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Scott Rattee

Scott Rattee

Senior Vice President and Sector Lead for Corporate Ratings at Morningstar DBRS; expert on telecommunications, credit analysis, and AI infrastructure.

Jul 22, 2026

3:11
How do you see that demand evolving and where do telecom operators fit within that broader investment cycle?
3:19
Yeah, what interests us is basically the projected growth in computing power that'll be required to support the growth in AI, but also cloud applications.
3:29
If we look at real estate investment company, JLL, for example, They're forecasting AI and cloud applications expected to drive growth in the global data center by about 100 gigawatts between 2025 and 2030 to about 200 gigawatts total.
3:50
So that forecast would imply roughly a doubling of the size of the current data center capacity.
3:56
over a five or a five-year compound annual growth rate of about 14%.
4:01
So when we're looking at facilities-based telecoms, they've got vast experiencing managing complex networks, the power inputs required, providing seamless connectivity, and these are all required to build an efficient network that can support that type of growth.
6:40
So just staying on the longer term trends, Scott, how do you see AI influencing the competitive and financial positioning of telco operators? Specifically, what characteristics would you say are likely to distinguish those companies that are able to successfully convert this opportunity into sustainable growth and credit strength?
7:03
So, Arthi, we think that the telecoms are becoming integrated into the delivery of the AI-based solutions.

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