Direct Attach Cable Market By Product Type (Passive DACs, Active DACs); By Form Factor/Data Rate (SFP+, QSFP+, QSFP28, QSFP-DD); By End Use (Data Centers, Telecommunications, Enterprise Networks, High-Performance Computing); By Geography, Segment Revenue Estimation, Forecast, 2025–2030.

Direct Attach Cable Market Repositions Around Rack-Level Bandwidth Economics in AI and Hyperscale Data Centers

The Global Direct Attach Cable (DAC) Market is projected to grow from USD 2.7 billion in 2024 to USD 4.1 billion by 2030, reflecting a CAGR of 6.9%, according to internal analysis by Strategic Market Research. This growth is directly linked to data-center deployment volumes, short-reach interconnect consumption, and rack-scale procurement cycles rather than technical upgrades. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global data-center electricity consumption is expected to rise from 485 TWh in 2025 to 945 TWh by 2030, representing a ~15% annual increase. This doubling of energy consumption reflects a proportional increase in physical rack-scale server, switch, and accelerator deployments, which in turn drives DAC procurement.

 

Passive DACs Lead Through Volume-Driven Procurement

Passive DACs account for 68% of 2024 revenue, approximately USD 1.84 billion, because their demand correlates directly with rack-level connectivity in hyperscale AI and HPC deployments. For example, NVIDIA’s GB200 NVL72 rack-scale design hosts 36 CPUs and 72 GPUs per rack, requiring hundreds of short-reach links per rack. This consumption translates directly into DAC purchases, as each intra-rack connection represents a tangible unit of production and procurement, demonstrating that passive DACs dominate where deployment volume is highest.

Active DACs represent 32% of 2024 revenue (USD 0.86 billion) and are growing in parallel with higher-density racks and slightly longer reach requirements. Their adoption scales with production of high-density GPU clusters and HPC racks, where slightly longer cable runs create incremental procurement volumes. The resulting revenue share is driven entirely by consumption density, port count expansion, and procurement frequency, illustrating demand-side economics.

 

QSFP-DD Gains Strategic Share as Ethernet Speeds and Rack Density Increase

Among form factors, QSFP-DD represents 18% of 2024 revenue (USD 0.49 billion). Demand is linked to 400G and 800G Ethernet migration, which in AI and hyperscale data centers correlates to the number of racks installed and ports provisioned. Ethernet Alliance 2025 Roadmap predicts adoption of 1.6T Ethernet by 2030, which directly multiplies short-reach DAC link deployment per rack. QSFP28 accounts for 34% (USD 0.92 billion), SFP+ 23% (USD 0.62 billion), and QSFP+ 25% (USD 0.68 billion), reflecting installed-base replacement cycles and incremental consumption driven by new rack installations. Every increase in rack density and Ethernet port deployment translates into measurable DAC procurement and revenue, not technical specification demand.

 

Data Centers Drive Consumption Volumes

Data centers account for 49% of 2024 revenue (USD 1.32 billion), and their consumption directly scales with rack and server production. The doubling of data-center electricity from 485 TWh to 945 TWh by 2030 (IEA) reflects not just energy use but physical infrastructure expansion, each rack generating dozens of DAC links. Hyperscale AI clusters, each with hundreds of GPU interconnects, require DACs for short-reach connections, demonstrating that every rack installation represents discrete cable consumption, which is the real driver of revenue.

High-Performance Computing (HPC) represents 12% of 2024 revenue (USD 0.32 billion), where short-reach connectivity needs are high per rack, and each HPC cluster added to production facilities drives multiple DAC units per installation. Revenue growth aligns with HPC deployment numbers rather than technical upgrades.

Telecommunications networks contribute 22% (USD 0.59 billion), with demand scaling according to switch and router deployments, measured in installed ports and connected links. Each network deployment directly creates DAC consumption units. Enterprise networks, at 17% (USD 0.46 billion), sustain revenue through refresh cycles, private cloud deployments, and rack expansions. Each new server rack or switch deployment generates quantifiable DAC consumption, aligning segment revenue with physical network expansion.

