The global boom in AI and data centers will not benefit everyone equally. Most of the gains are likely to go to the United States and China, while Europe and other regions risk playing a secondary role, considers Munir Hassan, Partner and Head of the Energy & Climate Change Group at CMS.

“When it comes to the data center revolution, I think we’re all going to be losers. The only winners are going to be the US and China,” Hassan said, at the “International Approach London” conference, organized by Energynomics in London.

Around 90% of global investment in data centers is expected to flow to the US and China, according to Munir Hassan. That leaves the rest of the world competing for a relatively small share of the market. He noted that nearly all US GDP growth in 2025 has been attributed to investment in information systems, especially data centers. The European Union may capture roughly 10% of the overall investment picture, but it remains far behind the two dominant players. While many governments focus on energy supply, grid capacity and planning reforms, Hassan believes the real bottleneck is access to advanced chips.

“The biggest constraint right now is chips. And to get chips, you have to do deals, and you have to do deals with America,” he said.

In his view, the capital needed to build large AI data centers can, in any meaningful way, come mainly from the US. As a result, decisions about where new facilities are built may depend heavily on US geopolitical priorities and where American investors are encouraged to deploy funds. He pointed to recent large-scale agreements involving Middle Eastern countries investing heavily in the US in exchange for access to advanced semiconductors. These examples show how closely technology investment is tied to politics.

Hassan also questioned the scale of expected productivity gains from AI. Some forecasts suggest the improvements may be relatively small, yet companies continue to invest aggressively and the reason is fear of being left behind. Many organizations are investing heavily in AI not because returns are guaranteed, but because they do not want to miss out if the technology produces a dominant global winner.

“There’s a winner-takes-all mentality. Most will lose, but someone will win big and nobody wants to be out of the game,” Hassan said.

The conference “International Approach London” was organized by Energynomics, with the support of the Embassy of Romania to the UK and the British Embassy in Romania, together with our partners: AJ BRAND, Electrica, Monsson, MyEnerji, Nofar Energy, Waldevar.