Worldwide IT Spending to Surge by Nearly 10% in 2025: Gartner

Global IT spending is forecasted to soar to $5.61 trillion in 2025, marking a significant 9.8% rise compared to 2024, according to Gartner’s latest projections. Indi is expected to outpace the global average, with IT expenditure predicted to grow by 11.1% and reach $161.51 billion during the same period. 

Rising Budgets Amid Escalating Costs
Although CIO budgets are increasing, much of the growth will be offset by surging costs.
“While budgets for CIOs are increasing, a significant portion will merely offset price increases within their recurrent spending,” said John-David Lovelock, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner. “This means that, in 2025, nominal spending versus real IT spending will be skewed, with price hikes absorbing some or all of budget growth. All paramount categories are reflecting higher-than-expected prices, prompting CIOs to defer and scale back their true budget expectations.”
Double-Digit Growth in Key Segments
Segments such as data center systems, devices, and software are set to witness double-digit growth in 2025. Generative AI (Gen AI) hardware upgrades will fuel much of this aggrandizement. However, these advances are unlikely to deliver transformative functionality. 

“GenAI is sliding toward the trough of disillusionment, which reflects CIOs’ declining expectations for GenAI but not their spending on this technology,” Lovelock explained. “For instance, the new AI-ready PCs do not yet have ‘must-have’ applications that fully utilize the hardware. While both consumers and enterprises will purchase AI-enabled PCs, tablets, and mobile phones, these purchases will not be heavily influenced by GenAI functionality.”

AI-Optimized Servers and Hyperscaler Investments
Spending on AI-optimized servers is expected to double that of traditional servers, reaching $202 billion in 2025. “IT services companies and hyperscalers account for over 70% of spending in 2025,” Lovelock added. “By 2028, hyperscalers will operate $1 trillion worth of AI-optimized servers, but not within their traditional business models or IaaS markets. Hyperscalers are pivoting to become part of the oligopoly AI model market.”

India’s IT Spending Landscape
In India, data center systems are projected to grow by 19.1% in 2025, nearly doubling its growth rate from the previous year. “Enterprises are investing in AI-ready infrastructure for targeted use cases,” said Naveen Mishra, VP Analyst at Gartner.

Software and IT services will drive the majority of India’s IT spending growth, with software investments expected to rise by 16.9% and IT services by 11.2%.
“While software spending is propelled by the price premium of GenAI-enabled solutions, IT services spending is fueled by enterprises’ need for cloudification, digitization, and consulting services,” Mishra added.