductor manufacturers," Lovelock continued. "These trends collectively make AI infrastructure the most attractive segment for capitalizing on the robust expansion in IT spending."
A previous Gartner forecast from February of this year estimated that worldwide IT spending would total $6.15 trillion, just a 10.5% increase. The new forecast attributes the stronger-than-anticipated growth to "sustained momentum across AI Infrastructure, software, and IaaS," the news release reports.
Hyperscaler purchases and AI-centric software segments have been outperforming more traditional spending categories, as hyperscale cloud demand has led to an increase in server and data center investment. Spending on data center systems is estimated to pass $788 billion this year, the growth significantly exceeding expectations. Generative AI is also the cause of oversized increases in software.
Finally, device spending has also increased to $856 billion, although growth can be capped by the higher memory costs that are raising the selling price.
"Together, these dynamics highlight a widening divergence across IT markets, as AI infrastructure and GenAI software see substantial upward revisions while device growth reflects ongoing cost and pricing pressures," said Lovelock.
About the Author
Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].