➤ Key Highlights
Digital Realty will pay $3.5B for Blackstone’s blended 64% interest in three Northern Virginia data centers.
Consideration is $1.2B cash plus $2.3B in DLR stock; gross asset value is $7.8B at 100% share.
The assets hold 288 MW of IT capacity across Manassas and Sterling, Virginia.
Leases run 15 years at a blended AA customer credit with 3.6% annual escalators.
The expected initial stabilized cap rate exceeds 6.5%; DLR shares fell about 5% on the news.
➤ 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.
➤ Key Takeaway
The scarce input is still power — but the new question is what a powered, leased building is worth, and the answer just printed at $7.8B.
Source: Blackstone / Digital Realty 8-K / CNBC — June 29, 2026
