Blackstone has divested its stakes in three data centres in Northern Virginia to Digital Realty Trust for $3.5 billion, the private equity giant announced late on Monday. The transaction comes two and a half years after the two firms formed a $7 billion joint venture focused on hyperscale data centres in December 2023.
Digital Realty has agreed to pay $1.2 billion in cash and $2.3 billion in stock to acquire Blackstone's 80 per cent interest in two 96-megawatt data centres in Manassas, Virginia, as well as a 50 per cent stake in a 96-megawatt data centre in Sterling, Virginia. The closing of the deal is scheduled for Tuesday.
Greg Wright, Chief Investment Officer at Digital Realty, commented on this development in a statement: “We have built a strong partnership with Blackstone through the successful continued development of these assets and continue to partner on the remaining data centre investments in our Northern Virginia, Paris, and Frankfurt joint ventures.” He added that this transaction reflects the next phase of this relationship, enabling Digital Realty to increase its ownership position in a portfolio of fully leased, high-quality hyperscale facilities. This expands the growth headroom and pipeline for the continued expansion of the strategic private capital platform.
Blackstone had highlighted during its first-quarter earnings call in April that it was the world's largest investor in AI-related infrastructure. This included a $150 billion data centre portfolio and a $160 million pipeline of new data centre developments, as Commercial Observer previously reported. In May, the company conducted an IPO for its new data centre investment vehicle, Blackstone Digital Infrastructure.
Mike Forman, global head of digital infrastructure for Blackstone Real Estate, and Greg Blank, global head of digital infrastructure for Blackstone Infrastructure Strategies, stated in a joint declaration that “demand for digital infrastructure is even stronger today than when this joint venture was formed in 2023, and we are deeply confident in the opportunities ahead.”
