Digital Realty Raises 2026 Outlook After Record Lease Bookings

Digital Realty raised its 2026 earnings and revenue outlook after third-quarter data-center lease bookings reached a record $855 million in expected annualized base rent at 100% share.

The company increased its full-year Core funds from operations (FFO) forecast, excluding net promote, to $8.30 to $8.35 per diluted share. In July, the range was $8.15 to $8.20. On a constant-currency basis, the new Core FFO range is $8.25 to $8.30 per share, compared with $8.10 to $8.15 previously.

The 2026 revenue outlook, excluding promote income, rose to $7.05 billion to $7.125 billion from $6.85 billion to $6.95 billion. Digital Realty issued the revised ranges with its third-quarter results.

Bookings in the quarter ended Sept. 30 represented $855 million in annualized GAAP base rent at 100% share and $627 million at Digital Realty’s share. Both were quarterly records for expected rent from signed leases. The record concerns the rent value tied to the contracts, not the number of leases signed.

The 100% share totals cover the platform, while the other figures reflect Digital Realty’s share. That distinction applies to both the bookings figures and the lease backlog, so the amounts can be compared on either stated basis.

At quarter-end, signed leases that had not started represented $2.5 billion in annualized base rent at 100% share, including $1.8 billion at the company’s share. For leases signed in Q3, the weighted average period from signing to contractual start was 17 months. The backlog represents future lease rent, rather than income already produced by those leases.

The quarterly booking figure covers leases signed during Q3; the backlog measures signed leases still awaiting contractual start on Sept. 30. Both are expressed as annualized base rent, but they describe different stages of lease activity and do not represent rent collected during the quarter.

Third-quarter Core FFO, excluding net promote, was $2.10 per diluted share, compared with $1.89 in the same quarter of 2025. President and CEO Andy Power said the results underscored “the global strength of customer demand for connectivity-rich environments.”

Core FFO is a supplemental measure outside generally accepted accounting principles. Its methodology may differ from Core FFO calculations used by other real estate investment trusts.