7 Best Data Center Stocks, ETFs and REITs to Buy

By U.S. News & World Report
May 27, 2026 | 8:00 PM

You can’t scroll through a financial news feed today without seeing a headline about a major market segment, be it tech or industrials, getting completely reshaped by artificial intelligence.

“A few years ago, data centers were built mainly to store files and run software,” says Tejas Dessai, director of thematic research at Global X ETFs, which manages the Data Center & Digital Infrastructure ETF (ticker: DTCR). “Today, they are being redesigned as AI factories that run advanced workloads around the clock.”

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Think of it this way: AI is the brain, and the data center is the nervous system. The explosive growth of AI has created an insatiable demand for powerful data centers.

The challenge, he says, is keeping up with this demand, especially when building new data centers is becoming more difficult “due to permitting hurdles, power delays and grid infrastructure bottlenecks.” This supply-demand imbalance is further intensified by the fact that “AI is expected to drive an explosion in data creation, so storing and processing that data will require substantial new data center capacity,” he says.

All of this leads to a key reality for investors: “The market is underappreciating the data center and digital infrastructure theme against this backdrop,” Dessai says. So, now could well be the time to capitalize on the data center and AI theme.

How to Invest in Data Centers and Hyperscalers

If you’re seeking the clearest, most direct way to invest in the AI revolution, you need to look beyond the graphics processing unit (GPU) makers and go straight to the powerhouse infrastructure that makes AI possible: data centers.

“Investors typically get exposure to AI through a handful of mega-cap technology names,” Dessai says. “But there is a lot more to the AI infrastructure story.”

Companies are increasing their data center spending so fast, it’s difficult to keep up with current estimates. In fact, consensus estimates for capital expenditures by the “Magnificent Seven” and other top hyperscalers have been revised sharply higher. Investors can now expect these tech giants to pour upward of $674 billion into AI and data center investments in fiscal 2026, according to Wall Street analysts.

Looking at the long-term horizon, the Dell’Oro Group — an independent market research firm specializing in data center infrastructure — forecasts that global data center capital expenditure will reach a staggering $1.7 trillion by 2029 in its latest estimates. That’s $500 billion higher than it projected for that timeframe in August of last year.

That kind of spending is bound to have huge knock-on effects on the U.S. and global economies. After all, building new data centers and upgrading old ones to handle AI involves the industrial sector, materials, utilities, energy, defense companies, real estate and, of course, the communications, information and technology sectors. Nearly the entire market is — directly or indirectly — benefiting from the ongoing data center boom.

Not just any data center stock, exchange-traded fund or real estate investment trust will do, however. Here are seven of the best data center stocks, ETFs and REITs to buy now:

*Net assets, rather than market capitalization, are listed for this fund.

**30-day SEC yield.

Equinix Inc. (EQIX)

Equinix is the largest data center REIT in the world. The company has a market cap of $106.4 billion and operates more than 280 data centers on six continents. This includes facilities and hyperscale data centers in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.

Equinix centers act as a neutral “meet-me room” where the world’s major networks, cloud providers — such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud — and enterprises physically and virtually connect. This concentration of partners creates a powerful network effect, which is difficult for competitors to replicate and drives consistent customer retention.

Digital Realty Trust Inc. (DLR)

Digital Realty is a global REIT and one of the largest dedicated providers of data center solutions. While Equinix dominates the interconnection market, DLR is a leader in offering massive, power-heavy facilities for the world’s biggest cloud providers, such as AWS, Google Cloud and Azure, to run their core infrastructure.

The company’s platform, PlatformDigital, spans more than 300 data centers globally and serves over half of Fortune 500 companies. It provides move-in-ready data center suites or build-to-suit models and the specialized power and liquid cooling solutions to support AI’s high-performance computing.

Digital Realty kicked off 2026 strong with first-quarter revenue of $1.6 billion, a 16% increase over the first quarter of 2025. It also signed the largest hyperscale lease in company history, helping to foster double-digit growth in its constant-currency core funds from operations (FFO) per share.

Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)

While not a data center operator in itself, Nvidia has become the gravitational center of the AI hardware universe. The chipmaker may be best known for its graphics processing units, or GPUs, but today its business is primarily selling the chips, network equipment and software that power AI workloads inside data centers.

At Nvidia’s March GTC conference, CEO Jensen Huang projected at least $1 trillion in revenue from 2025 through 2027, driven by what he described as “off the charts” demand for the company’s GPUs.

