Digital Realty Trust, Inc.

Second-quarter core FFO was $2.65 per share including $0.52 of net promote income. Excluding net promote income, core FFO was a record $2.13 per share, up 14% year over year; same capital cash NOI grew 8.9% year over year, or 7.2% on a constant-currency basis, and leverage ended at 4.7x debt-to-adjusted EBITDA. Revenue growth was described as 8.2% in the quarter, and the company cited $108 million of 0-1 MW plus interconnection bookings, $261 million of renewals, and $208 million of annualized rent commencements. Guidance was raised for 2026 core FFO per share excluding net promote income to $8.15-$8.20, cash renewal spreads to 9%-11%, same capital cash NOI growth to 4.25%-5.25% constant currency, CapEx net of partner contributions to $4.25 billion-$4.75 billion, and dispositions/JV capital by another $500 million. Management also said $635 million of annualized rent is scheduled to commence in the second half of 2026, with $480 million in 2027 and $312 million in 2028 and beyond.

Andy Power framed the quarter as evidence that the company’s full-spectrum strategy is working across colocation and connectivity, hyperscale, and strategic private capital. He emphasized record bookings, a stronger backlog, and a broader development runway, saying the company is well positioned to meet customer needs beyond 2026 and to support AI and cloud infrastructure demand globally. His tone was upbeat and confident, with repeated references to the platform being “firing on all cylinders” and to multiple years of double-digit earnings growth.

Matt Mercier highlighted double-digit growth across major operating and financial metrics, driven by strong leasing, commencements, re-leasing spreads and fee income. He broke out the quarter’s upside from $113 million of insurance proceeds, with $27 million or about $0.07 per share included in core FFO, and about $188 million of promote income tied to the Blackstone transaction, of which $0.52 per share flowed through core FFO. He also pointed to $1.1 billion of development CapEx in the quarter, $2 billion year to date, $6 billion of liquidity, leverage at 4.7x, and a development pipeline of 1.4 gigawatts under construction at a total cost of $20 billion and 63% pre-leased pro forma for July leases.

Analysts focused on how Digital Realty can sustain double-digit core FFO growth for multiple years, how the new Blackstone, Teraco and Columbia Capital transactions will accrete, and how higher CapEx will be funded. Management said the growth algorithm is coming from renewals, hyperscale leasing, record 0-1 MW/interconnection demand and private capital, which together support both growth and funding flexibility. Other questions centered on the mix shift among colo, hyperscale and off-balance-sheet assets, the scaling of fee income, the development timing in Kansas City and the company’s openness to a broader set of AI/neocloud customers; management said current large-footprint leasing is still concentrated in traditional investment-grade hyperscalers, while smaller AI-related deployments are showing up more in network and enterprise use cases.