Let me gather recent news, stock performance, and any developments since the last report.Let me read the key transaction announcements from June/July.I now have a comprehensive picture. Let me compile a few performance stats before writing.Here is the earnings preview.

Digital Realty (DLR) — 2Q26 Earnings Preview

Report date: Thursday, July 23, 2026 (after market close) · Conference call to follow · NYSE: DLR

The one-line setup

DLR heads into 2Q26 riding record 1Q leasing momentum, a raised full-year outlook, and a flurry of large post-quarter M&A that materially reshaped the story. The debate isn't about demand — it's about whether leasing can stay near record levels after a blockbuster Q1, how much dilution the recent deal-making adds, and whether management raises guidance again.

1. Where the stock sits

DLR is up ~15% YTD (from ~$155 to ~$178), but that masks a round trip: shares peaked near $204 in late April and have since given back ~12%.
The stock de-rated sharply in late June/early July (from ~$195 to ~$173), coinciding with (a) the announced Blackstone stock-funded acquisition and (b) Blackstone's 12.3M-share secondary at $185.00 on July 1 — a dilution/overhang event even though DLR received no proceeds.
Notably, DLR has materially lagged peer Equinix (EQIX, ~+35% YTD), so expectations into the print are more subdued than they were in the spring. That sets up a lower bar, but also means investors will scrutinize the dilution math.

2. The big story since 1Q: a wave of capital-intensive M&A

Between the April call and this print, management executed on all three "pillars of growth." These are the swing factors for guidance and the balance sheet:

Transaction (announced)	Size / structure	Why it matters
Blackstone NoVa JV buy-in (Jun 29, closed Jun 30)	64% blended equity stake in 3 fully-leased NoVa data centers, 288 MW; $7.8B gross value; $3.5B consideration ($1.2B cash + $2.3B stock)	15-yr leases, blended AA- credit, 3.6% escalators; mgmt says accretive to Core FFO in 2027 & 2028. Raises share count.
Kansas City land (Jun 22)	~1,440 acres, ~$475M cash/OP units; ESA for 600MW by early 2028 → 2 GW at full build	New top-30 hyperscale market; extends land bank runway
Teraco stake increase (Jun 22)	To 77% (16% stake, ~$650M, mostly 3.4M shares)	Deepens Africa colo/connectivity crown jewel
Columbia Capital acquisition (Jun 22)	~$485M, mostly 2.3M shares; $9B+ fund commitments	Scales the Strategic Private Capital (SPC) / fund-management flywheel
$7.5B ATM program (May 4)	New equity shelf	Signals ongoing equity-funded growth

Key question for the call: management will almost certainly fold the Blackstone deal (and likely the others) into an updated 2026 outlook, quantify accretion timing (2027+ vs. near-term drag), and update the share count. Watch for how much of the recent deal financing is equity vs. debt, and the resulting dilution.

3. Earnings & guidance — what to watch

Recall where the bar is after the 1Q beat-and-raise:

1Q26 Core FFO: $2.04/sh, +15% y/y — a beat that drove a $0.10 guidance raise.
2026 Core FFO guide raised to $8.00–$8.10 (~9% growth at midpoint); constant-currency $7.95–$8.05.
CFO Mercier explicitly flagged a 2Q step-down, then a 3Q rebound and a "high note" 4Q — driven by (a) OpEx ramping in Q2/Q3, (b) rising development/land investment, and (c) planned capital recycling. So a sequential dip in Core FFO is expected and should not be read as a negative if the full-year trajectory holds.

Things I'd focus on: 1. Does guidance go up again? The Blackstone deal and FX tailwind (weaker USD vs. the $1.15–1.20 EUR assumption) argue for an upward bias; offsetting that is near-term dilution from stock-funded M&A. A raise would be a positive surprise; a reaffirm with "accretion in 2027" framing is the base case. 2. The sequential Q2 dip — make sure it lands roughly as guided (~$2.00 area) and isn't worse. 3. Net income optics — 2Q25 had a huge one-time gain (~$3.03 EPS from property dispositions); GAAP y/y comparisons will look distorted. Focus on Core FFO.

