Of all the ways to invest in artificial intelligence, the infrastructure that supports it seems to be one of the most lucrative right now. In fact, of the five best-performing stocks in the Nasdaq 100 Index ($IUXX) so far this year, four of them work directly in the AI infrastructure space – Sandisk (SNDK), up 513%, Seagate Technology (STX), up 197%, Western Digital (WDC), up 187%, and Micron Technology (MU), up 180%.
Data center real estate investment trusts (REITs) are also appealing, handily outperforming the Nasdaq-100. Digital Realty Trust (DLR) is up 25% so far this year, and Equinix (EQIX) jumped 41%, both topping the index return of 16% in 2026.
Now there’s a new REIT stepping into the space. Blackstone (BX), the alternative asset manager that specializes in real estate, is launching the Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust, which is expected to begin trading on May 14 on the New York Stock Exchange. It will trade under the ticker BXDC.
Let’s take a closer look at the REIT, and also at its competitors, to determine how investors should consider this new data center REIT.
About the Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust
Blackstone plans to launch BXDC with no initial assets – it plans to raise nearly $2 billion and then purchase data centers – a sector that’s seeing huge demand. There are nearly 3,000 data centers in the U.S. alone that are either planned or under construction. That means that investors who buy BXDC early won’t have any idea what data centers the company is targeting.
“We will target newly constructed, income-generating, stabilized data center properties leased to investment-grade hyperscale tenants on long-term contracts,” Blackstone says in a prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. “We intend to invest in essential digital infrastructure primarily in top data center markets that exhibit strong supply-demand dynamics.”
It continues: “Our strategy focuses on essential digital infrastructure assets that serve as the backbone for cloud computing, artificial intelligence (“AI”), and the broader digital transformation driving economic growth. With an estimated $1 trillion total addressable stabilized data center market expected over the next five years, we believe the industry represents a substantial investment opportunity.”
Blackstone has an advantage in that it knows the data center and AI infrastructure space well. The company says that it’s invested in data center assets that are worth more than $130 billion since 2018, and currently has more than $10 billion of debt financing provided to data center and digital infrastructure companies.
The company says it expects that BXDC will fund projects that yield between 5.75% and 7% per year, and will see rents rise 2% to 3% per year.
But There Are Risks with BXDC
While Blackstone has expertise in the space, it’s also coming in a little late. It will be much smaller than Equinix, which has a market cap of $106 billion; Digital Realty Trust, which has a market cap of nearly $70 billion, or Iron Mountain (IRM), which has a cap of $37 billion. That means at least for the first few years, it will likely lack diversification, with income coming from one or two geographical areas and with only a handful of clients.
Blackstone also raises the possibility that BXDC may buy data centers that are still under construction, so it will not see any rents or income from those properties until they are finished and tenants move in.
The bottom line is that investing in BXDC is a bet on Blackstone, its experience in the data center space, and the expertise of its management team. But in the end, investing in data centers is an expensive business, and even established companies such as Digital Realty, Equinix, and Iron Mountain have forward price-to-earnings ratios of more than 50x. You won’t see immediate returns from BXDC, but this REIT could eventually be a viable alternative to the more established players in the space.
On the date of publication, Patrick Sanders did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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