The company’s latest earnings back up the bull case. It reported record fourth-quarter and full-year revenue for fiscal year 2026. Data center revenue alone was $62.3 billion in the fourth quarter, an increase of 75% year over year. With the arrival of its first Vera CPUs at AI labs Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceXAI (after the acquisition of xAI) earlier this month, chances are things are only looking up. For investors, Nvidia isn’t just riding the AI wave; it’s shaping the shoreline.

Applied Digital Corp. (APLD)

Applied Digital is a bit more of a speculative data center stock, but it does provide a direct way to play the AI infrastructure buildout. The company develops large-scale data centers for AI and high-performance computing.

Its biggest selling point is customer validation: In April, Applied Digital announced it entered into a 15-year lease worth about $7.5 billion with a U.S.-based hyperscaler. The lease brought Applied Digital’s total contracted lease revenue to more than $23 billion — over half of which is backed by investment-grade customers.

If you want a high-growth data center pick beyond the major REITs, Applied Digital offers exposure to one of AI’s core bottlenecks: capacity.

[READ: 5 Best AI Memory Stocks to Buy for 2026]

Vertiv Holdings Co. (VRT)

Vertiv doesn’t own data centers itself, but it does help data centers keep running. The company provides critical digital infrastructure, including power and cooling solutions, used by data centers, communications networks and other facilities. In Vertiv’s words, it “powers and cools” data, which is one way to conceptualize the investment case for the stock.

Naturally, demand for this service has increased with growing AI workloads. The company saw a 30% increase in net sales in first quarter 2026 compared to the same quarter last year, largely thanks to strong data center demand in the Americas. Adjusted diluted EPS also rose 83%, and the company increased its full-year guidance on the heels of such a strong start to the year.

For investors, VRT is a picks-and-shovels play on AI data centers. It may be less glamorous than semiconductor chips, but it’s essential to make those chips usable at scale.

Eaton Corp. PLC (ETN)

Eaton is another play on the same theme as Vertiv. It makes electrical equipment and power management systems that support data centers in the rising electricity demand of AI workloads. The company says it’s “helping define what it means to be AI-ready, helping the data center industry design and deploy infrastructure that can handle extreme power density, dynamic AI workloads and grid interaction.”

This makes it another picks-and-shovels approach to AI infrastructure. Demand for its services is on the rise with record sales of $7.5 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 17% compared to Q1 2025, and a year-over-year backlog growth of 48% in its electrical sector. The company also closed $11 billion of strategic acquisitions in the quarter. Management expects organic growth of 9% to 11% for the full year with earnings per share between $10.88 and $11.33.

iShares U.S. Digital Infrastructure and Real Estate ETF (IDGT)

Each of the previously mentioned stocks are strong contenders to benefit from future data center demand, but there is no guarantee that all of them will thrive. If you want data center exposure without committing to a single stock, a fund like IDGT could be just the ticket.

The ETF targets U.S.-listed companies involved in the storage, processing, transmission or access of digital data. In plain English, that means exposure to data centers, telecom towers and communication infrastructure — the physical backbone behind digitization and AI. That mix makes IDGT broader than a pure data center REIT fund. It can hold companies tied to real estate, communications equipment and other infrastructure that helps move and process data.

So the upside to an ETF is diversification and not needing to read company annual reports yourself. The downside is expenses. IDGT doesn’t necessarily carry a hefty fee, but you do pay 0.39% per year, or about $3.90 each year for every $1,000 you invest. Often, this is well worth the benefits, but it is something to keep in mind.

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7 Best Data Center Stocks, ETFs and REITs to Buy originally appeared on usnews.com

null 05/28/26: This story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.

