Tracking Market Conditions

Advisory: AI Capex Will Flood Servers and Tighten Laptop Supply: What ITAD CEOs Must Do in 2026

The latest forecast pegs 2026 IT spending at $6.15 trillion and quietly rewires the economics of end‑of‑life hardware. This analysis breaks down how AI‑driven data center capex, a slowing PC refresh cycle, and rising memory costs will reshape server resale, intake volumes, and critical material recovery, and what ITAD and recycling leaders need to change […] Continue reading below.

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Author: David Daoud | Principal Analyst

David Daoud has researched the mainstream IT hardware market since 1996 and expanded into hardware disposition research in 2003. He has spearheaded the creation of IDC’s GRADE certification. Since then, David has been providing consulting and expert advice to companies looking to establish best practice in their IT equipment decommissioning and helped leading ITAD service providers assess demand, understand competition, and forecast what’s to come. David is currently the Principal Analyst at Compliance Standards, which focuses entirely on the end-of-life of IT equipment. He can be reached at 754-229-0095 or at ddaoud@compliance-standards.com

MORE ANALYSES:

Client Brief: Iron Mountain Q4 2025 – Growth Analysis, Execution Risks, and Industry Benchmarks

Feb 13, 2026

Iron Mountain reported exceptional Q4 2025 results for its Asset Lifecycle Management business, with 70% total revenue growth, 56% organic growth, and guidance projecting $850 million in 2026 ALM revenue. The company added 90 Fortune 1000 customers year-over-year and...

Brief: How Return‑to‑Office Mandates Are Disrupting Hardware Lifecycles

Feb 12, 2026

Return-to-office mandates represent a delayed but material disruption to enterprise IT asset lifecycles. The shift is driven by workforce policy rather than technology change and is unfolding unevenly across sectors. New data shows that RTO pressure coincides with...

Industry Alert: Brace For a Printer Surge as Microsoft Ends Legacy Driver Support this Year

Feb 9, 2026

Just as the end of Windows 10 support triggered an unusually high PC refresh cycle, Microsoft's decision to end legacy printer driver support in Windows 11 will force enterprises to retire functional hardware and create predictable volume surges for ITAD providers...

Management: From Legacy Drag to Competitive Lift: How ITADs Could Help Clients Cut Technical Debt

Feb 6, 2026

Technical debt has moved from a back‑office IT issue to a board‑level business problem, as legacy systems now drive customer churn, block AI programs, and consume a growing share of tech budgets. This report shows ITAD providers how to turn that pressure into revenue by positioning decommissioning as a modernization enabler rather than an end‑of‑life afterthought, mapping sector‑specific refresh waves in banking, telecom, retail, logistics, and more into concrete decommissioning pipelines. It also includes an executive snapshot quantifying the client upside (run‑rate savings, outage reduction, AI acceleration, ESG gains) and a detailed go‑to‑market guide that helps ITADs frame technical debt in business terms, win a seat at the refresh table, and productize offers like technical‑debt assessments, modernization‑linked playbooks, and AI‑readiness exit plans.

Advisory Note: Tariffs, Supply Security, and Enterprise Caution Set the Operating Context for ITAD and Secondary Materials Recovery in 2026

Jan 22, 2026

Recent policy signals from the U.S. administration indicate a period of heightened tension, driven by trade uncertainty, industrial policy intervention, and geopolitical leverage affecting technology, materials, and cross-border supply chains. This posture has become...

The Sage Client Survey: Secondary Market Dynamics and ITAM Strategy Shifts: 2026 Outlook

Jan 22, 2026

Sage Sustainable Electronics' 2026 benchmarking report reveals a secondary IT market in transition, driven by artificial intelligence infrastructure demand and constrained semiconductor supply chains. Server resale values have reached historic highs—approximately 2.5...

Takeways: Mitsubishi Materials investment in Elemental’s US e-scrap platform

Jan 8, 2026

Recent announcements indicate that Mitsubishi Materials has agreed to acquire a significant minority stake in Elemental Group’s US e-waste platform, which operates through Colt Recycling. The transaction reflects a broader trend in which large metals and materials groups are seeking closer integration with upstream electronics recycling and pre-processing operations as part of their circular-economy strategies. A more detailed assessment of the strategic implications, execution risks, and what this transaction signals for the evolving relationship between IT asset disposition and metals recovery is available to subscribers.

Part 1: 2025 in Retrospect: Redefined ‘Serious’ ITAD

Jan 7, 2026

2025 marked a transition point for IT Asset Disposition and electronics recycling. Multiple forces that had been building over several years converged within a single operating cycle, changing not only volumes and asset flows, but the fundamental expectations placed on ITAD providers.

Part 2: 2026 Predictions for ITAD and Electronics Recycling: Differentiation, Indigestion, and the End of Commodity Assumptions

Dec 22, 2025

As the ITAD and electronics recycling sectors move into 2026, the outlook is about how structural change will be uneven and how its consequences will be absorbed. In continuation with 2025, elevated asset volumes continue to move through the system, yet the conditions...

Employment Softness in Tech May Be Leading Indicator of Asset Disposition Activity

Dec 19, 2025

The latest U.S. labor data provides useful context for how enterprise technology environments are evolving, with some downstream implications for IT asset disposition and electronic recycling. In November, the U.S. economy added 64,000 jobs. Total employment reached...

Where to Invest in Future Decommissioning Corridors: The Geographic and Utility Forces Reshaping U.S. Data Centers

Dec 2, 2025

The U.S. data center landscape is shifting from a historically concentrated model anchored in Northern Virginia toward a multi-regional grid of hyperscale, AI-compute, and colocation campuses extending across the Midwest, Southeast, Southwest, and Mountain West. This...

Dell Q3 FY2026: Strong AI Infrastructure, Long Tail For End‑Of‑Life IT Assets

Dec 2, 2025

Dell’s Q3 FY2026 earnings call offers a very clear, financially grounded story for end‑of‑life IT asset management providers and remarketing companies, but it is also a highly curated narrative focused on AI‑led growth and margin resilience. Dell positions itself as...

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