Monday Morning Impact – June 1
Gartner Forecasts Worldwide AI Spending to Grow 47% in 2026
Worldwide spending on AI is forecast to total $2.59 trillion in 2026, a 47% increase year-over-year, according to Gartner.
“Through the next several years, the need for capacity will make AI infrastructure, including AI-optimized IaaS, AI-optimized servers, AI network fabric, AI processing semiconductors and devices, the largest segment of the market, accounting for over 45% of spending, which will be driven by vendors,” said John-David Lovelock, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. “Within this segment, spending on AI-optimized servers will triple over the next five years to become the largest subsegment, as cloud services providers expand capacity in anticipation of the workloads created by GenAI models and agentic workflows.”
Gartner predicts that enterprises will expand their use of both the GenAI models embedded in existing software applications and the new AI agents within multiple workflows. Model consumption is anticipated to increase through multistep processes and integration into broad suites of tools as enterprises recognize the potential value of agentic automation. This dynamic means that the short-term outlook for AI models has been increased to 110% growth in 2026, adding $6 billion in spending for this year.
“Up to this point, AI spending has primarily been driven by technology companies and hyperscalers,” said Lovelock. “Enterprises have yet to really flex their spending potential. That is coming and 2026 will be the inflection year. Currently, organizations show limited appetite for using AI to drive disruptive enterprise change. Instead, they favor tactical AI initiatives with incremental improvements in efficiency and productivity.
“For this reason, CIOs face challenges in proving the value from AI investments and demonstrate tangible business outcomes,” added Lovelock. “Aligning AI initiatives with strategic business objectives is the essential step for success. This incremental approach persists despite AI hype and valuations that reflect aspirations to transform the broader economy.”
Gartner clients can read more in, “Forecast: AI Spending, Worldwide, 2025-2030, 1Q26.”
Channel Impact®
The $2.59 Trillion in AI spending has, thus far, been dominated by vendors and hyperscalers. Channel partners are well-positioned to help enterprises flex their spending potential.
TD SYNNEX Selected as a HPE Global Distribution Partner
TD SYNNEX has been selected by HPE as one of the vendor’s global distribution partners in a move that promises to support HPE’s move to a more unified worldwide distribution model that focuses on simplifying how partners engage with its portfolio.
“TD SYNNEX’s selection reflects our ability to scale successfully and expand growth opportunities for our partners in the channel,” said Sergio Farache, the distributor’s Chief Strategy and Technology Officer. “As HPE unifies its global distribution approach, our focus is on execution, bringing scale, operational consistency, and local market knowledge together to support the continued expansion of our relationship across additional geographies, while helping partners deeply understand HPE’s portfolio and better support their customers.”
Through this alignment, TD SYNNEX is expected to support partners across regions and broaden access to HPE’s portfolio, including networking, cloud, and AI opportunities. This approach supports more consistent engagement across routes to market and helps partners extend their practices as customer requirements continue to evolve.
The unified model includes various global capabilities such as logistics and partner services, professional and lifecycle services, digital enablement, role-based enablement, and go-to-market support delivered both globally and locally. The distributor also supports partners pursuing AI opportunities, providing resources to help partners build and grow their AI practices.
Channel Impact®
The alignment is expected to enable more consistent execution across regions, and continue to support strong regional and specialist distributors while also supporting the continued expansion of TD SYNNEX’s relationship with HPE across additional geographies with local expertise and flexibility.
Westcon-Comstor Launches White-label Security Operations Service for Partners
Westcon-Comstor, a global technology distributor specializing in cybersecurity, networking and hybrid cloud solutions, has launched “OneSOC,” a vendor-agnostic, white-label service that enables channel partners to deliver a Security Operations Center under their own brand, purportedly with zero upfront investment.
The global SOC market is forecast to grow from US $47 billion last year to US $104 billion in 2035, but partners face a high barrier to entry with respect to ongoing operating costs and scarce specialist skills, plus management of different tools, telemetry and workflows.
OneSOC is intended to remove these obstacles, helping partners quickly launch and scale a SOC across diverse customer requirements, backed by support teams supplied by the distributor.
Available across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), the program promises rapid, low-latency threat detection across IT, OT and cloud, with data sovereignty and storage flexibility, plus compliance-ready reporting for GDPR and NIS2.
“Security operations are becoming a core part of the customer conversation, and partners want to lead those discussions under their own brand,” said Martin Flensburg, Vice President Services Delivery and Go-to-Market for Westcon-Comstor’s European operation. “OneSOC allows them to do precisely that, giving them a white-label, full-service capability that’s low risk, ready to deploy quickly and designed for the modern reality of mixed customer environments.”
Channel Impact®
The program will be a key component of Westcon-Comstor’s new services go-to-market strategy, which will launch soon with a focus on adding greater value for partners and their customers through a simplified, enhanced services offering.
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