Digital Realty is spending $7.8 billion on three data centres in one deal

Digital Realty is buying three fully-leased data centres in Northern Virginia from Blackstone for $7.8 billion. The sites are already occupied, so this is not speculative building, it is a bet that demand for AI infrastructure has years of runway left.

Northern Virginia is the densest data centre market on the planet, nicknamed Data Center Alley, and space there is scarce. Buying three fully-leased facilities in one move is a way to acquire both the buildings and their existing tenant revenue at once.

The read-through is simple. When infrastructure operators start writing eight-billion-dollar cheques for already-occupied capacity, they are pricing in continued growth, not a slowdown. The AI boom needs somewhere to run, and that somewhere is increasingly expensive real estate outside Washington.