Digital Realty announced a series of transactions totaling approximately $1.61 billion to bolster its three core growth pillars: hyperscale development, colocation, and strategic private capital. The company acquired a new powered land site in the Kansas City metro, increased its ownership interest in Teraco, and agreed to acquire Columbia Capital. These strategic moves aim to enhance its global data center footprint and investment capabilities.

Expansion into Kansas City Market

Digital Realty acquired approximately 1,440 acres of land at Astra Enterprise Park near Kansas City for approximately $475 million in cash and common units. This entry into a Top 30 U.S. metro supports hyperscale data center development. According to datacenterHawk, the Kansas City metro is the 7th largest data center market in the U.S. when including capacity under construction and in planning. To support the site, the company entered an Energy Service Agreement to secure 600 megawatts of utility power by early 2028, rising to two gigawatts at full delivery.

Increase in Teraco Ownership

The company is increasing its ownership interest in Teraco, Africa’s leading data center platform, to 77% through the acquisition of shares from minority shareholders. Digital Realty will purchase the 16% stake for approximately $650 million, principally via the issuance of 3.4 million shares of common stock. Teraco serves as a key component of Digital Realty’s global colocation and connectivity footprint across the EMEA region.

Acquisition of Columbia Capital

Digital Realty plans to acquire Columbia Capital for approximately $485 million, principally through the issuance of 2.3 million shares of common stock. The transaction includes a lockup releasing over a multi-year period and an earnout subject to performance hurdles. Founded in 1989, Columbia Capital focuses on communications, technology, and digital infrastructure, with over $9 billion in fund commitments from institutional investors. This acquisition will accelerate Digital Realty’s Strategic Private Capital platform and provide expertise in adjacent digital infrastructure sectors.

Columbia Capital’s experienced investment team and established portfolio complement Digital Realty’s global operating platform. Columbia Capital and Digital Realty have collaborated on multiple digital infrastructure projects. Columbia is a long-time co-investor in Teraco whose involvement predates Digital Realty’s acquisition of a majority interest in August 2022. The two companies have also partnered through Vela Infrastructure, a subsea cable landing station developer.

Executive Commentary and Financial Details

Andy Power, President and Chief Executive Officer of Digital Realty, stated that the transactions support the company's growth momentum by enhancing hyperscale capabilities and strengthening its position in Africa. Matt Mercier, Chief Financial Officer, noted that the investments are expected to enhance the growth profile while maintaining balance sheet discipline. The transactions will be principally funded through the issuance of 6.3 million shares of common stock and operating partnership units at a weighted average price of $197.54 per share. The Teraco and Columbia Capital transactions are expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions.

Digital Realty has announced the availability of ServiceFabric Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open protocol designed to make infrastructure programmable for Private AI environments across more than 800 data centers globally. The launch introduces AI-native programmable controls focused on physical infrastructure requirements such as power density, advanced cooling, and sovereign placement. This initiative is part of Digital Realty's broader Foundation for AI strategy, aimed at enabling enterprise AI at a global scale.

ServiceFabric MCP is built upon the AI Private Exchange (AIPx) architecture, which utilizes patented policy and orchestration technology. The protocol allows AI systems and agents to securely interact with infrastructure and enterprise services through standardized interfaces. By extending the global platform, Digital Realty aims to provide a programmable foundation for deploying and managing enterprise AI infrastructure, supporting connections across distributed environments including public cloud, network service providers, and colocation facilities.

Key Capabilities

ServiceFabric MCP delivers an AI-native control surface across four primary capability areas:

Validation and Ecosystem

The solution is currently being validated across internal deployments, enterprise AI environments, and partner ecosystem implementations. Digital Realty is operating ServiceFabric MCP and AIPx within its own infrastructure environments to validate and orchestrate AI workloads. Insights from these internal deployments are informing customer implementations.

Digital Realty has launched AI solutions with partners including ePlus, Lenovo, and Dell, built on infrastructure powered by technologies from NVIDIA and AMD. The company noted that connections remain private, operating at Layer 2 and Layer 3 with strong authentication and access controls. Enterprises are not required to operate exclusively in Digital Realty facilities or commit to a single AI model.

"Our strategy is simple: provide the foundational infrastructure enterprises need for sustained AI workloads, while enabling flexible scale as demand grows," said Chris Sharp, Chief Technology Officer, Digital Realty. "ServiceFabric MCP extends the foundation of AIPx with programmable controls and agent-ready interfaces, and our patent position reflects the long-term investment we've made in this architecture."