AI data centers are reshaping cabling economics, with cabling spend per MW more than twice that of conventional facilities; fiber optic cables held 47.6% of the global market in 2025
LONDON, Oct. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The global Data Center Cables Market was valued at $10.65 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $27.29 billion by 2035, expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 9.87%, according to a new study published by DC Market Insights. The market has moved beyond conventional structured cabling demand, with AI clusters, hyperscale campus construction, higher network speeds and rising rack densities materially increasing the amount and value of fiber connectivity deployed inside data centers.
The study finds that cabling is becoming a more strategic element of data center infrastructure investment. AI training clusters require dense accelerator-to-accelerator connectivity, while 400G, 800G and emerging 1.6T architectures are shortening the practical reach of copper and shifting a growing share of high-bandwidth connections toward fiber. DC Market Insights estimates that an AI-oriented data hall carried about $1.07 million of cabling content per MW in 2025, compared with approximately $0.43 million per MW for a conventional data hall. AI facilities accounted for an estimated 35% of new capacity in 2025, with their share projected to reach 66% by 2035.
AI Infrastructure Is Changing Cabling Economics
AI infrastructure is creating a structural shift in both cable volumes and product mix. GPU clusters rely on high-capacity back-end fabrics that connect large numbers of accelerators, producing substantially higher fiber counts than traditional enterprise or cloud environments. In some AI rack configurations, inter-rack connectivity can exceed 3,000 fibers, driving demand for smaller-diameter, higher-density fiber systems, pre-terminated assemblies and cable management designs that preserve airflow in increasingly dense environments.
At the same time, global data center construction continues to expand. DC Market Insights models annual new IT capacity additions rising from approximately 12.0 GW in 2025 to 27.0 GW in 2035. New construction accounted for about 73.8% of data center cable spending in 2025, making capacity deployment one of the strongest underlying indicators for future cable demand. The combination of more capacity and a rising proportion of AI-optimized facilities is creating a larger addressable market even while cable designs become more compact and efficient.
Long-term procurement agreements are also becoming more important. Large hyperscalers and connectivity suppliers are increasingly securing fiber capacity years before data center campuses enter service, reducing supply uncertainty and supporting manufacturing expansion. This shift makes production capacity, vertical integration and the ability to supply standardized systems globally increasingly important competitive factors.
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Fiber Optic Cables Capture 47.6% of the Market
Fiber optic cables generated an estimated $5.07 billion in 2025, representing 47.6% of the Data Center Cables Market, and are projected to reach $15.94 billion by 2035, reflecting a CAGR of 12.14%. Copper cables accounted for 31.4% of the 2025 market while power cables represented 21.0%. Fiber is expected to gain further share through 2035 due to rising bandwidth requirements, AI back-end networking and the migration toward higher Ethernet speeds.
Hyperscale data centers were the largest buyer category, generating approximately $4.95 billion and 46.5% of market demand in 2025. Colocation facilities represented 25.3%, followed by enterprise data centers at 18.4% and GPU and neocloud providers at 9.8%. GPU and neocloud operators are the fastest-growing buyer group, with cable spending projected to advance at a 12.21% CAGR through 2035.
High-speed Ethernet and GPU fabric connectivity is also emerging as one of the industry’s strongest growth areas. This application accounted for approximately $2.92 billion in 2025 and is forecast to reach $10.40 billion by 2035, overtaking conventional networking connectivity before the end of the decade. The shift reflects data center operators’ need to move increasingly large volumes of data between accelerators, servers, storage systems and network switches with minimal latency.
North America Leads While Asia Pacific and Emerging Markets Gain Ground
North America accounted for 42.6% of global Data Center Cables Market revenue in 2025, equivalent to approximately $4.54 billion. The regional market is projected to reach about $10.75 billion by 2035. Continued hyperscale development, AI infrastructure investment and expansion of domestic fiber manufacturing support the region’s leadership, although its share of the global market is expected to gradually decline as investment accelerates elsewhere.
