The report below gives a good overview of the Summer 2026 M&A activity in the Technology, Media and Telecom Industry Sector. Global IT spending is forecast to reach $6.31 trillion in 2026, up 13.5% year-over-year, with data-center systems spending up 55.8% as the fastest-growing category. AI infrastructure investment kept accelerating across the technology sector in the second quarter of 2026, even as its sustainability drew closer scrutiny. Worldwide semiconductor revenue is projected to exceed $1.3 trillion in 2026, up 64%, with AI chips accounting for approximately 30% of that total and driving the bulk of the increase. Cloud infrastructure revenue reached $128.6 billion in the first quarter, an annual run rate above $500 billion, with growth accelerating to 35% year-over-year on continued hyperscaler capacity build-out, the ninth consecutive quarter of rising growth and the strongest pace since late 2021. The five largest Western hyperscalers remain on track for a combined $725 billion in 2026 AI capital expenditure, up 77% from 2025, as they continue expanding capacity to meet AI compute demand. That spending is drawing closer scrutiny from analysts and researchers over its sustainability. Sequoia Capital estimates an approximately $600 billion annual gap between hyperscaler infrastructure investment and the revenue the AI ecosystem is generating. Allianz Research measures a 46% divergence between AI capital expenditure and revenue, exceeding the 32% divergence seen ahead of the 2001 telecom capital-spending bust. The Council of the European Union gave final approval to the "Digital Omnibus on AI" on June 29, deferring high-risk compliance obligations under the AI Act to December 2027 and August 2028. Separately, the US Commerce Department clarified in June that AI-chip export licensing requirements extend to overseas subsidiaries of Chinese-headquartered firms. Continued growth in semiconductor revenue, cloud infrastructure, and hyperscaler capital expenditure is on track to position the technology sector for sustained AI infrastructure buildout through the remainder of 2026. Software Publishing revenue in the US is projected to reach $583.9 billion in 2026, a 4.2% compound annual growth rate since 2021. The global IT services market, which includes technology consulting, is projected to reach $1.57 trillion in 2026. Data processing and hosting services are projected to reach $131 billion in 2026. Global spending on enterprise devices is projected to reach $836 billion in 2026, though market-demand constraints are expected to slow growth to 6.1% for the year.
Posted by Dan Vermeire.
Read the Entire Summer 2026 Technology, Media and Telecom Report Here