Investor interest in the AI space continues to grow, with many focusing on AI infrastructure plays to meet the increasing demand for data centers or on semiconductor stocks building the components necessary for AI platforms to function. One potentially overlooked area that is vital to AI but not directly related to the technology itself is land. Electricity consumption from data centers alone in the United States could triple that of the entire nation of Ireland by 2028, and generating that much power requires massive amounts of land.
If demand continues at its current rate, investors may expect an increasingly contentious battle for prime land used by data center developers—space that is open and accessible, with strong power infrastructure, not susceptible to natural disasters, and so on. Two real estate investment trusts (REITs) and an exchange-traded fund focused on data center real estate and development provide investors with exposure to this high-demand but underappreciated aspect of the AI boom.
