IDC Projects 2.7x Growth in OCP-Recognized Infrastructure Spending by 2029
Global spending on OCP-recognized IT infrastructure is projected to reach nearly $800 billion by 2029, a 2.7-fold increase from previous estimates, according to an IDC study commissioned by the Open Compute Project Foundation.
The Open Compute Project (OCP) Foundation has announced a revised forecast from IDC indicating a substantial surge in global spending on OCP-recognized IT infrastructure. The 2026 Market Impact Study projects annual expenditures to reach approximately $800 billion by 2029. This represents a nearly 2.7-fold increase compared to the previous year's forecast of $295 billion for the same year.
The updated projections extend to 2030, when spending is expected to hit $892 billion. By then, OCP-recognized IT infrastructure is anticipated to account for roughly 51% of all expenditures within the infrastructure categories covered by the study. The research, commissioned annually by the OCP Foundation, assesses the market impact of OCP-recognized hardware, reflecting both accelerated investment in AI infrastructure and broader adoption of OCP projects.
"AI is reshaping what the industry needs from infrastructure, and these results show the growing role of open projects in meeting that demand," said Cliff Grossner, Ph.D., Director of Innovation at OCP Foundation. He highlighted the community's collaborative efforts to address challenges across the entire data center, from silicon and servers to cooling and power systems.
IDC forecasts that spending on OCP-recognized IT infrastructure will grow from approximately $154 billion in 2025 to $892 billion in 2030, equating to a compound annual growth rate of about 42%. Servers are identified as the largest spending category, with a significant portion of growth driven by systems incorporating graphical accelerators. Spending on networking equipment, rack infrastructure, power supplies, and cooling is also expected to increase.
The study highlights that AI-related spending on OCP-recognized infrastructure is projected to reach about $628 billion in 2030, representing approximately 70% of the total forecast. IDC also points to a growing ecosystem of solution providers and the availability of open, shared projects as key drivers for adoption, extending beyond formal membership to broader implementation.