Blackstone Cashes Out, Digital Realty Buys In — $7.8B Changes Hands

➤ The Signal

• The exit market for completed, leased data centers has gone fully institutional.

• This is capital rotation, not a power-siting story.

• AA credit plus 15-year escalating leases is being priced like core infrastructure.

The data-center narrative this cycle has been about megawatts and where to find them. This deal is the other side of the trade: what a finished, fully-leased campus is worth once the power is already flowing. Blackstone is monetizing stabilized product; Digital Realty is buying contracted cash flow at scale.

The terms read like core infrastructure, not tech speculation — AA-rated tenants, 15-year terms, 3.6% bumps, a 6.5%-plus stabilized yield. That is bond-like income wearing a data-center costume.

The market’s 5% haircut on DLR is the tell on the other risk: buying this income is equity-dilutive and front-loaded, even when the underlying asset is pristine.

➤ Implications

Expect more stabilized-asset trades as developers recycle capital out of completed campuses to fund the next gigawatt. A visible secondary market gives the whole sector a clearer exit cap rate — and a cleaner underwriting anchor.