Backblaze has released its Q1 2026 Network Stats report, the second in its quarterly series. This latest edition introduces more detailed geographic heatmaps, providing deeper insight into where AI-driven traffic is most concentrated.
The Q1 2026 data shows that United States neocloud activity is heavily concentrated in California and the Ashburn-Reston corridor in Virginia. Global hotspots are also emerging in Finland, Brazil, France, and Canada.
At the same time, Backblaze observed a dip in neocloud activity over the winter months, followed by a rebound in March, even as baseline network activity has meaningfully increased.
“The data tells a clear story: AI is reshaping global infrastructure investment,” said Gleb Budman, CEO, Backblaze. “GPU clusters are concentrating not only in traditional high-intensity regions such as Northern Virginia and California, but also in Finland, Brazil, and beyond. Backblaze’s high-performance cloud storage is enabling these new AI workflows to succeed globally.”
Key findings from the Q1 2026 Network Stats Report include:
- More granular geographic heatmaps reveal where AI traffic concentrates. New heatmaps show neocloud activity clustered in California and Northern Virginia, with additional global concentrations in Finland, Brazil, France, and Canada. CDN traffic remains more distributed, with the Netherlands leading due to connectivity through AMS-IX.
- CDN and ISP traffic held steady as neocloud volumes showed high variability. As neocloud and hyperscaler traffic decreased over the winter, CDN and ISP regional traffic maintained their usual patterns, and their share of total traffic increased. CDN traffic rose from approximately 20% to 32% of total network traffic, and ISP regional from 21.5% to 27.8%. Meanwhile, neocloud and hyperscaler combined fell from 36.4% in Q4 2025 to 25.5% in Q1 2026.
- Neocloud magnitude remains high despite lower total volume. Even during an observed period of lower traffic in the winter, neocloud transfers maintained high magnitude, measured as bits transferred per unique IP address. AI workloads involve a small number of GPU clusters moving massive datasets in intense bursts, and fewer jobs running over the winter didn’t change that underlying behavior—when they ran, they ran hard.
- Network baseline continues to rise. Even as short-term neocloud traffic fluctuated, overall network baseline increased quarter-over-quarter, suggesting that AI is driving sustained infrastructure demand alongside the burst activity.
“AI infrastructure requires a fundamental shift from planning for averages to engineering for extremes,” said Dan Spraggins, SVP of Engineering, Backblaze. “We’ve optimized our stack to handle the high-intensity burst patterns of GPU clusters, ensuring that massive-scale data movement remains fluid regardless of the workload’s volatility.”
Availability
The full report, including detailed geographic heatmaps, magnitude analysis, and traffic flow data, is available on the Backblaze blog: Network Stats for Q1 2026: Neocloud Traffic Trends.
Backblaze will also host a live webinar on Monday, May 4, 2026, at 11:30 a.m. PT to walk through the findings and discuss what they signal for AI infrastructure planning. Register here.
Related News:
Microsegmentation Report: Omdia Finds 90% Falling Behind Despite Strong Demand
