CBRE Buys Onnec in Up to $1B Data Center Services Deal

CBRE has agreed to acquire London-based Onnec Group in an Onnec acquisition worth as much as $1 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported in an exclusive.

The purchase pushes the biggest firm in commercial real estate services further into the equipment side of data centers, and the Journal framed it as the latest sign the industry is hitching its growth to AI spending.

What CBRE Is Buying

Terms call for $610 million of cash up front, plus as much as $400 million more if Onnec hits growth goals spread over several years, the Journal reported. Onnec’s roughly 800 employees put in and service the cabling and racks at facilities run by large technology clients across Europe and Asia Pacific.

CBRE previously bought U.S.-based Direct Line in 2024, the Journal noted, so Onnec is the second such move.

Beyond Bricks and Mortar

CBRE’s earlier data center work centered on construction services, property management, financing and brokerage of sales and leases, per the Journal. The two acquisitions add the hardware layer inside the buildings.

CEO Bob Sulentic told the Journal the deals put CBRE closer to where computing actually happens.

A Growing Earnings Engine

The Journal reported that the data center and wider infrastructure business generated roughly $450 million of CBRE’s 2025 earnings, 14% of the total versus 3% in 2021. Sulentic told the Journal the company is projecting about $7 billion of infrastructure revenue in 2027, spanning data centers, energy and transportation.

Demand explains the push. CBRE data cited by the Journal show supply across eight large U.S. markets expanded almost 34% over the 12 months through June 30, yet only 1.4% of it sat empty.

JLL Is Moving Too

JLL, the No. 2 services firm, is also building out its data center practice with new specialists plus energy and engineering capabilities, the Journal reported. Andy Cvengros, a co-lead of the U.S. data center markets group at JLL, told the Journal that the group has roughly doubled in two years and cannot hire fast enough.

JLL runs more than 400 facilities worldwide, per the Journal. For a wider look at the theme, see CRE Daily’s roundup of AI real estate plays beyond data centers.

The Tech-Cycle Risk

Real estate has long offered investors a hedge against a tech-bubble collapse, the Journal noted, but services firms are now more tied to that cycle. A slowdown in outlays for data center buildouts, hardware and connectivity would hurt a growing revenue source.

Some investors worry the AI boom is a bubble, the Journal reported, and Sulentic told the Journal the sector is extremely frothy. He said CBRE also sees opportunity in improving and running facilities already built.

AI also threatens some existing fee streams, per the Journal: companies that run leaner could require smaller offices, and automation might absorb research and valuation work plus portions of deal-making. Those fears hit shares of CBRE, JLL and peers in February. JPMorgan analyst Anthony Paolone told the Journal the worry about AI replacing brokers is overblown given the human judgment involved.

Why It Matters

Higher rates have dulled the outlook for office, retail and multifamily development, the Journal noted, so data centers are one of the few growth lanes left for services firms. A single facility generates fees at nearly every stage, from land search to construction, equipment, management, financing and sale.

Capital is chasing the same theme, as CRE Daily reported when Blackstone’s data center empire anchored its AI bet, a trend the Journal’s report on CBRE echoes.

What’s Next

Watch how quickly Onnec hits the targets tied to the earnout, and whether JLL and other rivals answer with acquisitions of their own. The durability of AI infrastructure spending is the variable that decides how well these bets pay off.