What Happened
Digital Realty’s chief executive has told CNBC that a potential slowdown in AI would not be the “end of the world” for data centre real estate. The comments, reported on 15 September 2026, followed a slump in the share prices of Digital Realty and Equinix, 2 of the largest data centre real estate investment trusts (REITs), after warnings over AI advancements.
Data centre REITs own and lease the buildings, power and cooling that cloud providers and AI companies use to run their systems. When investors question how much AI computing capacity the market will need, these landlords come under pressure.
The fall echoes January 2025, when Chinese AI lab DeepSeek released a model it said was trained at far lower cost than US rivals. Nvidia’s shares dropped around 17% in a single day as investors questioned the scale of future AI infrastructure spending.
There is a UK dimension too. Both Equinix and Digital Realty operate data centre campuses in the London area, and the UK government designated data centres as Critical National Infrastructure in September 2024.
Share price moves reflect investor sentiment, which can change faster than real demand for data centre space. The CNBC headline also describes the slowdown as potential, not confirmed.
What AI market jitters mean for your marketing budget
Few UK marketing teams buy data centre space directly. You pay for it indirectly, though, through every AI software subscription, cloud platform and advertising tool in your stack. If investor confidence in AI shifts, vendor pricing, product roadmaps and even supplier survival could shift with it.
Sensible checks before your next renewal:
– Favour monthly or annual terms over multi year commitments for newer AI products.
– Confirm you can export your data, prompts and content if a vendor raises prices or closes.
– Record the hours or costs each tool saves, so renewal decisions rest on evidence.
– Avoid building a whole channel around a single AI platform.
Balance is the bigger protection. A business that relies on 1 tool or 1 channel has more exposure to sudden change than one running integrated digital marketing across search, paid media, content and email, where each channel supports the others.
Key takeaway: plan for volatility, not collapse
Digital Realty’s chief executive does not see a slowdown as the end of the world for the sector. Take a similar view of your own plans: keep using AI where it earns its place, and keep contracts flexible enough to adjust if the market moves.
How we assess AI spend with clients
At London Marketing Company, we treat AI software like any other marketing investment. We look at what each tool costs, what it produces and how it fits your wider channel plan before recommending whether to keep, replace or drop it.
We cannot tell you where AI markets are heading, and we are wary of anyone who claims they can. What we can do is help you build a marketing plan that depends less on any single tool or supplier, with clear reporting on what each part of your spend delivers.
Questions about AI market volatility
Will an AI slowdown make marketing tools more expensive?
Nobody can confirm that yet. Pricing depends on each vendor’s costs and strategy, so review renewal terms rather than assuming prices will move in either direction.
Should my business pause its AI plans?
Not on the strength of share price movements alone. Keep investing where tools show clear time or cost savings, and pause pilots that have not proved their value.
Does this affect UK businesses differently?
Many UK firms rely on platforms built by US companies, so pricing and product decisions made there apply here too. If a provider changes where it stores data, check the change against your UK GDPR obligations.
Want a second opinion on your AI spend?
Reviewing AI contracts, or wondering whether your channel mix leans too heavily on 1 platform? Talk to our team and we will look at the options with you, with no obligation to go further.
Written by the London Marketing Company team.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/15/data-center-reit-ceo-ai-slowdown.html
