Overview
- Bitkom's 2026 forecast, published July 7, projects the German information and telecommunications market will grow 4.1 percent to €246.4 billion this year.
- Software and cloud lead gains with software revenue expected to rise 9.9 percent to €58.1 billion and cloud‑software sales to reach about €42.5 billion, up 21.9 percent.
- Revenues from AI platforms are set to jump about 75.8 percent to €3.1 billion, making AI the fastest‑growing segment on a still‑small base.
- Hardware shows only modest growth of 3.3 percent driven mainly by higher component prices for RAM and chips, while telecommunications revenue is forecast to rise 1.4 percent and infrastructure investment to increase by 4.2 percent to €8.3 billion.
- Bitkom warns the world market is growing much faster — global ITK is expected to expand 8.5 percent with the U.S. holding roughly 41 percent of the market — and says Germany needs faster network expansion and targeted funding to avoid losing ground and investment.