AI data center networking market seen topping $37 billion by 2030

The Business Research Company says the AI data center networking market is on track to grow at a 24% to 24.1% CAGR through 2030, driven by AI workloads, hyperscale buildouts and higher demand for low-latency infrastructure. North America, especially the U.S., is expected to lead growth as hardware remains the largest segment.

Why it matters: - AI data center networking is becoming a core layer of the AI infrastructure stack as model training, inference and high-performance computing push networks to move more data with less delay. - The market is forecast to exceed $37 billion by 2030, signaling strong demand for faster, more automated and more secure data center networks. - The segment sits inside a much larger AI-powered edge networking market projected at about $115 billion by 2030.

What happened: - The Business Research Company published its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Center Networking Global Market Report 2026 – Market Size, Trends, And Forecast 2026-2035. - The report says the AI data center networking market will grow at a 24.1% CAGR in one place and 24% in other forecast sections through 2030. - The report projects North America will be the largest regional market in 2030, at $14 billion. - The report projects the U.S. will be the top country in 2030, at $12 billion.

The details: - AI data center networking is expected to represent about 0.3% of the broader information technology market, which the report forecasts at $13,788 billion by 2030. - North America is expected to grow from $5 billion in 2025 to $14 billion in 2030. - The U.S. market is expected to grow from $4 billion in 2025 to $12 billion in 2030. - Hardware is projected to be the largest component segment, reaching 56% of the market and about $21 billion by 2030. - The report groups network types into ethernet, infiniband, fibre channel and others. - The report groups applications into training, inference, data storage and other uses. - End users include cloud service providers, enterprises, telecom operators and government agencies. - The hardware, software and services segments together are projected to generate more than $25 billion by 2030. - The report says hardware will add about $14 billion from 2025 to 2030, software about $7 billion and services about $4 billion. - NVIDIA Corporation held the largest share in 2025 at 6%. - The report lists Cisco Systems, Arista Networks, Broadcom, Huawei, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Juniper Networks, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Google, Dell, Nokia, Ericsson, Ciena, Marvell, Intel, Coherent, Lumentum, F5 Networks, Source Photonics, A10 Networks, Silicom, Achronix Semiconductor and Napatech among major players. - The top 10 players captured 36% of revenue in 2025, showing a moderately concentrated market.

Between the lines: - AI workloads and hyperscale data center expansion are the main growth engines behind the forecast. - The report also points to rising demand for GPU-intensive computing, low-latency architectures, advanced data center interconnects and scalable network management. - Security and automation are becoming more important as operators try to manage more complex AI traffic and reduce downtime. - Silicon photonics is emerging as a key technology trend because it can raise bandwidth while reducing energy use. - NVIDIA launched Spectrum-X Photonics and Quantum-X Photonics switches in March 2025, with up to 1.6 Tbps per port and lower laser dependency.

What's next: - The report expects continued investment in Ethernet, optical networking and AI-driven infrastructure optimization, especially in the U.S. and Canada. - Companies are likely to keep prioritizing bandwidth, latency, resiliency and automation as AI deployments scale. - Competition should remain intense as vendors build out hardware, software and services for large-scale AI training and inference.

The bottom line: - AI data center networking is moving from a niche infrastructure category to a fast-growing strategic market, with hardware, photonics and automated network management shaping the next phase of competition.