Digital Realty to Buy Blackstone Data Centers
Digital Realty to Buy Blackstone Data Centers; deal enlarges Northern Virginia assets and links to a $2.346B Blackstone secondary that may pressure shares.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Digital Realty agreed to buy Blackstone stakes in three Northern Virginia data centers for $3.5 billion consideration.
- Blackstone priced a 12,310,249-share secondary at $185 per share, raising about $2.346 billion for selling shareholders.
- The secondary is tied to the acquisition and may create near-term stock supply pressure.
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Digital Realty Inc. (DLR) agreed on June 29, 2026, to acquire Blackstone Inc. (BX)‑affiliated stakes in three Northern Virginia hyperscale data centers, valuing the portfolio at $7.8 billion. The deal is linked to a large Blackstone secondary offering of Digital Realty shares.
Transaction Terms and Assets
The portfolio includes three fully leased data centers totaling 288 megawatts (MW) of IT capacity: two 96 MW buildings at the Digital Carver Brickyard campus in Manassas and one 96 MW facility at the Digital Carver Dulles 9 campus in Sterling. Digital Realty will acquire Blackstone’s 80% interest in the two Manassas centers and a 50% interest in the Sterling site, a blended 64% equity stake.
Digital Realty will pay $3.5 billion for that stake, funded with $1.2 billion in cash and $2.3 billion in shares of its common stock. The companies expect an initial stabilized capitalization rate above 6.5% on the portfolio’s valuation. Digital Realty described the acquisition as increasing its ownership of new, high-quality, fully leased hyperscale assets in a top U.S. market.
Secondary Offering and Timing
Blackstone affiliates priced a registered secondary offering of 12,310,249 Digital Realty shares at $185 each, generating roughly $2.346 billion in gross proceeds for the selling shareholders. The shares are non-voting common stock to be issued to Blackstone upon closing of the acquisition and will convert into common stock upon transfer to buyers. Morgan Stanley is the sole underwriter. The offering is conditioned on the acquisition’s closing.
Digital Realty will not receive any proceeds from the secondary offering. The $2.3 billion in Digital Realty stock included in the acquisition consideration closely matches the size of the secondary offering, indicating Blackstone will monetize most or all of its equity stake through this sale.
The acquisition is expected to close on June 30, 2026, with the secondary offering settling on July 1, 2026, subject to customary closing conditions.
