Data Centers In Dispute: Contract And Treaty Claims In The Global Build - Out

This client alert forms part of a series focusing on data centers. In two alerts from February and July 2026, we examined the rapidly evolving legal landscape surrounding data center development, focusing first on emerging state and local regulatory initiatives and then on the growing wave of nuisance, environmental, and land-use litigation targeting data center projects in the United States. In two further alerts from August 2026, we focused on two specific areas: behind-the-meter data center power generation and the growing use of data center moratoria. In an additional alert from September 2026, we examined evolving political and regulatory risks facing data center projects in Texas. This alert considers these issues from a wider perspective, by considering the likely growth of contractual or investment treaty claims in national or international fora arising from the global build-out of data centers. Data centers are being developed at an unprecedented pace to meet the continued expansion of cloud computing services and the rapidly growing demand for AI computing capacity. Major technology companies are playing an increasingly active role in these projects, working closely with contractors and suppliers to deliver new capacity at scale. Global investment in data centers more than doubled between 2022…