- Blue Owl is considering a publicly traded data center REIT seeded with about $6.5B of its own assets.
- The vehicle could raise capital through an IPO and later share sales to acquire data centers and expand the portfolio.
- The plan follows recent data center listings backed by Blackstone and Brookfield as AI infrastructure spending accelerates.
Blue Owl Capital is considering a publicly traded data center REIT. The vehicle would begin with about $6.5B of the firm’s own assets, according to Bloomberg’s report on the proposed vehicle. Blue Owl could raise additional money through an IPO and later share sales. The capital would support data center acquisitions and portfolio growth.
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Data Center REIT Could Raise More Capital
The proposed structure would give public investors exposure to an initial portfolio rather than a completely blind pool. People familiar with the matter compared it with Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust. Blue Owl’s version would differ by using seeded assets as an anchor from the start.
Deliberations remain ongoing, and the details of both the REIT and potential IPO could change. Blue Owl declined to comment on the report.
Blue Owl shares rose as much as 1.2% after the report. The stock remained down nearly 21% for the year at that point, leaving the asset manager with a market value above $18B.
Data Center IPO Market Expands
AI infrastructure spending is drawing more private-equity-backed data center companies toward public markets. Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust raised $2B in its May debut. Brookfield-backed Csquare raised $1.2B in July.
Blackstone’s vehicle was structured as a blind pool, meaning investors bought shares before knowing which assets it would own. Csquare’s listing added another public-market example only two months later.
Blue Owl is considering a public data center REIT structure with seeded assets. Bloomberg said other asset managers have also been studying vehicles similar to Blackstone’s listing after its debut.
Blue Owl Builds Digital Infrastructure Scale
Blue Owl closed its latest digital infrastructure fund in May with $7B of commitments. The firm has more than $319B of assets under management across credit, real assets, and strategic capital.
Its data center holdings include Stack Infrastructure, with operations in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Bloomberg previously reported that Stack was considering options for its Asian business. Those options included a potential sale valued above $30B.
Why It Matters
The planned REIT would add another listed capital source for data center expansion. Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Steven Tseng and Rebecca Wang see annual global data center capital expenditures rising sharply. They projected spending could exceed $1.2T by 2028, up from $421B last year. A seeded public vehicle would give Blue Owl another way to fund acquisitions during that buildout.
