What stood out at Datacloud Global Congress 2026

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Reflections on the Congress

Phil Nicholson, our Partner Director, attended Datacloud Global Congress in Cannes last week, joining operators, technology providers, investors and policymakers from across the digital infrastructure sector.

His view was that the conversation felt more grounded than in previous years. AI still dominated, but the focus was less on the scale of the opportunity and more on what it will take to deliver it in practice – particularly when it comes to power, planning, talent and long-term sustainability.

AI demand is now shaping every conversation

Unsurprisingly, AI was the main theme across the event. Much of the discussion centred on how quickly infrastructure requirements are changing, especially as training and inference workloads push operators towards higher densities and larger-scale deployments.

There was also a lot of attention on Europe’s ambition to build more sovereign AI capacity. The language around ‘AI gigafactories’ came up repeatedly, along with major investment announcements intended to support that growth.

Power has moved to the centre of the debate

Another clear theme running through the congress was energy. Grid access, generation capacity and resilience were all high on the agenda, reflecting a wider recognition that power is now one of the main limiting factors for data centre growth.

That was especially clear in discussions around on-site generation and the role of nuclear energy. The inclusion of a dedicated Nuclear for AI Summit showed just how seriously the sector is now considering options that might previously have sat at the edge of the conversation.

Nuclear is now being discussed as a serious part of the future energy mix for AI infrastructure, despite the obvious questions around timescales, cost and public acceptance. Deployment into low earth orbit of ‘data centres’ – effectively satellites with compute, power and cooling, is a whole other subject for another date….

Sustainability is still a priority - but the discussion has become more candid

Sustainability remained a major focus, particularly around water use, efficiency and carbon reduction. But the tone felt more direct than in previous years.

There was a clearer acknowledgement that AI growth puts pressure on existing environmental goals. That does not mean sustainability is being pushed aside, but it does mean the industry is having to confront some uncomfortable realities. Expanding capacity at speed while reducing environmental impact is not a simple balance to strike.

The discussion is becoming less about broad commitments and more about the practical compromises and innovations needed to make those commitments credible.

Public perception cannot be ignored

Another thread running beneath many of the sessions was public scrutiny. As demand for new capacity grows, so does resistance in some markets – particularly where concerns about power use, land, water and local infrastructure are already sensitive.

For operators, that makes communication and transparency increasingly important. Securing planning permission is one thing; maintaining public trust is another.

A more practical tone for the sector

There’s a general feeling that the industry is entering a more demanding phase. There is still strong confidence in long-term growth, particularly around AI, but there is also a greater willingness to talk openly about the constraints that come with it – and that may prove to be one of the most important takeaways from this year’s event.

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