AI Infrastructure & Data Centers

ABU DHABI – November 01, 2026 -- Context Labs B.V. has secured a strategic equity investment from 22/x, the Abu Dhabi-based AI-native investment and incubation platform established by the Nowais family, and will open its regional headquarters in Abu Dhabi. The two companies also signed a long-term agreement to expand Context Labs across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The announcement did not specify the investment amount.

Agreement covers regional deployment of sovereign AI infrastructure

The headquarters will serve customers and partners across the GCC and wider MENA region. The agreement also provides for regional deployment of Context Labs' AI Data Infrastructure, including the AI Distillery for sovereign AI. The Distillery lets organizations run frontier and open-weight AI models inside their own data centers, on their own verified data.

SAN FRANCISCO – October 31, 2026 -- Server-class Ethernet NIC revenues more than doubled in two years, rising from less than $6 billion in 2023 to more than $13 billion in 2025, according to Crehan Research.

2025 delivers record revenue and record growth

The report says 2025 produced both the highest revenue and the fastest revenue growth the market has recorded. Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research, said the market has followed "nearly a vertical straight line" since the initial release of ChatGPT.

200GbE and 400GbE NIC sales more than triple in one year

Sales of 200 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 400GbE NICs more than tripled over the past year, as customers rapidly deployed high-speed NICs in generative AI networks. These speeds now account for more than half of total market revenues.

SAN FRANCISCO – October 31, 2026 -- Cumulative data center Ethernet switch sales will surpass $250 billion over the next five years, according to Crehan Research's latest Data Center Switch Long-Range Forecast Report. The firm attributes the figure to a steep ramp of scale-up Ethernet deployments in AI rack systems, added to existing hypergrowth in scale-out and scale-across networks.

Crehan projects 15-fold growth in total market bandwidth within five years

Scale-up will have an even larger effect on bandwidth than on revenue, according to Crehan. The report projects a 15-fold increase in total market bandwidth over the same five-year period.

Scale-up Ethernet switching bandwidth alone is forecast to grow 200-fold. Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research, said bandwidth demand for scale-up Ethernet in AI racks is about an order of magnitude greater than for scale-out, and that the gap is likely to widen.

San Francisco – October 31, 2026 -- Data center Ethernet switch revenues and shipments each grew 25% year-over-year in the first half of 2025, with generative AI a key growth driver, according to Crehan Research.

General data center compute networking demand was also solid. The AI build-out is changing how quickly new port speeds ramp, however.

800GbE branded switch adoption runs almost 100 times ahead of 400GbE

Deployments of 800 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switches surged alongside generative AI growth. Adoption is proving much faster than that of 400GbE, Crehan said. In branded data center switching, the 800GbE adoption curve to date is almost one hundred times better than that of 400GbE.

Crehan Research President Seamus Crehan said generative AI has produced much steeper and faster adoption curves for new higher Ethernet speeds.

SAN FRANCISCO – October 31, 2026 -- The data center Ethernet switch market exceeded $20 billion in revenue and 100 million port shipments in 2024, a record year for both measures, according to Crehan Research.

Branded and ODM-direct segments both grow as late-year branded sales accelerate

A late-year acceleration in branded switch sales lifted the full-year total. Both branded and ODM-direct data center Ethernet switching posted annual growth.

400GbE and 800GbE reach one-third of annual revenue after 50% growth

The two speed tiers grew 50% year on year and now account for a third of total annual market revenue. Crehan Research says 400GbE adoption has been broad-based across applications and customer segments. Strong 800GbE adoption has so far been driven primarily by generative AI.

SAN FRANCISCO – October 31, 2026 -- Combined data center Ethernet switch and NIC market revenue will double within five years to surpass $50 billion, according to Crehan Research's latest Data Center Networking Long-Range Forecast Reports.

Back-end AI Ethernet networking revenue to grow eight-fold

Generative AI is expected to be a major driver of the expansion. Crehan forecasts that back-end AI Ethernet networking alone will increase eight-fold and account for over one-third of total market revenue.

One-million-plus accelerator clusters drive investment plans

Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research, attributed the forecast to customer plans for significant investment, with numerous AI clusters of more than one million accelerators now on the horizon. Many additional customers are deploying small-size Ethernet clusters as AI extends across business functions, he said.

SAN FRANCISCO – October 31, 2026 -- Branded data center Ethernet switch revenue rose 7% year-over-year in calendar Q3 2024 to the highest quarterly level on record, according to Crehan Research. The result ends two consecutive quarters of decline.

800GbE deployments for AI clusters drive the rebound

A strong ramp of 800 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) data center switches was a key contributor to the growth. These switches provide the network fabric for AI compute clusters. Crehan Research expects 800GbE to see the fastest speed ramp ever recorded for data center Ethernet switches.

COLUMBUS – October 31, 2026 -- Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE: VRT) has completed its acquisition of Utility Innovation Holdings, Inc., which operates as UtilityInnovation Group (UIG), for about $1.45 billion in upfront cash. The deal also carries up to $1.15 billion in contingent cash consideration, tied to EBITDA targets over 12- and 24-month periods.

Upfront price equals 13x expected 2027 EBITDA

The upfront price represents approximately 13x expected UIG 2027 EBITDA. Vertiv expects the multiple to fall significantly if the full earnout is paid. The company expects the acquisition to be accretive to adjusted earnings per share in the first year after completion.

Columbus, Ohio – October 31, 2026 -- Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE: VRT) launched SmartIT, a factory-validated AI infrastructure platform that combines rack, power, liquid cooling and monitoring in one pre-engineered design, and made it available globally from day one.

The platform targets enterprises, research institutions and colocation providers. It deploys in existing facilities and new data centers. Vertiv says it also covers commercial spaces and hyperscale environments, in each case without redesign.

SmartIT integrates five infrastructure layers before shipment

The solution combines rack infrastructure, DC power conversion and distribution, direct-to-chip liquid cooling, in-rack cooling distribution and monitoring. Vertiv validates these systems at the factory, which limits on-site commissioning to facility power and cooling connections. The design was previously deployed with NVIDIA to support the NVIDIA DGX GB300 system.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – October 31, 2026 -- Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE: VRT) has completed its acquisition of King Environmental Services Ltd. (KES), extending its thermal and fluid management services into Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Financial terms were not disclosed, and Vertiv does not expect the deal to be material to its financial results.

KES adds fluid management and load testing for liquid-cooled data centers

KES is a Europe-based provider of fluid management, commissioning and load-testing services for high-density, liquid-cooled data centers. Founded in 2002, it is headquartered near Dublin, Ireland, and serves EMEA customers from hubs in North Dublin and Frankfurt.

Its service scope covers design review and feasibility studies, pipework flushing, filtration and water treatment, testing, adjusting and balancing (TAB), data logging and thermography, and large-scale thermal and electrical load testing.