Digital Realty Trust (DLR) Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference 2026 summary

Financial performance and growth drivers

• Achieved Core FFO growth nearly 300 basis points above initial 2025 guidance, with 2026 guidance set at close to 8% growth.

• Strong momentum in zero to 1 MW interconnection business, with signings up over 30% and interconnection bookings up over 20%.

• Over $1 billion in bookings in late 2024 and 2025, resulting in a $600 million revenue backlog for 2026.

• Favorable supply-demand dynamics are supporting pricing power and improved mark-to-market performance.

• Confidence in sustaining bottom-line growth through 2027 and beyond.

Key business segments and AI trends

• Zero to 1 MW and interconnection business is a strategic priority, with growing demand from enterprise and AI workloads.

• AI-related bookings in the greater than 1 MW segment are about 50%, while AI inference in zero to 1 MW rose from mid-single digits in 2024 to 20% in 2025.

• Expect continued growth in enterprise AI inference workloads, especially in financial services and healthcare.

• Anticipate a shift toward hybrid AI architectures, mirroring the cloud adoption curve.

Occupancy, pricing, and market dynamics

• Transitioned to power-based occupancy metrics for consistency, with guidance for 50–100 basis points improvement.

• Mark-to-market renewals in the greater than 1 MW segment exceeded 10% in 2025, with similar expectations for 2026.

• U.S. markets seeing mid to high single-digit annual price increases; Europe and APAC also experiencing healthy pricing.

• Improving mark-to-market profile expected as expiring rates step down in 2027–2029.