As the demand for data centers continues to accelerate with artificial intelligence and cloud services — there’s even more room for growth in 2026. According to Peter Fung, director of sales at Addison, typically data centers see about 20-25% growth year-over-year. And that’s not just due to AI and cloud services. Within the next five years, the data center market is predicted to double in growth, going from a $75 billion market to $145 billion one by the year 2030. For Addison specifically, in 2025 data centers accounted for about 10% of the company’s revenue, according to Ross Miglio, chief growth officer of Madison Air, parent company to Addison. In 2026, it’s budgeted to be more than 20%. Fung and Miglio also noted the importance of redundancy in mission critical applications. For contractors looking to break into the data center sector, Miglio said the biggest thing to remember is that data centers are really no different than any other critical cooling application like a hospital or nursing home, and what really makes a difference to contractors who are able to penetrate the market is their experience with critical cooling application as such. Additionally, the two discussed what skillsets and training contractors who want to succeed in the market should invest in, and what success for HVACR contractors looks like in this space. For more on opportunities data centers can present for contractors and how they can break into the market, watch our latest video.

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