Asia Pacific held 27.9% of global demand in 2025, with a market size of approximately $2.97 billion, and is forecast to reach $8.51 billion by 2035. The region benefits from major data center construction programs across China, India, Japan, Australia, Malaysia and other Southeast Asian markets. Asia Pacific is projected to expand at an 11.10% CAGR and gain more global market share than any other major region during the forecast period.
Europe accounted for 18.7% of the market in 2025, followed by Latin America at 5.6% and the Middle East and Africa at 5.2%. The Middle East and Africa is projected to be the fastest-growing region, advancing at an 11.45% CAGR, supported by sovereign AI programs, hyperscale investment and new colocation capacity in markets including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and major African digital hubs.
At the country level, the United States represented approximately 37.6% of global spending in 2025, making it the world’s largest national market. China ranked second. India is expected to record the strongest growth among major country markets, with a projected CAGR of 14.32% through 2035, followed closely by Malaysia.
Competitive Investment Intensifies Across Fiber and Connectivity
Competition is strengthening across fiber manufacturing, structured cabling, connectors, assemblies and cable management. Companies profiled in the study include Corning Incorporated, Amphenol Corporation, Prysmian Group, Panduit Corporation, Belden, Nexans, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Furukawa Electric, Fujikura, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable, Hengtong Group, Legrand, Leviton Manufacturing, The Siemon Company, Molex, TE Connectivity and LS Cable & System.
Industry consolidation and long-term supply agreements highlight the strategic value of data center connectivity. Amphenol completed its $10.5 billion acquisition of CommScope’s Connectivity and Cable Solutions business in January 2026. In the same month, Corning and Meta announced a multiyear agreement worth up to $6 billion covering optical fiber, cable and connectivity. Prysmian signed an agreement worth up to €5.5 billion with Molex in July 2026 to supply fiber cables for data center applications while committing €1.25 billion through 2031 to expand U.S. fiber capacity.
These investments indicate that competitive advantage is increasingly tied to manufacturing scale, fiber availability, high-density product engineering and the ability to support hyperscale customers through multiyear capacity commitments. Suppliers that combine cable manufacturing with connectors, assemblies, pathway systems and installation-ready solutions are positioned to capture a larger share of spending per data center project.
Market Outlook Through 2035
DC Market Insights’ base-case forecast places the global market at $27.29 billion by 2035. Under a lower-growth scenario involving slower capacity additions and a smaller AI share, the market could reach approximately $22.90 billion. A stronger investment environment, faster capacity deployment and a higher AI share could push the market to approximately $31.35 billion.
The long-term opportunity extends beyond new construction. The installed base of data centers will require periodic cabling upgrades when network architectures transition from 400G to 800G, 1.6T and subsequent generations. This replacement cycle creates an expanding refresh market alongside greenfield demand and gives suppliers exposure to both new capacity deployment and recurring infrastructure modernization.
The result is a market in which cabling is no longer treated simply as a passive layer of data center infrastructure. Network speed, rack density, power architecture, cooling constraints and AI workload design increasingly influence cable selection at the earliest stages of facility planning. Suppliers capable of supporting these requirements at hyperscale volumes are likely to capture a disproportionate share of market growth through 2035.
About the Data Center Cables Market Study
The study covers fiber optic cables, copper cables, power cables, connectors, cable assemblies and associated cable management hardware deployed inside data center buildings and campuses. Analysis includes market sizing and forecasts by product, application, end user, twisted-pair grade, component, vertical, region and country, together with pricing analysis, standards, competitive intelligence, recent developments and forecast scenarios.
The research uses 2025 as the base year, historical analysis from 2020 through 2024 and forecasts from 2026 through 2035. DC Market Insights develops its market models using bottom-up and top-down sizing, reconciliation of multiple data sources, industry validation and independent editorial review.
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About DC Market Insights
DC Market Insights is the dedicated data center research and consulting practice of Credence Research. The firm provides market intelligence and advisory services to investors, lenders, data center operators, hyperscalers, equipment vendors and government organizations. Its research platform includes more than 500 published data center market models covering infrastructure, power, cooling, networking, cloud, AI compute, software and the wider data center ecosystem. DC Market Insights combines syndicated research with commercial due diligence, market sizing, site selection, competitive intelligence and strategic consulting services.
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