Digital Realty’s backlog of signed leases scheduled to start paying rent in 2027 rose to $831 million at the end of September, from $480 million at the end of June, according to the commencement-timing charts in its third-quarter and second-quarter investor presentations. That is about 73% more in one quarter, by our arithmetic.
The figures are annualized GAAP base rent at the company’s share. Leases expected to start in 2028 or later rose to $643 million from $312 million. About four-fifths of the $1,846 million backlog, 79.8%, is now scheduled to start in 2027 or later, up from 55.5% three months earlier, by our arithmetic.
Short explainer · Digital Realty’s 2027 signed rent
A vertical news Short summarising this story with related coverage. Figures come from Digital Realty’s SEC filings; our arithmetic is labelled.
Business Pill · Backlog Explained
An evergreen Business Engineer explainer on backlog: revenue that is signed but not yet earned. It teaches the general idea only and does not discuss Digital Realty.
The key insight: Digital Realty’s signed-but-not-commenced rent dated 2027 rose to $831 million from $480 million in one quarter, and about four-fifths of its backlog at its share now starts in 2027 or later, by our arithmetic from its presentations.
Digital Realty reported a record total backlog of $2.5 billion of annualized GAAP base rent at 100% share at the end of the third quarter, and a record $1.8 billion at its own share, in its earnings release filed with the SEC on 29 October. At the end of June the comparable figures were $1.9 billion and $1.4 billion.
Bookings at its share were a record $627 million in the quarter, the release says, against $208 million in the second quarter, about three times as much, by our arithmetic. At 100% share, the quarter’s bookings are expected to generate $855 million of annualized GAAP rental revenue.
In the second-quarter release, Digital Realty said that in July it signed two hyperscale leases representing $410 million of annualized GAAP base rent at 100% share, or $205 million at its share. That equals about a third of the third quarter’s bookings at its share, by our arithmetic; the filings read do not break the quarter’s bookings down by lease.
Digital Realty backlog of signed-but-not-commenced leases by expected commencement year, annualized GAAP base rent at Digital Realtyโs share, end of June vs end of September 2026, from its 2Q26 and 3Q26 investor presentations. Shares starting in 2027 or later are FourWeekMBA arithmetic.
The Wait for Rent Got Longer
The weighted-average lag between new leases signed in the quarter and their contractual commencement date was 17 months, the third-quarter release says. For leases signed in the second quarter it was nine months, according to the second-quarter release, so the wait nearly doubled, by our arithmetic.
The backlog roll-forward in the third-quarter presentation reconciles: $1,427 million at the end of June, plus $627 million signed, less $207 million commenced, gives $1,847 million, against the $1,846 million reported, by our arithmetic. The presentation puts the backlog at about 40% of in-place data center rent at its share; the second-quarter presentation put it at about 30%.
The presentation describes the hyperscale business as “Developing large capacity blocks and infrastructure for the world’s leading cloud and AI providers”. It lists more than 5 GW of future development capacity and about 1.5 GW under construction.
What the Company Says
“Digital Realty extended its track record of execution in the third quarter with record leasing, an expanding backlog, and another quarter of double-digit earnings growth”, said President and Chief Executive Officer Andy Power in the release.
During the quarter the company acquired $742 million of land, including a site near the Indianapolis metro area to support over one gigawatt of IT capacity and two parcels in the Chicago metro area for an aggregate of 360 megawatts. After quarter end, it closed $1.4 billion of initial cornerstone equity commitments to a new perpetual capital strategy focused on stabilized hyperscale data centers in North America, the release says.
The backlog, as the presentation defines it, is annualized base rent from leases signed but not yet commenced, based on the commencement date estimated at signing. In one quarter, the part of that contracted rent dated 2027 or later rose to $1,474 million from $792 million, by our arithmetic, while the part dated 2026 fell to $371 million from $635 million. That $264 million drop is larger than the $207 million the roll-forward shows as commenced in the quarter, by our arithmetic; the filings read do not break down the change by lease.
Among the components of net asset value, the supplement lists a backlog NOI cost to complete of 270,276 in thousands of dollars, about $270.3 million by our arithmetic. The release does not say how the cost to complete changed during the quarter.
The Structural Read
As we read the commencement charts, the backlog grew by $419 million in the quarter while the part dated 2027 or later grew by $682 million, by our arithmetic, so rent dated 2027 or later accounts for more than all of the increase.
As we read the releases, record bookings of $627 million at the company’s share came with a longer wait: 17 months from signing to commencement, against nine months for leases signed in the second quarter.
As we read the presentation’s own note, the commencement dates are estimates made at signing, and actual commencement dates may vary.
Digital Realty, 3Q26 earnings release, 29 Oct 2026
“Digital Realty extended its track record of execution in the third quarter with record leasing, an expanding backlog, and another quarter of double-digit earnings growth”
Three Implications
FOR TENANTS The third-quarter release gives a weighted-average lag of 17 months between signing and contractual commencement for new leases.
FOR DIGITAL REALTY The third-quarter presentation puts the backlog at about 40% of in-place data center rent at its share, against about 30% in the second-quarter presentation.
FOR CAPITAL PROVIDERS The release says the company closed $1.4 billion of initial cornerstone equity commitments to a perpetual capital strategy focused on stabilized hyperscale data centers in North America after quarter end.
The framework describes its subject as “How the money flows, where it cracks, what it buys, who can absorb it, and what happens when revenue can’t catch up.”
As we read it, Digital Realty’s backlog shows the landlord side of that flow: rent contracted now and dated 2027 or later. The framework is the owner’s argument and does not discuss Digital Realty or this quarter.
The documents read do not name the tenants behind the 2027 leases, say how much of the backlog is for AI workloads, or break down the quarter’s bookings by customer. The commencement dates are estimates made at signing; the presentation notes that actual commencement dates may vary.
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Digital Realty’s signed-but-not-commenced rent for 2027 rose to $831 million from $480 million in one quarter, and about four-fifths of its $1,846 million backlog at its share now starts in 2027 or later. Bookings were a record $627 million at its share, and the lag from signing to commencement lengthened to 17 months from nine.
A note on sourcing. All facts and figures come from Digital Realty’s third-quarter 2026 earnings release, financial supplement and investor presentation filed with the SEC on 29 October 2026, and its second-quarter 2026 release and presentation filed on 23 July 2026, read on 31 October 2026. Changes, shares and multiples are our arithmetic. We did not contact Digital Realty.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
