Executive Summary

• Overbuilding is an industry bad habit that needs to be eradicated through capacity planning and modular designs, so you don’t kill your ROI.
• With multiyear delays on grid connections, “Speed to Power” will be achieved by using modularity with a phased ROI method based on demand and not outdated forecasts.
• Staying in the “just right” Goldilocks zone prevents the dual risks of stranded capacity from overprovisioning and missed market opportunities from underprovisioning.

Akin to Goldilocks, when she broke into a random house in the middle of the woods for food and shelter, it takes trial and error to find what’s “just right” in capacity planning for your facilities. If you’re in a state of overprovisioning because of the AI boom, “just in case” of near-future surges in demand, you’re likely killing your ROI.

In this article, we poke the bear a little and look at how the industry can optimise, streamline and reduce costs, which will be good for business.

The industry is overbuilding right now

Global construction is hitting $11.3 million this year (and that’s per MW!), according to JLL’s 2026 Global Data Centre Outlook. With nearly 100GW of new data centres to be added between now and 2030, capacity is doubling, overbuilding is the latest bad habit the industry has fallen into because of the AI surge, which is costing you and your business.

The industry will likely expand at a 14% CAGR through 2030, and with AI representing half of all workloads by then, too, it’s not about the size of the infrastructure, it’s more about navigating the “power wall” that has the industry by its neck. With multiyear wait times for a connection to the grid, the only way forward is to streamline operations, reclaim stranded capacity, and explore modular power solutions in a phased ROI model.

Phased ROI models

Traditionally, CapEx is spent upfront during design and build, whilst you wait years for those precious pounds of revenue, but that’s a dangerous path to walk in 2026, where it’s taking years just to get a grid connection.

However, employing modular designs to data centres that can immediately serve the current demand and scale, you can achieve ROI quicker while increasing your speed to market without waiting years.

You can deploy a starter “pod” of, say 10 MW) and that can serve AI inference demand right that moment, while the civil works for the next 40MW are in the pipeline.

This phased or “pay as you grow” approach enables you to reduce risks in shifting technologies since it’s becoming common for customer requirements to shift mid-deployment. It also improves the internal rate of return for investors, a huge win for them (and you).

Modularity enables you to kit out phase 2 with different specs to phase 1 to meet demand without having to redesign the building.

The Goldilocks zone

The Goldilocks zone in data centre growth is that narrow window where available power matches your customer’s requirements, and paired with effective capacity planning, modular infrastructure can help you stay in the zone.

Building too big kills your ROI and it’s a huge gamble with today’s industry projections, because what happens when tech shifts mid-deployment? Say, for example, the industry shifts to more localised inference? That leaves you with stranded capacity and a dead ROI.

But you also want to avoid building “too small”, when a surge in AI demand can leave you in the dust, missing out on the opportunities.

This is where modular, pre-fabricated units step in, to reach the “just right” zone. Simply plug and play with a smaller amount of power and adapt to the customer’s requirements when surges occur.

On top of all that, capacity planning is king to get into that Goldilocks zone for existing infrastructure. Capacity planning not just for today but for tomorrow’s demand surges is a fickle art and requires you to spin all 10 plates without smashing a single one (uptime being key, and all). In 2026, the operators setting themselves up for success are those who can solve the “Speed to Power” puzzle with agility.