 

Regional Demand Driven by Data-Center Capacity, Power Consumption, and Infrastructure Investment

North America accounts for an estimated 38% of 2024 revenue, equal to USD 1.03 billion, because it has the strongest concentration of hyperscale and AI data-center capacity expansion. According to CBRE, North American data-center inventory grew 24.4% year over year in Q1 2024, adding 807.5 MW of supply across Northern Virginia, Chicago, Dallas, and Silicon Valley; Northern Virginia alone added 391.1 MW of new supply. This matters for DAC procurement because every new megawatt of data-center supply represents additional servers, switches, storage systems, and rack-level short-reach connections, making North America’s revenue leadership a function of physical infrastructure deployment rather than cable specifications.

Asia-Pacific represents an estimated 32% of 2024 revenue, or USD 0.86 billion, because the region combines fast data-center capacity growth with server, networking-equipment, and cable-assembly supply-chain depth. JLL projects Asia-Pacific data-center expansion to add 24 GW of capacity between 2025 and 2030, creating USD 286 billion in real estate value through colocation, hyperscale self-build, and on-premise development. India alone reached about 1,255 MW of data-center capacity between January and September 2024 and was projected by CBRE to expand to around 1,600 MW by the end of 2024, showing how regional consumption is converting into measurable rack, switch, and interconnect procurement.

Europe contributes an estimated 21% of 2024 revenue, or USD 0.57 billion, with demand shaped by tight colocation supply, enterprise outsourcing, and hyperscale expansion in core and secondary markets. CBRE’s Europe Data Centres Figures Q4 2024 reported 4,726 MW of European colocation supply and 470 MW of availability across the top 15 European markets, while JLL reported that the FLAP-D markets grew from 1.8 GW of live capacity in 2019 to 3.6 GW by 2025. These numbers show that Europe’s DAC demand is tied to installed and leased data-center capacity, where each new data hall requires populated switching, server, and storage interconnect infrastructure.

Latin America and the Middle East & Africa together account for an estimated 9% of 2024 revenue, or USD 0.24 billion, because these regions are moving from smaller enterprise-network demand toward cloud-region, colocation, and AI-ready infrastructure deployment. CBRE identifies Santiago as an emerging data-center hotspot, while Reuters, citing Savills, reported that EMEA live data-center capacity reached 11,400 MW in 2025 and that 91% of available capacity had been leased by Q3 2025, up from 87% in 2022. For DAC suppliers, the relevant commercial signal is not cable speed; it is leased capacity, live capacity, and new facility absorption, because those metrics indicate when operators must buy servers, switches, and short-reach interconnects.

 

Forecast Interpretation: Consumption Drives DAC Growth

The forecast from USD 2.7 billion in 2024 to USD 4.1 billion by 2030 reflects growth tied entirely to physical data-center and HPC deployment, AI rack density, and Ethernet port expansion. Passive DACs dominate in volume deployment because the highest density of short-reach links occurs inside and between racks, while QSFP-DD and active DACs capture incremental procurement where high-speed port density drives additional unit consumption. Regional and segment shares correspond directly to where infrastructure is physically deployed and consumed, confirming that revenue is production- and consumption-driven.

 

Report Coverage Table

Report Attribute	Details
Forecast Period	2025 – 2030
Market Size Value in 2025	USD 2.7 Billion
Revenue Forecast in 2030	USD 4.1 Billion
Overall Growth Rate	CAGR of 6.9% (2025 – 2030)
Base Year for Estimation	2024
Historical Data	2019 – 2023
Unit	USD Million, CAGR (2025 – 2030)
Segmentation	By Product Type, By Form Factor/Data Rate, By End Use, By Geography
By Product Type	Passive DACs, Active DACs
By Form Factor/Data Rate	SFP+, QSFP+, QSFP28, QSFP-DD
By End Use	Data Centers, Telecommunications, Enterprise Networks, HPC
By Region	North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East & Africa
Country Scope	U.S., Germany, China, India, Japan, Brazil, UAE, etc.
Market Drivers	– Growing demand for high-speed, short-reach interconnects in data centers – Expansion of AI and HPC infrastructure requiring low-latency connectivity – Rising adoption of open networking and multi-vendor architectures
Customization Option	Available upon request