How the multibillion dollar AI data center boom has transformed CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate company |
How the multibillion dollar AI data center boom has transformed CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate company
CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm, has long been associated with brokerage, facilities management, and investment sales. But the century-old company—founded in the aftermath of the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake—is now being reshaped by another kind of seismic event: the AI data center boom.
The rise of generative AI has triggered an unprecedented wave of data center construction as companies scramble to secure the computing power needed to train and run large AI models. As hyperscalers race to acquire land, power, and water for massive AI infrastructure projects, CBRE, which is headquartered in Dallas, has quietly become a key player behind the scenes.
The company says it has secured “dozens” of potential data center sites around the country and is working directly with major tech companies on everything from land entitlements to power and water access. Unlike pure brokerage firms or construction contractors, CBRE increasingly sits across multiple layers of the AI infrastructure buildout.
The company’s move into critical infrastructure and data center services “is going to be at least as profound as our move into outsourcing in the 1990s and early 2000s, and much faster,” CBRE president and CEO Bob Sulentic said on the company’s April 23 earnings call, in which the company announced the its revenue had jumped 19% year over year.
The shift is already reshaping CBRE’s business. The company generated more than $3 billion in infrastructure-related revenue in 2025 and nearly $950 million in the first quarter alone. It recently created a dedicated “critical infrastructure services” unit focused on data centers, telecom, and power infrastructure—a business expected to grow more than 60% this year. CBRE also said its data center leasing revenue more than tripled year-over-year in the first quarter.
In an April shareholder letter, the company said critical infrastructure activities—including data center operations and its Pearce Services........