Asia’s next great gourmet destination? Inside Indonesia’s fine-dining revolution

By CNN
August 11, 2026 | 5:44 AM

More than 120 years ago, Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, National Geographic magazine’s first female writer, photographer and board member, chronicled her travels through colonial Indonesia in her book “Java: The Garden of the East.”She was particularly fascinated by a feast known as the rijsttafel (rice table), a multi-dish banquet that was served in the grand Hotel de Nederlanden in Batavia, as Jakarta was known then.Scidmore vividly recalled a “conglomerate mountain” of food, including bits of fish, duck, chicken, beef, omelettes and onions piled alongside steaks, salads, curries, chutneys, spices and tropical fruits.The sumptuous spread had something to satisfy everyone amongst the 100 or so guests that filled the grand dining hall — even the “squeamish folk, unseasoned tourists and well-starched Britons with a small sense of humor.”Like Scidmore, most early Western documentation of Indonesia’s flavors focused on the opulent colonial feast. Little else was known about the diverse and rich flavors found across the enormous archipelago, in spite of it being home to the fabled Spice Islands, which sparked a 16th- and 17th-century “spice rush” for cloves, nutmeg and mace by Portuguese, Dutch and British traders.In more recent decades, the world has become better acquainted with some of the beloved humble foods found in Indonesian homes and warungs (street-side eateries), with satay, nasi goreng and beef rendang among the most familiar dishes beloved by travelers.But now, there’s a rising number of contemporary chefs who are elevating the national cuisine on the global stage by reimagining its famous spices into fine-dining experiences, while sharing the sophisticated stories of Indonesian flavor through a different lens.Made up of thousands of islands dotted across two oceans, Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelagic country. It would be an understatement to say the country’s cuisine is wildly varied.As a result, “the existing understanding of Indonesian food culture is very shallow,” says William Wongso, an Indonesian culinary expert and author.Boasting an enviable array of regional ingredients and flavors, the country’s chefs have been working to educate international gourmets — and even locals — about the beauty of Indonesian cuisine.And Jakarta, its capital city, has become a breeding ground for the movement. Wongso compares it to the dining scenes in New York or Shanghai, which draw talent from all over their respective countries. “Everybody wants to come here to make a thing,” he says. “So people from different regions bring flavors and food cultures.”Some open humble warungs and serve their home cooking. A few look beyond recipes and focus on elements that make Indonesian cuisine unique for a wider audience, reinventing the whole experience.A modern, fine-dining blueprintEnter August, which opened in 2021 inside a gleaming skyscraper in Jakarta’s central business district.The duo behind the concept, Jakartan Hans Christian and Budi Cahyadi from the Indonesian island of Lombok, were definitely not the first people to promote Indonesian flavors — Christian emphasizes figures like Wongso, for example, who have been championing gastro-diplomacy abroad for decades.But August has spearheaded a new format and standard for the country’s fine-dining restaurants: a modern, Indonesia-inspired tasting menu operating at a world-class level of culinary execution and service.The industry has already noticed. August became one of the few Indonesian restaurants to achieve international recognition, placing 42nd on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026 and earning accolades at The Best Chef Awards.“When I came back to Jakarta, you either had classic French fine dining or very casual bistros, mostly run by expat chefs,” says Christian, who sharpened his skills in Malaysia and the United States before returning to Jakarta in 2016.“There were no locally grown chefs doing their own thing with their own roots or interpretations. For me, August is about the pride of telling our own story … and a responsibility to not only embrace our roots, but also relearn them.”Cahyadi, with more than a decade of hospitality experience in a luxury hotel, agrees. He currently helms the front of house in August’s dining room.“In Jakarta, you either had to pick a place where the food was good but the service was lousy, or a casual place where service was bad but food was decent. When I met Hans, I knew it was time for a place where food is excellent and hospitality is delivered at the exact same time,” he says.In 2019, the two started August as a private kitchen concept before turning it into the current restaurant in 2021.Inside August’s intimate dining room — warmly lit with dark wood accents and a bright, open stainless-steel kitchen at the end of the dining room — the restaurant’s two tasting menus blend familiar Indonesian flavor profiles into completely unexpected forms.Their daikon dish is inspired by the format of Japanese agedashi tofu — silken tofu coated in starch, deep-fried until golden brown and traditionally dressed in dashi sauce.August’s version is served with a cuko sauce — a sweet and sour reduction made with tamarind and palm sugar featuring a tangy umami taste.It reminds locals of eating pempek, the Indonesian fishcake. A drizzle of andaliman pepper oil, Indonesia’s version of Sichuan peppercorns, gives the dish a unique, numbing spicy kick.Another highlight features Japanese Kimendai fish cooked by pouring hot oil over the scales until it crisps up while keeping the flesh tender. It sits in a kuah garang asem (yellow sour curry sauce) from the Central Java region.The sourness comes from a native green fruit called belimbing wuluh (or bilimbi), which looks like an oblong tomato but tastes extremely acidic, while ginger flowers provide a touch of freshness.The curry base is made from a yellow bumbu — made of aromatics such as turmeric and lemongrass. Often compared with France’s mother sauces (a group of five master sauces, such as Béchamel and Hollandaise, that are said to be the foundation of classical French cooking), Indonesian bumbu are spiced sauces that take hours to caramelize and form the base of many different dishes.Christian says that August has slowly evolved over the years, with more Indonesian flavors being incorporated into his menu as the team gains confidence and the demand grows.