Digital Realty and Blackstone Announce $7 Billion Hyperscale Data Center Development Joint Venture

Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR[/url]), the largest global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, and Blackstone Inc. (NYSE: BX) announced that Blackstone-affiliated funds led by Infrastructure, Real Estate and Tactical Opportunities have agreed to establish a joint venture with Digital Realty to develop four hyperscale data center campuses across three metro areas on two continents. The developments are expected to support approximately 500 megawatts (MW) of total IT load upon full build out of all campuses. Blackstone will acquire an 80% ownership interest in the joint venture for approximately $700 million of initial capital contributions, while Digital Realty will maintain a 20% interest. Subsequent to closing, the joint venture parties will fund their pro rata share of the remaining development costs. Digital Realty will manage the development and day-to-day operations of the joint venture, for which it will receive customary fees. 

The four hyperscale data center campuses are located in Frankfurt, Paris and Northern Virginia and have a total estimated development cost of approximately $7 billion over the course of the next several years. The campuses are planned to support the construction of 10 data centers with approximately 500 MW of potential IT load capacity. Of this capacity, 46 MW is under construction and is 33% pre-leased. The remaining land capacity is in varying phases of pre-construction and is expected to be developed to meet customer demand. Approximately 20% of the total potential IT load capacity is expected to be delivered through 2025, with the balance expected to be delivered in 2026 and beyond.  

“By partnering with Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, Digital Realty is better able to deliver capacity to meet the burgeoning demand of our hyperscale customers, by accessing a deep pool of likeminded private capital,” said Andy Power, President and Chief Executive Officer of Digital Realty. “Digital Realty is focused on executing on the sizable opportunity that lies ahead and this partnership helps to accelerate the monetization of nearly 20% of our industry-leading land bank.”

Greg Wright, Chief Investment Officer of Digital Realty, added, “Partnering with Blackstone marks the culmination of a record year of capital recycling and aptly reflects the shift in our funding strategy, to diversify our sources of capital and bolster our balance sheet in order to capitalize on the significant opportunity that lies ahead.”

Jon Gray, President & COO of Blackstone, said, “Data centers are experiencing once-in-a-generation demand growth, driven by cloud adoption and the AI revolution. Digital infrastructure is one of our highest conviction investment themes as a firm, and this transaction with a trusted data center operator in Digital Realty is another example of how we are investing behind this trend.”

Greg Blank, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone Infrastructure, and Mike Forman, Managing Director at Blackstone Real Estate, added, “Blackstone’s deep pools of capital and extensive sector experience position us to capitalize on the explosive growth in data. We look forward to partnering with Digital Realty to develop high-quality data centers in top markets around the world.”   

The joint venture is scheduled to close in two stages over the course of the first half of 2024, subject to certain regulatory and other approvals, as well as other customary closing conditions.

Advisors
Latham & Watkins is serving as Digital Realty’s legal counsel. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is acting as Blackstone’s legal counsel.

About Digital Realty
Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions.  PlatformDIGITAL®, the company’s global data center platform, provides customers with a secure data meeting place and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx®) solution methodology for powering innovation and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges. Digital Realty gives its customers access to the connected communities that matter to them with a global data center footprint of 300+ facilities in 50+ metros across 25+ countries on six continents. To learn more about Digital Realty, please visit [url=https://www.digitalrealty.com/]digitalrealty.com 

About Blackstone
Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors. We do this by relying on extraordinary people and flexible capital to help strengthen the companies we invest in. Our over $1 trillion in assets under management include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com.

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Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially. Forward-looking statements involve significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the Digital Realty’s actual results in future periods to differ materially from those projected or contemplated in the forward-looking statements as a result of, but not limited to, the following factors:  timing of the closing of the joint ventures; the development timing and cost of the campuses; potential IT load capacity; the satisfaction of customary closing conditions; and other risk factors relating to the industries in which Digital Realty operates, as detailed from time to time in each of Digital Realty’s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. There can be no assurance that the proposed transactions will be consummated on the terms described herein or at all.  For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by Digital Realty with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Digital Realty disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.