A Primer on Investing in Data Centers

February 2026

In 2025, the Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) buildout turned data centers into one of the biggest stories in the economy.

This wave was large enough to show up in macro data, including estimates that AI-related investment (including data centers) accounted for a very large share of GDP growth, and that without this spending overall GDP expansion would have been nearly flat.1 Forecasts point to even more spending on the horizon, including an estimate that the “big five” hyperscalers will spend roughly $450 billion on capital expenditures (capex) related to AI infrastructure such as data centers and related equipment in 2026.2 The projected capital spending by Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet combined as a percentage of GDP in 2026 is estimated to be on par with that for the US railroad expansion of the 1850s.3

Investors may find data centers to be a fast-growing segment of income-oriented real assets that can be accessed through familiar vehicles. Exposure is typically gained through listed Real Estate Investment Trusts (“REITs”), private real estate funds, or infrastructure strategies that own or finance data center facilities, power and cooling upgrades, and related development. Owners generally seek returns by developing or acquiring facilities, leasing capacity under multi-year contracts, and operating the assets to high availability and reliability standards. Because these leases and revenue arrangements are often long term and counterparties are typically large, creditworthy users, data centers can potentially offer a combination of current income and growth, with risk and return drivers that may differ from those of more traditional physical assets.