VMware by Broadcom’s Private Cloud Outlook 2026 examines how artificial intelligence is reshaping enterprise cloud strategy as organizations move from experimentation to production. Based on a global survey of 1,800 senior IT decision-makers, the report finds that private cloud is becoming the preferred environment for production AI because it offers stronger cost predictability, data control, governance, security, and performance.
Fifty-six percent of surveyed organizations run or plan to run AI inference in private clouds, while public-cloud use for inference has fallen significantly. Half of enterprises have already moved some workloads from public to private cloud, particularly security-sensitive, data-intensive, business-critical, and AI workloads. Rising public-cloud costs, geopolitical uncertainty, data-sovereignty rules, and regulatory requirements are major drivers of this shift. Organizations also face widening skills gaps in AI infrastructure, cloud security, Kubernetes, automation, and operations.
The report recommends that IT leaders prioritize private cloud for high-stakes AI, simplify fragmented platforms, improve visibility into cloud spending, evaluate repatriation opportunities, and establish AI governance early. It concludes that a unified private-cloud platform can help enterprises control costs, protect sensitive data, satisfy sovereignty requirements, simplify operations, and convert AI initiatives into sustainable business value.