Data center real estate has become one of the clearest financial expressions of the AI buildout: companies that own and lease the physical shell, power, and cooling around servers, structured as REITs (real estate investment trusts). The following sections lay out how that landlord model works and what the two largest publicly disclosed operators — Equinix and Digital Realty — report about their scale, demand, and revenue.
Nareit defines data center REITs as owners and managers of specialized facilities that house the critical IT infrastructure powering today's economyCITE:E1. Rather than owning office towers or shopping malls, these REITs hold purpose-built buildings designed for servers, power delivery, and cooling systemsCITE:E1.
Equinix bills customers for the space and power they consume inside its IBX data centers under fixed-duration contracts that generate monthly recurring revenue (MRR)CITE:E2. This structure — pay for consumed space and power, commit to a set contract term, generate a predictable monthly revenue stream — is the core landlord mechanic that distinguishes data center REITs from traditional property leasingCITE:E2.
Equinix and Digital Realty each operate hundreds of facilities spanning multiple continents, though they report scale differently — Equinix by site and market count, Digital Realty by power capacityCITE:E3CITE:E5. Equinix's global footprint spans 280 data centers across 77 markets in 36 countriesCITE:E3. As of March 31, 2026, Digital Realty held 309 data centers — including 89 held as investments in unconsolidated entities — comprising approximately 3.0 gigawatts of IT capacity, plus roughly 6.3 gigawatts of buildable IT capacity under active development or held for future development, across North America, Europe, South America, Asia, Australia, and AfricaCITE:E5.
| Metric | Equinix | Digital Realty |
|---|---|---|
| Data centers | 280 | 309 (incl. 89 unconsolidated) |
| Markets | 77 | — |
| Countries | 36 | — |
| IT capacity (live) | — | ~3.0 GW |
| IT capacity (buildable) | — | ~6.3 GW |
| Interconnections | 500,000+ | — |
| Q1 2026 revenue | — | $1.6B (+16% YoY) |
Digital Realty said data center demand accelerated further in the first quarter of 2026, driven by AI-oriented hyperscale capacityCITE:E6. President and CEO Andy Power said: "Digital Realty saw a further acceleration in data center demand and our growth trajectory in the first quarter, with record 0–1 megawatt plus interconnection leasing and the largest hyperscale lease in company history, which contributed to double-digit growth in Core FFO per share... We are swiftly advancing hyperscale AI-oriented capacity in the U.S., growing our connectivity-rich portfolio across key global markets, and broadening our capital base to prudently extend Digital Realty's runway for growth."CITE:E6 The quarter combined a record for 0–1 megawatt-plus interconnection leasing with the single largest hyperscale lease the company has signed in its historyCITE:E6.
Digital Realty reported total revenue of $1.6 billion in the first quarter of 2026, flat against the prior quarter but up 16% from the same quarter a year earlierCITE:E7. That year-over-year increase lines up with the company's own account of accelerating hyperscale demand and its record leasing activity in the same quarterCITE:E6CITE:E7.
Equinix has curated more than 500,000 interconnections across its 27-year history, a scale it presents as central to its competitive positionCITE:E4. Combined with its 280-facility, 77-market footprint, that interconnection density represents a network effect distinct from Digital Realty's capacity-and-hyperscale-lease framing — Equinix's disclosed metric is the density of connections between tenants, not gigawatts of powerCITE:E3CITE:E4.
The two companies disclose different scorecards for the same landlord business: Equinix reports facility count, market reach, and interconnection densityCITE:E3CITE:E4, while Digital Realty reports power capacity, leasing records, and revenue growthCITE:E5CITE:E6CITE:E7. Both point to the same underlying dynamic — recurring, space-and-power-based billingCITE:E2 sitting beneath a leasing cycle that both companies describe as accelerating because of AI and hyperscale demandCITE:E6.
Nareit defines data center REITs as owners and managers of specialized facilities that house the critical IT infrastructure powering today's economyCITE:E1.
Equinix bills customers for the space and power they consume inside its IBX data centers under fixed-duration contracts that generate monthly recurring revenue …
Equinix and Digital Realty each operate hundreds of facilities spanning multiple continents, though they report scale differently — Equinix by site and market c…
Digital Realty said data center demand accelerated further in the first quarter of 2026, driven by AI-oriented hyperscale capacityCITE:E6.
The two disclosed scorecards here describe different moats on the same landlord model. Digital Realty's 3.0 gigawatts of live IT capacity against 6.3 gigawatts of buildable capacity shows a company still expanding supply well ahead of the record hyperscale lease it just signed, and its 16% year-over-year revenue growth suggests that expansion is already converting into billed revenue. Equinix, by contrast, is not disclosing gigawatts at all — its differentiator is 500,000-plus interconnections spread across 280 facilities in 77 markets, a network-density metric that is harder to replicate than square footage or power capacity alone. The metric worth watching next is whether Digital Realty's 6.3 GW buildable pipeline converts into contracted, revenue-generating leases at the same pace as its record Q1 2026 hyperscale deal, or whether capacity additions start outrunning actual leasing.
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