Digital Realty CEO Andy Power on Data Center Demand, AI Infrastructure, and Global Expansion

Surging Demand for Data Centers

• 💡 Digital Realty is experiencing incrementally strong demand across cloud computing, enterprise colocation, hybrid IT, and increasingly, AI infrastructure.
• 🚀 The company has been preparing for this demand surge for years, with significant capacity in land and under-construction data centers.
• 📈 AI is becoming a more prominent part of the demand story, with broad adoption across numerous global regions.

Capacity and Future Growth

• 🏗️ Digital Realty has approximately 5 gigawatts of capacity in land and under-construction data centers, with plans to add more through their inaugural US hyperscale fund.
• ⏳ Building a data center is a long lead-time process, often taking months or years, necessitating pre-leasing ahead of delivery.
• 📊 The company focuses on building a long-term, sustainable growth algorithm by securing large leases and expanding customer relationships.

Global Strategy and Location

• 🌍 Digital Realty operates in 50 metropolitan areas across six continents, with larger deals currently concentrated in the US.
• 📍 The strategy focuses on major metros with robust, diverse demand and proximity to hyperscalers, enterprises, and service providers, positioning for both current cloud needs and future AI inference workloads.
• 🌐 Similar to cloud computing, AI is becoming a global factor, influencing expansion strategies.

Workforce and Infrastructure Challenges

• 👷 The company is investing in programs to attract and retain talent to address an aging workforce and the need for skilled labor in building and operating data centers.
• ⚡ Addressing power capacity is a critical challenge, requiring collaboration with utility partners to expedite transmission and increase power availability to sites.
• 🤝 Digital Realty emphasizes a joint, collective effort with local communities and utilities to bring power to data center locations efficiently.

Power Sources and Sustainability

• 🔌 Digital Realty is agnostic on the method of power generation, accepting natural gas, nuclear, and other sources to meet immediate needs.
• 🌱 The company is committed to sustainability, with a significant portion of its global power already sourced from green and sustainable options through power purchase agreements.
• 📊 As of their impact report, nearly 3 gigawatts of operating capacity are green, representing 75% of their global power.