Equinix and Digital Realty Report Record Q3 Bookings as Pricing Firms Up

Equinix and Digital Realty, the two largest listed colocation operators, both reported record leasing for the third quarter of 2026 within a day of each other. Equinix said on 28 October that annualized gross bookings reached a record $533 million, up 35% year over year. Digital Realty said on 29 October that bookings expected to generate $855 million of annualized GAAP rental revenue at 100% share were signed in the quarter, and that renewal leases repriced upward. Both raised full-year guidance.

What the filings say

Equinix (press release, 28 October 2026): revenue was $2.571 billion, up 11% as reported and 12% on a normalized, constant-currency basis. The company described pricing as strengthening and said monthly recurring revenue grew by double digits year over year for a fourth consecutive quarter, without giving a per-cabinet figure. It said nearly 40% more cabinets are planned for delivery in 2026 than initially anticipated. Full-year revenue guidance is now $10.325–10.365 billion, the third consecutive raise. Q3 net income also included a non-recurring fee tied to the atNorth joint venture with CPP Investments, which flatters the earnings comparison.

Digital Realty (8-K, 29 October 2026): total revenue was about $1.9 billion, roughly 21% above the same quarter a year earlier. Total bookings at its own share were $627 million, of which about $474 million came from deals over 1 MW and $130 million from 0–1 MW deals; interconnection added $22 million. Renewal leases signed in the quarter rose 11.8% on a cash basis and 17.0% on a GAAP basis. The signed-but-not-commenced backlog reached a record $2.5 billion of annualized GAAP base rent at 100% share. The company bought $742 million of land in the quarter, including parcels near Indianapolis (supporting over 1 GW of IT capacity), Atlanta, Chicago (360 MW across two parcels) and Charlotte (up to 600 MW), plus small sites near Frankfurt and Crete. After quarter-end it closed $1.4 billion of initial equity commitments for a perpetual-capital strategy focused on stabilized North American hyperscale assets. Its 2026 Core FFO guidance rose to $8.30–8.35 per share.

In Asia Pacific, Digital Realty’s supplement shows $283 million of bookings (its share) across 79.7 MW, a stated $296 per kW. That is a blended figure across the region’s contracts and is not comparable with a single-market tariff.

What it means for buyers of capacity

The signal is direction, not level. Two operators with different models — Equinix retail and interconnection, Digital Realty weighted to larger wholesale blocks — are both reporting that renewals and new deals are landing at higher rates, while a large backlog is already spoken for. For a buyer, that points to thinner uncommitted inventory in established metros and less room to negotiate on renewals.

Our Colocation Price Index is consistent with a firming but uneven market: the current release shows North America wholesale averaging $196 per kW per month, up 6.5% year over year, while several markets, including Tokyo and Sydney, were flat. Those benchmarks cover H2 2025 through Q2 2026, so they predate these Q3 contracts; read the operators’ renewal uplifts as a leading indicator, not as a revision of the index. For market-level detail see wholesale pricing and retail pricing, and for operator context our Equinix vs Digital Realty comparison. The catalog currently tracks 269 Equinix and 295 Digital Realty facilities.

Practical implications: start renewal talks earlier than the contract notice period requires, and compare any quote with the published benchmarks in our pricing guide rather than with a prior contract. Land purchases of the size Digital Realty disclosed take years to turn into delivered halls, so they do not relieve near-term supply in those metros.

What we do not yet know

Neither company publishes a per-cabinet or per-kW price, so the size of the pricing increase on new, non-renewal deals is not disclosed. Equinix’s release does not break out xScale results or cabinets delivered in Q3. Renewal uplift percentages depend on how far below market the expiring contracts were, and may overstate the change in market rates. Whether the same pattern holds in Southeast Asian markets will only show in the next CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield releases.