April 20 – 23 in Washington D.C., Convening the Leaders Powering the AI Economy
WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#DataCenterWorld—Data Center World today announced its keynote presentations, featuring top executives, engineers and global industry leaders from Google, NVIDIA and Oracle, among others, to address the most urgent challenges facing the industry: scaling AI infrastructure, securing power and rethinking how data centers are designed, built and operated in the age of AI.
“Data Center World’s 2026 keynote program reflects the unprecedented transformation happening across the industry,” said Tara Gibb, Senior Director, Data Center World. “Together, the companies and leaders on our stage will actively solve how to move beyond the current challenges and offer attendees an inside look at how the next generation of infrastructure is being deployed.”
The keynote sessions taking place over April 20-23, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., will strategically address key developments across data center infrastructure including AI, energy, investment and hyperscaling.
Monday, April 20
The conference opens with “Investing at AI Scale: How Switch is Building Infrastructure that Lowers Costs and Leads the Market,” delivered by Madonna Park, Chief Financial Officer at Switch. Park will examine how artificial intelligence is fueling one of the largest infrastructure investment cycles in history, with global data center power demand projected to exceed 200 gigawatts by 2030. Her session will outline how Switch is leveraging disciplined capital allocation, large-scale campus development and strategic energy partnerships to lead the market while supporting sustainable growth and cost efficiencies.
Tuesday, April 21
Tuesday is anchored by “AI Factories: The Physical Engines Driving AI” presented by Scott Armul, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Vertiv. Armul will introduce a practical framework for treating AI facilities as integrated physical systems, where power, thermal and control layers operate as a unified architecture. Addressing challenges such as extreme rack densities, rapid deployment timelines and campus-scale expansion, the session will highlight how converged infrastructure and repeatable building blocks can improve efficiency, reliability and time-to-capacity for AI deployments.
Wednesday, April 22
The keynotes continue on Wednesday with a full slate including “Innovation at Hyperscale: Building the AI Factories Powering the Next Decade of Digital Infrastructure,” which brings together leading engineering voices from across the hyperscale ecosystem. Speakers include Ram Nagappan, Vice President of AI Infrastructure at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure; Sean James, Distinguished Engineer – Energy Systems at NVIDIA; and Varun Sakalkar, Distinguished Engineer at Google Datacenters, with moderation by Bill Kleyman, Data Center World Chair.
This session will explore how AI is transforming data centers into high-performance compute factories, addressing critical topics such as power constraints, GPU-dense environments, advanced cooling strategies and modular deployment models. Attendees will gain practical insights into how hyperscalers are designing and scaling infrastructure to meet unprecedented AI-driven demand.
Also on Wednesday, “Powering the Megawatt Era: Why 800VDC Is the Future of Data Center Energy” will be presented by Jim Simonelli, CTO and SVP of the Secure Power Division at Schneider Electric. Simonelli will examine how high-voltage direct current (HVDC) architectures are enabling the transition to megawatt-scale racks, improving efficiency while reducing energy loss and infrastructure complexity. The session will also cover design considerations and best practices for implementing next-generation power systems in AI-driven environments.
Thursday, April 23
The show’s final day includes a keynote session featuring, “From Commercial to Industrial: Scaling AI Data Centers with Integrated Energy and Cooling Systems” will be delivered by Shinichiro Gomi, Senior General Manager at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.. Gomi will present a system-level approach to scaling AI infrastructure, emphasizing the transition from traditional commercial designs to industrial-grade facilities. The session will highlight integrated strategies for hybrid power generation, advanced cooling systems and plant-level optimization to support resilient, decarbonized and scalable data center operations.
With a focus on real-world implementation and forward-looking strategy, Data Center World 2026’s keynote program underscores the industry’s rapid shift toward AI-driven infrastructure, offering attendees the insights needed to lead in a high-growth, high-demand environment.
To register for passes to the show, visit www.datacenterworld.com. Interested media can register for a press pass here.
Additionally, Data Center World Power (Dallas, September 21-23) and Data Center World Europe (Vienna, October 13-14) speaker submissions are now open. Submit your proposal here. The deadline to apply is March 27.
ABOUT DATA CENTER WORLD
Data Center World is the leading global conference for data-center facilities and IT professionals, delivering premier education, expansive networking, and the widest access to best-in-class vendors. For more than 40 years, the event has helped data center and IT infrastructure leaders navigate an increasingly complex and AI-driven landscape. The event provides top-quality, vendor-neutral insights that empower professionals to solve real-world challenges. CIO Dive named Data Center World one of the top technology conferences to attend in 2024 for the second consecutive year. Additionally, for the third year in a row, Data Center World has been recognized by Trade Show Executive as a fast-growing trade show. Data Center World 2026 will be held April 20–23 in Washington, D.C., uniting thousands of senior practitioners and hundreds of solution providers to explore the future of AI-ready infrastructure, sustainable power, edge and hyperscale innovation, and next-generation facilities.
Data Center World continues to expand its global footprint. To access the Data Center World Global Event series, visit Data Center World’s Global Events.
Data Center World is produced by Informa PLC in partnership with AFCOM.
ABOUT AFCOM
AFCOM advances data center and IT professionals by delivering comprehensive and vendor-neutral education and peer-to-peer networking to its members around the world. Through forward-looking research, AFCOM supports thousands of IT, operations, facilities, builders/designers and vendors working in the data center and IT infrastructure industry. In serving the data center industry for more than 40 years, AFCOM has earned recognition as the market leader in educating, connecting and guiding the data center community.
Contacts
Media Contact: Suzanne Matulay, Society32 for Data Center World, [email protected]
