人工智能工作量和数据中心运营日益复杂

Equity ResearchTechnology, Media, and Communica-tions |Real Estate October 21, 2025Industry Report Stephen Sheldon, CFA, CPA+1 312 364 5167ssheldon@williamblair.com CRE Services: A QuietChampion of the DataCenter Boom Patrick McIlwee, CFA+1 312 364 8655pmcilwee@williamblair.com Matthew Filek, CPA+1 312 364 8861mfilek@williamblair.com Contents Introduction.......................................................................................................................3Data Center Basics............................................................................................................5Background on Our CRE Services Coverage......................................................................7Market Sizing...................................................................................................................11The Opportunity for Our CRE Services Providers..........................................................16Coverage Considerations.................................................................................................19Appendix..........................................................................................................................25 Introduction The rapid adoption of cloud computing alongside the proliferation of AI has driven an explosion indemand for data center infrastructure. Enterprises have been shifting workloads to the cloud foryears, and more recently, AI applications that require immense computational power have madedata centers the backbone of a technology revolution that remains in the early stages. This surgein demand is driving billions of investment dollars toward high-performance facilities capable ofsupporting increasingly advanced workloads. It is no secret that investors are looking to capitalizeon the long-term tailwinds these trends provide, piling capital into hyperscalers, especially thosein the “Magnificent 7”; data center operators’ energy providers, considering the significant powerrequired to operate data centers; and more specialized real estate investment trusts (REITs).Inthis report we present what we believe to be an underappreciated beneficiary of growth inthis end-market—commercial real estate (CRE) services providers. Data centers may be quickly emerging as a fifth primary subsector for our CRE services coverage(beyond the core four in office, industrial, multifamily, and retail). Our coverage is seeing signifi-cant growth supporting data centers, and this subsector is quickly becoming a bigger part of theiroverall revenue and profit mix. This is especially true for CBRE and Jones Lang LaSalle (both haveacquired specialized data center capabilities in recent years), but Colliers and Cushman & Wake-field are also capitalizing on data center tailwinds. Below, we provide some high-level metrics foreach of our covered companies highlighting this trend: •For CBRE, about 10% of 2024 adjusted EBITDA related to data centers, up from 3% in 2021(implies a mid-40% CAGR, although some of that is inorganic).•For JLL, an estimated 5% of square footage managed in the REMS segment is from data cen-ters, up from low single digits a few years prior.•For Colliers, about $10 billion of its AUM (10% of the total) in the investment management seg-ment is closely correlated to data centers, along with 3% of RES segment brokerage revenue.•For Cushman, a low-single-digit percentage of total revenue comes from data centers, andNorth American data center revenue roughly doubled in 2024. Importantly, as data center power capacity increases, so does the monetization opportu-nity for our CRE services coverage.Unlike other subsectors where leasing and property/facil-ity management contracts are commonly priced per square foot, for data centers these solutionsare typically priced based on total power capacity, so as server rack density and total powercapacity increases (this has been happening quickly, as shown in exhibit 1), so does the revenueopportunity for our coverage although there certainly could be some offset from price compres-sion. Given this dynamic, we believe the CRE services monetization opportunity for data centersshould increase as: 1) more data centers are built; 2) power capacity per location moves higher;and 3) propensity to outsource data center management increases (especially with any expan-sion of colocation data centers or those associated with hyperscalers). In exhibit 2, we providean overview of the data center lifecycle and have highlighted the relevant service lines where webelieve there are meaningful monetization opportunities for our CRE services coverage (mostrelevant circled in yellow). We have also compiled an appendix to this report highlighting someother relevant companies pursuing this opportunity. Data Center Basics For investors less familiar with data centers, we thought it would be useful to start with an over-view of what they are, how they are structured, the main systems that enable them to ope