4. Leasing — the metric that moves the stock

1Q26 was extraordinary and sets a tough comp: - $707M total bookings / $423M at DLR share — 2nd-highest ever, ~70% above the next-best quarter. - Included the largest lease in company history: a 200 MW AI-inference lease with a AA-rated hyperscaler in Charlotte. - Record 0–1 MW + interconnection: $98M (3rd record in 4 quarters), with AI a record 21% of 0–1 MW bookings; 116 new logos. - Total backlog hit a record $1.8B (100%) / $1.0B (DLR share) — commencements of $544M in 2026, $247M in 2027, $242M in 2028+.

What to watch in 2Q: - >1 MW leasing will likely normalize off the Charlotte-inflated Q1 — don't over-react to a lower headline; watch whether the backlog keeps building and whether they land more large hyperscale/AI deals (they teased priced-but-unleased capacity in NoVa ~275 MW, Dallas, Atlanta, and internationally). - 0–1 MW durability — management set a bar of sustaining/growing this high-margin, interconnection-rich segment (Vikram Malhotra's "$100M run-rate?" question). Continuation here is the higher-quality signal. - Commencement lag — jumped to ~19 months in Q1 due to the phased Charlotte build. Watch whether the sign-to-commence gap normalizes.

5. Development, pipeline & yields

Under construction scaled >60% q/q to $16.5B / 1.2 GW, 61% pre-leased at 11.4% expected yield.
Total buildable capacity ~6.3 GW (vs. ~3.0 GW operating) — a ~40% expansion runway.
Cost inflation is real: Americas cost/MW rose to ~$14M (from ~$12.5M) on land, supply chain, and liquid-cooling-heavy designs. Management insists market rent growth is still outpacing build-cost inflation and defended the ~11% unlevered yields.
Watch: new development starts, whether yields hold amid inflation, and any commentary on power/utility delays, labor shortages, and NIMBY/community pushback — a rising industry risk that management addressed proactively last quarter.

6. Internal growth, renewals & churn

Same-capital cash NOI: +7.9% reported but only +2.5% constant-currency in 1Q (depressed by a low prior-year OpEx comp on R&M/labor). Full-year guide held at 4.0–5.0% with acceleration expected through the year — confirm the ramp is materializing.
Cash renewal spreads: +5.0% in 1Q; full-year guide raised to 6.5–8.5%, with management flagging stronger >1 MW mark-to-markets in 2H26 as legacy renewal caps increasingly aren't exercised. This is a potential positive catalyst.
Churn remains modest (1.4% data-center total in 1Q).

7. Balance sheet & dilution — the key risk lens

Leverage hit a multi-year low of 4.7x net debt/EBITDA in 1Q, with the AFFO payout ratio down to ~64% — plenty of dry powder.
But the growth is increasingly equity-funded: 7.3M ATM shares (~$1.3B) already sold in Q1 at ~$179; a new $7.5B ATM; and ~$5B+ of stock/OP-unit issuance tied to the Blackstone, Teraco, and Columbia deals. Share count is creeping up.
SPC platform ($10B+ hyperscale fund capacity + $8B+ JV) remains the intended pressure valve to fund the pipeline without over-levering — expect updates on fund deployment and the Columbia integration.
Watch: updated share count, pro-forma leverage post-Blackstone (which added assumed debt), and any new long-term debt issuance (guide was raised to $1.5–2.0B, mid-year timing).

Bottom line

DLR's demand narrative — AI inference moving from pilot to production, record interconnection, a swelling backlog — is intact and arguably strengthening. The 2Q print itself will likely show an expected sequential Core FFO dip and lower headline >1 MW leasing off a record Q1; neither should rattle the thesis if the backlog keeps growing and full-year guidance holds or rises.

The real focus is capital allocation and dilution: management just spent billions (heavily in stock) to buy back JV interests, enter Kansas City, and bolt on Columbia/Teraco. The bull case is these deals extend a high-quality, AA-rated, long-lease growth runway and are accretive from 2027. The bear case is near-term FFO dilution and equity issuance at a time when the stock has already lagged EQIX. How management frames guidance, accretion timing, and the funding mix will likely matter more than the quarter's reported numbers.

Note: This preview synthesizes DLR's 1Q26 results/transcript, guidance, June–July 8-K disclosures, and market data through 7/22/26. Figures are company-reported; I did not have access to a formal sell-side consensus, so the discussion is framed against management's own guidance rather than Street estimates.