Digital Realty Enters Milan, Expands Southern Europe Platform

Digital Realty DLR recently announced its entry in Milan, solidifying its digital infrastructure across the Mediterranean and Southern Europe. The move strengthens its leadership in one of Europe’s most economically powerful and digitally dynamic regions, connecting key hubs in Athens, Marseille and Sofia, with new sites under construction in Barcelona, Crete and other key markets.

Acquiring two land parcels in Abbiategrasso, southwest of Milan's city center and just one kilometer apart, DLR will develop the new campus at the southwest subsea traffic corridor connecting Milan to Genoa and Savona. Located in proximity to two existing hyperscale regions, the new facility will provide for long-term capacity enhancement for digital services in Northern Italy and beyond.

The company plans to deliver an 8-megawatt (MW) facility with a focus on retail colocation and interconnection requirements at first, anticipated to be ready in 2028. A further expansion of up to 84 MW of capacity is planned on the larger plot to cater to the ongoing demand for artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and other enterprise deployments.

Digital Realty aims to provide the much-needed infrastructure to support Milan’s growth as a digital hub, fostering new content, interconnection and cloud communities while ensuring long-term capacity for AI and hyperscale deployments. Its Milan expansion goes alongside its presence in Rome. The company is building its first facility in this metro, ROM1, expected to be operational in early 2027.

Digital Realty’s Expansionary Efforts

Digital Realty has been rapidly making strides in boosting its data center infrastructure to capitalize on the ever-expanding AI frenzy. In early March 2026, it entered Portugal with the acquisition of a data center in Lisbon, expected to support up to 2.4 MW of IT load and likely to be ready for service in early 2027. By establishing a presence in Lisbon, the company gains access to an important connectivity gateway linking Europe with the Americas and Africa.

Further strengthening its European footprint, Digital Realty expanded into Bulgaria through the acquisition of Telepoint, a highly connected interconnection hub in Sofia. The deal adds two data centers to its portfolio and strengthens its presence in Southeast Europe.

Wrapping Up on Digital Realty

These strategic investments and market entries underscore Digital Realty’s focus on scaling its platform and strengthening its presence in key global connectivity hubs. Such initiatives are likely to position the company well to capture the rising demand for digital infrastructure in the coming years.

Over the past month, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have rallied 12.8% compared with the industry's gain of 0.9%.

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Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks from the broader REIT sector are Chatham Lodging Trust REIT CLDT, sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and Terreno Realty TRNO, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CLDT’s 2026 FFO per share is pegged at $1.20, which indicates year-over-year growth of 17.7%.

The consensus estimate for TRNO’s full-year FFO per share is pinned at $2.79, which calls for a marginal increase from the year-ago period.

Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO) — a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.

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