Over the next 12 months, 16 million businesses will spend $4.8 trillion on IT software, services, hardware, and communications
SANTA BARBARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–HG Insights, the provider of AI-powered, go-to-market insights to 90% of Fortune 500 tech companies, today announced the release of its latest IT Spend Report: The Ultimate 2025 B2B Market Forecast. Among an array of revealing findings, the report projects that external IT spending is expected to approach $5 trillion for the first time.
Companies have begun protecting their IT budgets in recent years, prioritizing investments in IT to ride out increasingly challenging market conditions. Despite intensifying global economic volatility, unrest, and fluctuating trade restrictions, IT solutions spending continues its trend of YoY growth.
HG Insights’ third annual report takes a bird’s-eye view of the IT industry and highlights how the effects of trends like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and increased data center demand impact the four IT categories of Software, Hardware, Services, and Communications. It also offers insight into their respective spending forecasts, subcategories, and regional variations.
High-level takeaways from each section of the report include:
- $1.5 trillion in Global Software spend is projected over the next 12 months, with the subcategories of ERP Applications, Industry-Specific Applications, Security and Operations Management experiencing significant investment.
- $2.1 trillion in global spend in IT Services is expected, with notable growth in subcategories like Cloud Services, Application-Led Outsourcing, and IT Consulting.
- $757 billion is projected in the IT Hardware market, with Client Computing, Server Computing, and Network Infrastructure as the largest categories.
- $470 billion in IT Communications spend is expected, primarily driven by Mobile Services and Fixed Data.
Total IT Spend Forecast
HG Insights has identified 16 million businesses spending money on IT, with a total value projected to be $4.8 trillion from July, 2025 to July, 2026. Gartner forecasts that global IT spend will reach $5.6 trillion in 2025, however, that value includes consumer spending while HG Insights factors in enterprise-only spend.
Total external IT spend by region:
- $2.05 trillion in AMER spend (North, Central, and South America)
- $1.59 trillion in APAC spend (Asia-Pacific)
- $1.17 trillion in EMEA spend (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa)
IT spending is projected to eclipse the $1 trillion mark over the next 12 months for the first time since HG Insights began issuing market reports. The AMER total is also notable, as it’s the first region to ever exceed $2 trillion in projected annual spend.
Global IT spend by category:
- Services: $2.12 trillion
- Software: $1.48 trillion
- Hardware: $757.1 billion
- Communications: $470.7 billion
IT Software Spend Forecast
Software is the fastest-growing category in this report, with $1.5 trillion in projected total global software spend, according to HG Insights’ data.
Software is broken down into three categories and their subcategories.
- Application Development & Deployment: $234 billion
- Enterprise Applications: $800 billion
- Software Infrastructure: $446 billion
IT Services Spend Forecast
Global spending on IT services will reach $2.1 trillion in 2025, HG data projects. Accounting for 43.9% of all forecasted external IT spend, IT services is the largest of the four IT categories covered in this report.
IT services subcategories include:
- Cloud Services: $769 billion
- Application-Led Outsourcing: $249 billion
- Infrastructure-Led Outsourcing: $233 billion
- Consulting & System Integration: $225 billion
- End User Services: $172 billion
- Network Services: $159 billion
- Business Process Outsourcing: $142 billion
- Internet of Things: $85 billion
- Digital Enterprise: $83 billion
IT Hardware Spend Forecast
According to HG data, global spending on IT Hardware is expected to reach $757.1 billion in 2025. Similar to the other categories, the AMER region projects to spend the most on hardware, comprising 42.7% of the total.
When breaking down the global IT hardware spend by category and largest subcategories, the projected totals are:
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Client Computing: $313 billion
- Computing Devices: $179.0 billion
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Network Infrastructure: $149 billion
- Customer Premise Equipment: $134.0 billion
- Security: $42 billion
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Server Computing: $176 billion
- High-End Servers: $92.6 billion
- Mid-Range Servers: $83.8 billion
- Storage: $76 billion
IT Communication Spend Forecast
The smallest of the four IT categories, Communications, still projects to reach over $470.7 billion in global spend in 2025. The Mobile Services and Fixed Data subcategories make up the majority of spending on IT Communications (83.4%), with $221.7 billion and $171.0 billion, respectively.
“Strategic decisions are the most important considerations facing any business,” said Rohini Kasturi, CEO of HG Insights. “This report uncovers substantial opportunities in the B2B IT market for 2025. To gain a competitive advantage, companies must remain agile, anticipating and adapting to new regulations, economic policies, and shifts in public sentiment to navigate these changes effectively. For the third year in a row, the IT Spend Report: The Ultimate B2B Market Forecast is here to help you do just that.”
Read the Complete Report
Access all of the data, trends, analysis, and insights by reading the full IT Spend Report.
About HG Insights
HG Insights provides Revenue Growth Intelligence (RGI) solutions that enable organizations to modernize GTM decisioning and execution. Our RGI Fabric delivers a unified, comprehensive and open data repository that continuously correlates diverse technology usage, spend, location, buying center, competition, maturity and intent sources. Advanced AI-powered analytics and Co-Pilots empower marketing, RevOps, and sales teams to surface market opportunity insights with deep account-level details required to orchestrate high-propensity actions. Trusted by 90% of Fortune 500 tech companies and all major hyperscalers, our customers achieve scalable revenue growth, improved customer retention, and increased operational efficiency. Learn how by visiting www.hginsights.com.
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