CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services company, has a long history of brokerage, facility management and investment sales. But the century-old company, founded in the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, is now being reshaped by a different kind of earthquake: the AI data center boom.
The rise of generative AI is driving an unprecedented wave of data center construction as companies scramble to secure the computing power needed to train and run AI models at scale. As hyperscalers compete for land, power, and water for large-scale AI infrastructure projects, Dallas-based CBRE is quietly playing a key role behind the scenes.
The company said it has secured “dozens” of potential data center sites across the country and is working directly with big tech companies on everything from land rights to access to power and water. Unlike pure brokerage firms and construction contractors, CBRE spans multiple layers of building AI infrastructure.
CBRE President and CEO Bob Salentic said during the company’s April 23 earnings call that the company’s transition into critical infrastructure and data center services “will be at least as profound as the transition to outsourcing in the 1990s and early 2000s, and it will proceed at a much faster rate than that,” as the company announced a 19% year-over-year increase in revenue.
The changes are already reshaping CBRE’s business. The company generated more than $3 billion in infrastructure-related revenue in 2025, with nearly $950 million in the first quarter alone. The company recently established a dedicated “critical infrastructure services” division focused on data centres, communications and power infrastructure. The business is expected to grow more than 60% this year. CBRE also announced that data center leasing revenue in the first quarter more than tripled compared to the same period last year.
The company said in a letter to shareholders in April that its critical infrastructure business, which includes data center operations and Pierce Services businesses, will account for about 14% of core EBITDA in 2025, up from about 3% in 2021. CBRE said it sees “significant opportunities ahead.”
CBRE currently manages approximately 1,300 data centers worldwide, serves as project manager for approximately 150 facilities, provides sales, leasing and financing services for approximately 250 data centers, and manages more than 30 development sites, according to a company spokesperson.
Stephen Sheldon, a financial analyst and partner at William Blair & Co., said CBRE has the most exposure to the data center space and is more active than competitors such as JLL, Cushman & Wakefield and Collier.
“I don’t see momentum slowing down any time soon,” he said. “While there are certainly friction points and bottlenecks that will exist over the next five years or more, I don’t think anyone doubts that this will be a major long-term investment area.” [for CBRE]”
CBRE advances into data center through acquisition
In an interview with luckSalentic, CEO since 2012, said CBRE’s expansion into data centers began several years ago as it expanded its building management and project management businesses through acquisitions.
“We’ve started doing some work for data center customers,” Salentic said. “So we started managing data centers, and because of our size, we started doing a lot of that pretty quickly.”
With operations in more than 100 countries and partnerships with 90 of the Fortune 100 companies, CBRE is positioned to grow in parallel with the AI infrastructure boom as hyperscalers rapidly expand their data center footprints.
“As data centers came along and grew rapidly, so did our company,” Salentic said.
As its business expanded, CBRE began to view data centers and critical infrastructure as strategic growth areas. Salentic noted that acquisitions have long been central to the company’s growth strategy.
In November 2025, CBRE acquired technology infrastructure maintenance company Pearce Services for $1.2 billion in cash to expand its digital and critical power infrastructure footprint. The transaction followed CBRE’s June 2024 acquisition of Direct Line Global, a provider of technology and installation services for data centers.
Sulentic said the scale of AI infrastructure spending planned over the next five years is likely to be almost unprecedented. The forecast carries weight because CBRE works closely with hyperscalers, which gives the company visibility into long-term capital spending plans and ramp-up goals, and CBRE is directly involved in the execution of many of the related projects, he said.
Sheldon noted that CBRE is unique in that it not only provides data center advice and services, but also invests in data centers through its development division.
“They actually raised a significant amount of land,” he said. “I think they used some of that insight to look at things like infrastructure and power grids and to know which land would be attractive for future data center development.” Still, he added that Wall Street’s current expectations for CBRE are not heavily reliant on the big profits it can make from these land holdings, meaning a big price increase is likely to be seen as an incremental upside, or “a bonus,” rather than a core assumption built into the forecast.
Challenges include labor expertise and community backlash
The biggest challenge is evolving, he said. “A year ago, I would have said the most difficult thing is getting power to the site,” he says. But right now, finding enough qualified technical workers is “really, really difficult.”
To address this shortage, CBRE and Facebook’s parent company Meta recently announced plans to establish multiple training centers in the United States, expected to teach thousands of technicians and skilled workers how to build and maintain modern data centers. The first two training ranges are scheduled to open this summer near airports in Ohio and Indianapolis.
CBRE is not the only real estate services provider grappling with the talent shortage associated with building and operating data centers. Rival JLL is also working to recruit a direct pipeline of skilled trade workers such as electricians, HVAC technicians and plumbers as demand for AI infrastructure accelerates.
Sulentic also acknowledged that community opposition to data centers has intensified as the AI infrastructure boom accelerates. as luck According to a report, communities in states including Louisiana, Arizona, Michigan and Texas have raised concerns about water use, power demand, noise and land use.
Still, over time, he argued, projects will gravitate to locations that make the most sense in terms of power, water and infrastructure.
“It’s just like water rising to that height,” he said. “Over time, data centers will be located in places that function more efficiently than others. As the industry evolves, we will need to find sources of water and power that function more optimally.”
Salentic said public criticism of data centers can sometimes be politically amplified and pushed back against the idea that hyperscalers don’t care about the communities they build.
“There’s a sense that companies don’t care about people,” he says. “They’re not completely indifferent. I’m inside these companies as a provider, and they’re working very hard to solve these problems.”
He added that CBRE expects demand for its data center-related services to continue to grow, along with the broader AI infrastructure market.
“The whole business is growing pretty quickly,” Salentic said. “And I think this part of the business will outgrow the rest of the company for some time.”
