America’s AI boom has turned chips and cloud platforms into instant fortunes, but a glaring truth is being papered over by market hype: the companies that literally build the country’s digital backbone — the data-center landlords — are being left behind. Forbes laid it out plainly in mid-January, noting that the mainstreaming of AI has spawned a trillion-dollar market even as the largest data center REITs have underperformed.
This isn’t small potatoes. Heavyweights like Equinix and Digital Realty, the so-called landlords of the internet, have seen share performance lag broader markets even while hyperscalers and chip makers enjoy windfall gains. That divergence is real and measurable, and it should bother any patriotic investor who cares about reliable infrastructure over short-term hype.
Why the disconnect? Simple: public REIT rules and cautious shareholders make it hard for these companies to swing for the fences the way private developers and tech giants can. Forbes explains that the REIT requirement to pay out most taxable income as dividends and the low tolerance for leveraged risk leave these firms starved for the speculative capital that builds hyperscale AI campuses. Conservative minds understand that a free market rewards risk-takers, but rules that hamstring sensible reinvestment deserve scrutiny.
Meanwhile, the winners in 2025 were not the prudent landlords but the aggressive builders and hyperscalers who can marshal capital, partnerships, and sometimes risky debt to win massive buildouts. Forbes and market analysts point to a list of top contracts dominated by non-REIT players, showing that speed and appetite for scale — not conservative balance-sheet management — win these auctions. That reality should make Americans asking which model actually keeps our nation competitive in the tech era.
When Equinix signaled it would dramatically raise capital spending to chase AI demand, investors punished the stock hard — a vivid market indictment of short-term thinking over long-term infrastructure vision. Coverage of Equinix’s analyst-day reaction shows the market’s knee-jerk fear when a company dares to spend for future dominance, even when the logic for more capacity is obvious. The populist conservative case is clear: we do not weaken our infrastructure because traders lack patience.
Equinix didn’t just talk — it’s been buying land and expanding its xScale program and joint ventures to provide megawatt-scale campuses for cloud titans. The company’s own filings and releases show major land acquisitions and multi-billion-dollar xScale commitments geared toward the very AI workloads critics claim REITs can’t serve. If investors want American firms to compete with state-backed or deep-pocketed private rivals, then capital allocation and long-term thinking must be rewarded, not punished.
None of this is happening without headaches: power constraints, permitting delays and construction setbacks plague even the boldest builders, and analysts warn that empty shells without megawatts are a drag on returns. Forbes reported that a majority of 2025 data-center projects suffered meaningful delays, and even Equinix has publicly outlined aggressive power strategies to keep pace with demand. Energy and grid capacity are national-security-level issues now, not an afterthought for CFOs.
There are signs some of the landlords can catch up: Digital Realty’s recent quarters showed stronger bookings and bullish analyst commentary that parts of the REIT sector can benefit from constrained power markets and rising rents. Smart, flexible REIT management that adapts to AI-era realities can still deliver steady returns while supporting national technological leadership. That balance is exactly the kind of pragmatic capitalism conservatives should champion.
Here’s the conservative bottom line: America needs more capacity, faster permitting, robust grid investment and a policy environment that doesn’t inadvertently force our most reliable infrastructure owners to sit on the sidelines. Encourage private capital, sure — but don’t kneecap public companies whose shareholders are ordinary Americans and institutions. If policymakers want to keep AI’s wealth and power rooted in this country, they should remove needless regulatory choke points, invest in grid resilience, and stop treating long-term infrastructure spending like a market sin.
