The data center boom now totals $1.3 trillion in announced spending, and a new interactive platform is pulling back the curtain on exactly where that money comes from. San Diego-based Atrium, an AI analytics firm, launched “Who Finances America’s Data Centers” last week, a tool that tracks individual debt facilities and the lenders behind them. The platform breaks down deals like Coreweave’s $23 billion debt facility, which draws on 38 different lenders, and the 24 lenders financing DigitalBridge and IFM’s $20 billion debt facility.
Who’s actually writing the checks
Beyond single deals, the platform maps the broader activity of non-bank lenders. PIMCO has done $23 billion in originations, according to the data. On the borrower side, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta and Oracle together account for $223 billion in long-term debt and credit facilities.
This all comes as construction costs keep climbing. Other sectors have seen building slow, but data centers are picking up the slack. A recent report from Skanska points to heavy activity in data centers, semiconductors, and life sciences.
“The market is hot and cold right now — hot and warm may be a better way to say it — so what stands out is that we’re seeing a lot of project activity around data centers, semiconductor, life sciences,” said Skanska’s Tom Park. “There’s really a lot of unprecedented demand in the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and steel space driving up lead times and cost.”
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The scale here is hard to compare to anything in recent commercial real estate history. Past construction cycles were driven by office towers or industrial warehouses, but those never required the specialized electrical and cooling infrastructure that data centers demand, nor did they concentrate so much borrowing in so few corporate hands. That concentration is what makes the Atrium data useful — it shows how dependent the entire sector has become on a relatively small group of megaborrowers.
AI firms are shifting the office market too
The companies fueling data center demand are also changing where tech work happens. According to a report from CBRE, New York City has surpassed San Francisco for the first time as the biggest tech labor market in North America. Tech still makes up 10 percent of San Francisco’s total workforce versus only 4.2 percent in New York, but the sheer size of the New York metro means that works out to 394,300 tech jobs versus 375,730.
That shift is showing up in office leasing. AI firms took roughly 800,000 square feet of New York office space in the second quarter of 2026, according to Colliers. It’s one reason office investment is rebounding after a rough stretch.
As recently as the second quarter of 2025, only 4 percent of real estate investors picked office as their most favored bet. Data from SitusAMC now shows that share has nearly tripled to 11 percent. In the first quarter of 2026 it was even higher: 16 percent.
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“We’ve been seeing over the past year or year and a half the office investment conditions are improving,” said Peter Muoio, head of SitusAMC Insights. “There is renewed interest.”
The improving sentiment showed up in second-quarter REIT earnings. “Overall, REIT earnings results were surprisingly strong and delivered one of the cleanest reporting periods in recent memory, with unusually broad guidance raises, improving property-level fundamentals, and relatively few outright disappointments,” said a report from Hoya Capital.
Deals are getting done. Thor Equities made a $218 million play for 1359 Broadway from Empire State Realty Trust at nearly the full asking price, only a month after the property hit the market. Lincoln Property Company, Saber-Hightower and Waterfall Asset Management acquired four National Resources properties — including a 270-acre business park in East Fishkill, N.Y. — for $450 million.
Retail and multifamily are holding their own
Retail leasing remains steady in Brooklyn. Players Club International took 1,875 square feet at Yosef Beer’s 17 Kent Avenue, Bylt Basics took 2,085 square feet at L3 Capital’s 108 North Sixth Street, and Zara leased a sizable 22,060 square feet at L3’s planned development at 184-192 Bedford Avenue.
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South Florida is also active. A consortium of owners secured $125 million in financing to add a mixed-use building to a luxury open-air mall in the Miami Design District. Vivienne Westwood filed plans for a new boutique in South Beach two years after buying 736 Collins Avenue.
Multifamily remains the other strong sector. New York’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development put forward a growth plan for 17,675 new homes in Staten Island. Los Angeles saw a 28 percent jump in real estate investment in July, mostly driven by housing, according to NAI Capital.
Extell Development purchased 110 East 55th Street from the Parkoff Organization for $65 million, and Artemis Real Estate Partners bought a 7.2-acre, 204-home assisted living complex in Delray Beach, Fla., called the Arbor at Delray from PGIM Real Estate for at least $140 million. Starwood Asset Management secured $482.5 million in CMBS financing for a 1,749-unit rental portfolio spread across 10 states.
