Microsoft pulls back from more data centre leases in US and Europe: analysts

[BENGALURU] Microsoft has abandoned data centre projects set to use two gigawatts of electricity in the US and Europe in the last six months due to an oversupply relative to its current demand forecast, TD Cowen analysts said on Wednesday (Mar 26).

The tech giant’s withdrawal from new capacity leasing was largely led by the decision not to support additional training workloads from ChatGPT maker OpenAI, the analysts led by Michael Elias said.

Investor scepticism about the hefty artificial intelligence (AI) spending by US tech firms has increased due to slow payoffs and the rise of Chinese startup DeepSeek, which showcased AI technology at a much lower cost than its Western rivals.

TD Cowen’s supply chain checks indicate that Microsoft’s pullback has led to Alphabet’s Google stepping in to backfill the capacity in international markets, while Meta Platforms does the same in the US.

Microsoft, whose shares were down more than 1 per cent on Wednesday, said, while it may “strategically pace or adjust our infrastructure in some areas, we will continue to grow strongly in all regions”.

It added that its plans to spend US$80 billion on AI infrastructure this fiscal year are on track.

The TD Cowen analysts said in February that Microsoft had scrapped leases totalling “a couple of hundred megawatts” of capacity with at least two private data centre operators.

AI cloud startup CoreWeave, which provides access to data centres, earlier this month said it had not seen any contract cancellations after the Financial Times reported that Microsoft, its largest customer, had moved away from some agreements.

Microsoft and Meta executives defended their massive AI spending after the DeepSeek reveal in January, saying it was crucial to staying competitive in the new field.

Alphabet has said it will spend US$75 billion on its AI buildout this year, 29 per cent more than Wall Street expected, while Meta has pledged as much as US$65 billion. REUTERS