Capital inflow boosts the data center market

Data centers are no longer a niche or exotic investment among mainstream institutional buyers, which are swarming to the sector. There is now a buyer for almost every type of data center — including traditional-infrastructure investors and sovereign wealth funds. How might this new mix of capital sources change the broader data center sector?

Traditional buyers will remain active

The number of data center acquisitions in 2019 will likely end up being a record high. Among the most active buyers, historically and to date, are data center companies, such as cloud, colocation and wholesale providers, as well as data center real estate investment trusts (REITs). They will continue to buy and sell, typically for strategic reasons — which means they tend to hold onto acquired assets.