Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust delivered an 8.1% net return in 2025, marking 12 consecutive months of positive performance as the fund capitalized on surging demand for data center space.
The nontraded real estate investment trust has generated a 9.3% annualized return since its January 2017 inception, the REIT reported to shareholders.
"BREIT has generated highly differentiated results for its shareholders over the last nine years, both in terms of performance and liquidity," Blackstone said in a statement. "BREIT is now benefitting from the beginning of the cyclical recovery in real estate as well as the powerful value creation in its data center platform, QTS."
Data centers drove the fund's 2025 performance. BREIT deployed $3.7 billion through Sept. 30 into data center development via its QTS subsidiary, an 81% increase from $2 billion during the same period in 2024.
The developments are 100% preleased, predominantly to investment-grade tenants, the company said. QTS now represents 20% of BREIT's portfolio and operates as one of the largest and fastest-growing data center companies globally.
The results underscore how demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure is reshaping commercial real estate returns.
Data centers have emerged as a major infrastructure asset class in recent years, driven by AI and hyperscale cloud services. The ongoing shift from on-premises information technology to outsourced capacity has fueled large-scale data center construction and leasing.
BREIT's data center concentration positions the fund at the intersection of real estate and technology as companies race to secure computing capacity for AI applications.
BREIT focuses 90% of its holdings in rental housing, industrial properties and data centers, with 65% allocated to Sun Belt markets.