Demand for agentic AI applications is expected to explode in 2026, with various enterprises accelerating the adoption of tools such as Claude Code, CoWork, and Codex. This will drive large cloud service providers (CSPs) and leading AI model companies to accelerate their investment in computational power related to generative AI.
As the use of CPUs in agentic AI operations increases significantly, companies will begin to increase their purchases of CPU servers. This demand is expected to drive global server shipments to grow by 19.2% in 2026, approaching the 20 million unit mark. The shipment growth of Taiwanese makers will be slightly lower than the overall performance of global server shipments, mainly because the penetration rate of Chinese OEMs into Chinese CSPs and brand companies is still increasing.
The proportion of cloud data center shipments surged to 57% in 2025, up from 49% in 2024. This was primarily driven by large CSPs significantly increasing their deployment of AI and general-purpose server computing power, fueled by early-stage demand for generative AI-based reasoning and agentic AI.
