Digital Realty Acquires 1,440 Acres in Kansas for 600MW Hyperscale Campus, Boosts Teraco Stake and Buys Columbia Capital
June 22, 2026
Digital Realty Acquires 1,440 Acres in Kansas for 600MW Hyperscale Campus, Boosts Teraco Stake and Buys Columbia Capital
Digital Realty is making a major strategic push across three continents this week, announcing a large-scale hyperscale data center campus in Kansas, an increased ownership stake in South Africa’s Teraco, and the acquisition of U.S. investment firm Columbia Capital. The moves underscore the company’s ambition to scale its global footprint and private capital platform to meet surging demand from cloud and AI workloads.
The company has acquired approximately 1,440 acres of powered land at the Astra Enterprise Park in DeSoto, Kansas, from the Sunflower Redevelopment Group for roughly $475 million. The site, located southwest of Kansas City, was previously home to the U.S. government’s Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant, which shut down in 1993 and was transferred for redevelopment in 2005. Digital Realty’s first phase, known as Astra North, will cover around 280 acres and include up to nine buildings totaling about 3 million square feet, along with an on-site substation. The company has signed an energy service agreement with local utility Evergy to secure 600MW of utility power by early 2028, with the potential to scale to 2GW at full build-out. Digital Realty will pay for its energy under Kansas’ higher large-load tariff. The campus, referred to in city documents as Project Jayhawk, will rely primarily on outside air cooling, with evaporative cooling for peak hot periods. The company also plans to fund a new industrial wastewater treatment plant as part of the project. The broader 9,000-acre Astra park is also home to a Panasonic battery production facility, and a 600MW solar farm could be developed on roughly 3,000 acres within the park.
In a separate transaction, Digital Realty is increasing its ownership in South African data center operator Teraco. The company will purchase an additional 16 percent stake for approximately $650 million, primarily through the issuance of 3.4 million shares of common stock. The deal, expected to close in the second half of 2026, will bring Digital Realty’s total ownership to 77 percent. Teraco, founded in 2008, was initially acquired by Digital Realty in January 2022 in a deal valuing the company at roughly $3.5 billion. At full expansion, Teraco’s total capacity across its portfolio is set to reach 191MW, spanning campuses in Isando, Bredell, Cape Town, and Durban.
Digital Realty has also agreed to acquire U.S. investment firm Columbia Capital, also known as ColCap, for approximately $485 million, primarily through the issuance of 2.3 million shares of common stock. Founded in 1989, Columbia Capital focuses on communications, technology, and digital infrastructure, with more than $9 billion in fund commitments from institutional investors including sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and insurance companies. Digital Realty said the acquisition will accelerate its Strategic Private Capital platform, which recently closed a new $3.25 billion U.S. hyperscale data center fund. Columbia Capital has been a long-time co-investor in Teraco and has previously partnered with Digital Realty through Vela Infrastructure, a subsea cable landing station developer. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2026.
“These transactions support the continued momentum of Digital Realty’s three core pillars of growth,” said Andy Power, president and CEO of Digital Realty. “The purchase of land in the Kansas City metro enhances our ability to serve hyperscale customers’ near-term requirements, while our increased stake in Teraco strengthens our position in Africa’s leading data center platform and supports the continued growth of our global colocation and connectivity business.” Power added: “Our history of collaboration with Columbia Capital reflects a shared long-term perspective while providing additional flexibility to support the scaling of both our hyperscale development pipeline and our private capital platform.”
Source: datacenterdynamics
