OCP Adoption
Market Studies Show OCP Community Impact Is Accelerating!
Successive studies show current and projected spend on OCP-recognized equipment is accelerating, and expected to hit $73.5 billion by 2028
San Jose, CA - January 8, 2024 - The Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP), a collaborative community focused on bringing hyperscale innovations to everyone, 
working with IDC, an independent market intelligence firm, found that the purchases of OCP-recognized equipment are projected to exceed $73.5 billion by 2028. A previous 2022-era study, with independent research company Omdia, projected market impact in 2026 would be $36 billion. The 2024 study’s projection has grown to reach $56 billion in 2026, showing a rapid acceleration in the market impact of OCP in the span of two years between the intervening reports.
The growth of OCP adoption would not surprise the attendees at the OCP Global Summit this year, where attendance at the packed San Jose Convention Center surpassed 7000, achieving over 60% year-over-year growth. In the Summit’s special-focus track titled, “OCP Market Impact & Supply Chain,” IDC Senior Research Director Chris Drake presented the details of their OCP market impact study (video, slides). In discussing the findings, Drake noted the belief among research respondents is that an open-source approach is essential to unlock the opportunities offered by today’s investment in AI.
“As the OCP receives more contributions and OCP Marketplace listings for new technologies that support AI clusters, like chiplets, accelerated compute, liquid cooling, as well as server and rack designs that integrate these with higher power delivery and faster interconnect, such AI tailwinds are likely to continue to accelerate market impact projections,” said James Kelly, VP Market Intelligence and Innovation for the OCP. This year the OCP Open Systems for AI strategic initiative, that spans across OCP Projects, has picked up steam, facilitating the contributions that made news with Meta and NVIDIA at the OCP Global Summit. Since then, NVIDIA’s GB200 rack-scale system has been listed on to the OCP Marketplace as has the 51.2Tbps Cisco switch used in Meta’s AI cluster fabric.
Within the projected 2028 market impact, product adoption is anchored by server sales which IDC noted has a 35.7% CAGR over the period, but cooling and peripherals were the fastest growing segments at 46% and 51% CAGR respectively. The forecasted regional breakdown for the 2028 product adoption is 49% in the Americas, 23% in China, 15% in EMEA, and 12% in the rest of APAC.
The OCP Community’s virtuous cycle explains this growth and acceleration. As the number of engineers participating in OCP Community continues to grow, so do the array of OCP Projects and their groups’ open contributions such as specifications, designs, and more that meet today’s toughest challenges in the data center. It’s then the downstream effect of those contributions adopted by multiple vendors that drive choice and impact to the end buyer and user in hyperscalers and enterprises alike. The OCP Solution Provider Program recognizes the application of open contributions in compliant products, solutions, and data center facilities and services with designations like OCP Inspired™, OCP Accepted™ and OCP Ready™. It’s the adoption of those recognized products and solutions that are the fruit of OCP Community, which finds itself in a very healthy state going into 2025.
About Open Compute Project Foundation
The Open Compute Project (OCP) brings at-scale innovations and hyperscaler best practices to all, spanning technology domains from the data center to the edge, and the technology stack from silicon, to systems, to site facilities and services. The global OCP Community is made up of organizations and people from hyperscale and tier-2 cloud data center operators, communications providers, colocation providers, diverse enterprises, and technology vendors. With the tenets of openness, impact, efficiency, scale and sustainability, the OCP engages and educates thousands of engineers every year. Across many projects and initiatives the OCP Foundation and Community are meeting the market today and shaping the future.
OCP Accepted and OCP Inspired
OCP Accepted™ - A product can be recognized as OCP Accepted™ if it complies with an approved OCP specification AND design files have been contributed (Design Package Guidelines).
OCP Inspired™ - A product can be recognized as OCP Inspired™ if it complies with an approved OCP specification or other types of contribution; HOWEVER, no design files have been contributed.
OCP Accepted™ or OCP Inspired™ products have been demonstrated and meet 4 or more of the OCP tenets-efficiency, openness, impact, scale and efficiency.
All levels of OCP membership are eligible for OCP Accepted™ and OCP Inspired™ recognition.
OCP Ready
The OCP Facility Recognition program is intended to brand your facilities to be OCP Ready. Guidelines were created by our Data Center Facility Project Team and serve as a reference for data center operators and tenants who want to understand the fundamental facility requirements to deploy this gear into their IT space. Facilities that meet these guidelines and approved by the OCP DC Facilities Project receive the certification as an OCP Ready facility.