“In the beginning, our menu leaned more towards classic European because that was my formal training. When more international guests came, they expected more Indonesian flavor,” says Christian.Now, with half of their guests coming from overseas, the team tries to find the balance carefully without being intimidating.“Finding that balance was crucial — doing modern Indonesian cooking in a way that’s exciting for locals without just putting expensive ingredients in a traditional dish. We want to start from a product or a cooking method and create something new out of that idea,” says Christian.The founders admit that Jakarta has few fine dining concepts compared to fellow Southeast Asian cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Manila and Bangkok.“We knew we were a few years behind, but we are in progress to catch up. Over the years, the interest from people who want to learn and taste the flavor of Indonesia is growing,” says Christian. “For the past five to six years, we’ve been on a mission to prove people wrong.”It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t just about the menus, but the operation.They were the first restaurant to impose a reservation fee for diners in Jakarta. It also took a few years to educate their diners to be punctual for the tasting menu so the table could start the menu together – an often tricky feat in Jakarta traffic.But August’s success helped set new operational benchmarks for the city, proving that local diners were ready to enjoy high-end tasting menus.In the years since, Jakarta’s fine-dining community has expanded rapidly.ESA, opened in 2023, proudly offers a menu called New Jakarta Cuisine. Kindling, which opened the following year, blends Indonesian-Chinese dishes with French technique. Selera, newly opened this year in the Keraton at the Plaza hotel, emphasizes the nation’s culinary heritage with local ingredients.Outside the capital, things are changing, too, particularly in the country’s tourist hotspots. Bali, for example, has evolved to offer more than just fine resort dining and Western restaurants catering to visitors.Locavore NXT, helmed by Dutch-Indonesian duo Eelke Plasmeijer and Ray Adriansyah, serves a tasting menu that highlights local ingredients. The independent concept also has a farm, laboratory and store.Meanwhile, young, local and independent concepts are slowly increasing elsewhere in the country.Overlooking the historical Prambanan Temple and Mount Merapi, Suwatu in Yogyakarta, the royal cultural heart of Java, is an upscale hillside restaurant with a menu packed with local dishes cooked by local villagers.In Bandung, both MMBS (Mari Merangkai Bunga Seroja) and Plataran Bandung serve local Sundanese cuisine, with hyper-seasonal tasting menus featuring a creative twist.Not just about the price tagAt the same time, classic Indonesian restaurants are reexamining the stories they would like to tell.For a long time, the 1945 Restaurant inside the Fairmont Jakarta has been regarded as the city’s only high-end Indonesian restaurant in a five-star hotel.Taking over as the chef de cuisine this year, Yopi Tumeru has been determined to inject fresh ideas into the 11-year-old establishment — and he was inspired by the traditional rijsttafel concept.His vision of the legendary feast isn’t only a sumptuous buffet but an educational exploration of Indonesian cuisine.“For many years, Indonesian food was presented either as home cooking, street food or part of a hotel buffet… Our Rijsttafel was designed as a culinary journey through the archipelago. We preserve the generous and communal character of the traditional experience while refining the portions, presentation and sequence,” Tumeru says.The menu includes dishes such as wagyu beef rendang, duck leg confit with sambal madura, tuna collar rica-rica (rahang tuna), tempe nachos and es teler cheesecake — all created to shine new light onto old dishes.For chefs like Tumeru, presenting Indonesian cuisine in a haute gastronomic format isn’t just about slapping on higher price tags and using expensive ingredients.They are proudly showcasing the often undervalued Indonesian cuisine — from the ingredients, the knowledge and the labor to the cultural heritage.“Rendang, for example, is not simply beef cooked in coconut milk. It requires patience, careful control of the heat, and an understanding of how the spices develop over time,” says Tumeru, who feels chefs have a responsibility to help guests appreciate that complexity.Despite giving Indonesian cuisine an upscale makeover, all of the chefs insist their roots and hearts remain with the humble, family-run warung. They encourage diners to ask for street-food tips, which might otherwise feel intimidating without a local guide.The movement isn’t about replacing affordable neighborhood joints. It’s about broadening how the world sees Indonesian food, using fine dining as a welcoming gateway into their country’s vast culinary heritage.“There is still a mindset that Indonesian food cannot be expensive — that is not true,” says Wongso.“These high-end restaurants, if they’re doing it right, they’re quite helpful in changing people’s mindsets. Indonesian food cannot be cheap. It takes immense labor and skill. A single sauce or spice paste takes hours of balancing and preparation. You can Google many things, but you can’t Google taste.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

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