External IT spending is expected to approach $5 trillion for the first time, according to the findings of HG Insights’ IT Spend Report: The Ultimate 2025 B2B Market Forecast.
Companies have been prioritizing investments in IT in recent years to ride out increasingly challenging market conditions. Despite intensifying global economic volatility, unrest, and fluctuating trade restrictions, IT solutions spending continues its trend of year-over-year growth.
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. In comparison, Gartner forecasted global IT spend will reach $5.6 trillion in 2025 that includes consumer spending; HG Insights factors in enterprise-only spend.
B2B Opportunities
This report uncovers substantial opportunities in the B2B IT market for 2025, said Rohini Kasturi, CEO of HG Insights.
“Strategic decisions are the most important considerations facing any business,” said Kasturi in a statement. “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.”
Key Takeaways
HG Insights’ third annual report 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.
High-level takeaways from 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.
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. Global IT spend by category include $2.1 trillion Services, $1.5 trillion Software, $757.1 billion Hardware, and $470.7 billion Communications
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. 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.
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.
Access all of the data, trends, analysis, and insights by reading the full IT Spend Report.
