Digital Realty to buy Blackstone stake in Northern Virginia data centers for $7.8 billion

Digital Realty Acquires Blackstone's Share in Northern Virginia Data Centers for $7.8 Billion

Data center operator Digital Realty agreed in June 2026 to buy Blackstone's controlling stake in three fully leased data centers in Northern Virginia — a region known as the physical heart of the internet. The deal values these assets at $7.8 billion.

What's Included in the Deal

Digital Realty is acquiring Blackstone's majority stake in three data centers that are already 100% occupied by tenants — not a construction site for future demand, but an established, income-generating business. All three facilities are located in Northern Virginia.

• Deal value — $7.8 billion
• All three data centers are fully leased
• Seller — Blackstone investment fund, buyer — Digital Realty REIT
• Deal region — Northern Virginia, the world's largest concentration of data centers

Why Is Northern Virginia at the Center of the Deal?

Northern Virginia has long been called the place where "the internet physically lives" — the region carries a huge share of global internet traffic, and the density of data centers there is higher than anywhere else on the planet. This is why, as noted by The Next Web, billion-dollar deals here have become almost routine — sums that would have seemed extraordinary not long ago now regularly appear in industry news headlines.

Data Centers as an Investment

Digital Realty is one of the world's largest public data center operators, operating under the REIT model (a real estate fund obligated to distribute most profits to shareholders). For such a company, buying already-leased facilities is a way to grow its portfolio without the risks associated with construction and finding tenants from scratch — income from existing contracts is already guaranteed.

Blackstone — one of the world's largest alternative asset managers — has been building its digital infrastructure investments for years, from data centers to cable networks, viewing it as a defensive asset with predictable cash flow. The sale of a controlling stake in three facilities to Digital Realty fits the logic of locking in profits at the peak of market interest in such assets.

Why Are Data Centers So Sought-After Right Now?

Northern Virginia has spent decades building up its concentration of data centers thanks to cheap land, a well-developed fiber optic network, and relatively affordable electricity. But these very factors — access to power capacity and existing connection infrastructure — have become scarce resources against the backdrop of explosive growth in computing demand: new data centers wait years in queue to connect to the power grid, so already-operating, fully-electrified, and leased facilities are valued especially highly. This is one reason why investors are willing to pay multi-billion-dollar sums for ready-made sites rather than the right to build new ones.

General Background: Demand for AI Infrastructure

The growth in such data center deals coincides with a boom in demand for computing power to train and operate large language models. Cloud providers and AI companies rent server space years in advance, while investors like Blackstone often enter this market before infrastructure is even built, then sell income-generating facilities to strategic operators like Digital Realty. For such operators, each new major deal increases their portfolio of pre-contracted space — an asset that, in conditions of supply scarcity, grows almost automatically in value, without additional capital expenditure on construction.

What This Means

The $7.8 billion deal is yet another confirmation of how quickly the physical infrastructure underlying cloud and AI services is appreciating: investors are increasingly competing for ready-made data centers with guaranteed leases rather than building new facilities from scratch.