Digital Realty is a

real estate investment trust A real estate investment trust (REIT, pronounced "reet") is a company that owns, and in most cases operates, income-producing real estate. REITs own many types of real estate, including office and apartment buildings, studios, warehouses, hos ...

that owns, operates and invests in carrier-neutral data centers across the world. The company offers data center, colocation, and interconnection services. As of June 2023, Digital Realty has more than 300 facilities in more than 25 countries. The company has made promises and efforts to reduce its carbon emissions. In 2020, Digital Realty joined the Science-Based Target Initiative, promising to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 68% and Scope 3 emissions by 24% between 2018 and 2030. The company is also a signatory of the Climate Neutral Data Center Pact, a self-regulatory initiative – drawn up with the European Data Center Association (EUDCA) and Cloud Infrastructure Services Provider in Europe (CISPE) – designed to make the industry climate-neutral by 2030. In July 2023, Digital Realty received a Certificate of Conformity, certifying its adherence to the Self-Regulatory Initiatives set out by the Pact in Europe. Digital Realty is working to switch entirely to renewable power. Many of its U.S. and European data centers are powered by renewable energy. The company has 1 GW of wind and solar projects under contract in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

and Virginia and has installed 1.8 MW of solar panels in Kenya, Greece, Switzerland, and South Korea. The company says it avoided emitting 1.8 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent emissions (MtCO2e) in 2022.

History

The company was formed in 2004 by GI Partners, which contributed 21 data centers that it acquired through bankruptcy auctions and from distressed companies at a 20–40% discount to replacement cost. On November 4, 2004, the company became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

. At that time, the company owned 23 properties comprising 5.6 million square feet. In August 2006, the company acquired a property in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

, for $175 million. By March 2007, GI Partners had sold all of its shares in the company. In January 2010, the company acquired three data centers in Massachusetts and Connecticut for $375 million. In January 2012, the company acquired a 334,000-square-foot data center near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for $63 million in a leaseback transaction. The company also acquired a data center in San Francisco for $85 million. In April 2013, the company acquired the data center of

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being its ...

in Eagan, Minnesota, for $37 million in a leaseback transaction. In July 2013, the company doubled capacity at its data center in Chandler, Arizona. In May 2015, the company sold a building in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

for $161 million that it acquired in 2005 for $59 million. In October 2015, the company acquired Telx for $1.886 billion. In November 2015, the company acquired 125.9 acres of undeveloped land in

Loudoun County, Virginia Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. The county seat is Leesburg. Loudoun County ...

, for $43 million and announced plans to build a 2 million-square-foot data center on the property. In July 2016, the company acquired 8 data centers in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

from Equinix for $874 million. In March 2017, the company announced a $22 million expansion of its data center in Atlanta. In September 2017, the company completed the acquisition of DuPont Fabros Technology. In 2018, the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

ruled in favor of the company in '' Digital Realty Trust, Inc. v. Somers'', a case in which Digital Realty fired an employee who had complained internally about the elimination of supervisory controls and the hiding of cost overruns. After he was fired, the employee sued the company, saying he was protected by

whistleblower Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

provisions in Dodd-Frank. The Supreme Court, citing Dodd-Frank, ruled that these protections only applied to whistleblowers who had first notified the SEC. In December 2018, the company acquired Ascenty for $1.8 billion. At the time, Ascenty operated eight data centers in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. In October 2019, Digital Realty announced the acquisition of European data center provider Interxion for $8.4 billion to “create a leading global provider of data centre, colocation and interconnection solutions”. In January 2021, Digital Realty said it would move its headquarters to

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. In January 2022, the company announced a 55% stake acquisition in Teraco Data Centres On 10 September 2024, about 7:45 am, a Digital Realty data centre in Loyang,

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, caught fire. According to the Singapore Civil Defence Force, the fire "involved lithium-ion batteries housed in battery rooms on the third floor of a four-storey building". Digital Realty said its employees were evacuated from the data centre without injuries. The fire affected Lazada and

Bytedance ByteDance Ltd. is a Chinese internet technology company headquartered in Haidian, Beijing, and incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Founded by Zhang Yiming, Liang Rubo, and a team of others in 2012, ByteDance developed the video-sharing ap ...

's systems, as well as Alibaba Cloud's Availability zone C in Singapore, and possibly

DigitalOcean DigitalOcean Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational technology company and cloud service provider. The company is headquartered in New York City, New York, US, with 15 globally distributed data centers. DigitalOcean provides developers, ...

, Coolify, and

Cloudflare Cloudflare, Inc., is an American company that provides content delivery network services, cybersecurity, DDoS mitigation, wide area network services, reverse proxies, Domain Name Service, ICANN-accredited domain registration, and other se ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2004 establishments in California American companies established in 2004 Data centers Companies based in Austin, Texas Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Real estate investment trusts of the United States Real estate companies established in 2004 Technology companies established in 2004 2004 initial public offerings