Wall Street has a habit of taking stories and pushing them to extreme levels. If you are interested in the AI opportunity, you may want to buy a REIT over a high-flying tech stock.

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), the largest global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions, announced today its board of directors has authorized quarterly cash dividends for common and preferred stock for the first quarter of 2026.

While Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) stock surged 34.9% over the past year and the S&P 500 gained 12.2%, the infrastructure REITs powering AI's physical backbone have been left behind.

Automatic Data Processing isn't just a payroll processor anymore, and the advent of artificial intelligence isn't quite the threat to this company that it seems like it would be on the surface. AI data centers are going to be a cash cow for the foreseeable future, but one name in particular is perfectly structured to turn this business into reliable cash flow for shareholders.

To invest in chipmakers, look to Nvidia and TSMC. The data center buildout will benefit companies like Nebius Group, Digital Realty Trust, and Credo Technology Group.

Digital Realty Trust maintains strong financial stability and credibility in Q4 2025, with no significant negative changes in key metrics or credit ratings. DLR's market-adjusted asset coverage ratio stands at 466.28%, and its expected AFFO yield is 4.06%, reflecting robust asset quality and earnings capacity. I recommend a 'hold' on DLR's preferred stocks, which yield 6.18-6.32% and trade below par, while common shares have recently gained.

Some stocks give you the perfect blend of high yield and promising growth potential, including these two REITs. Digital Realty Trust owns more than 300 data centers, and demand for its services is heating up due to cloud computing and AI workloads.

While high-performance processing was the top investment opportunity in the early days of AI's mainstreaming, data centers themselves have become the next top prospects. The names most likely to lead this segment of the industry's ongoing growth, however, aren't your typical technology companies.

Thirty-six publicly traded US real estate investment trusts are projected to increase dividend payouts in the first quarter, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence forecasts. The remaining 100 public REITs included in the analysis are predicted to maintain their dividend payout over the quarter. Two manufactured home REITs and two communication REITs are expected to raise their dividends within the first quarter, accounting for roughly 66.7% of both sectors.

Expands AI-Ready Infrastructure in Asia Pacific Rendering of Digital Realty's NRT14 data center in the Greater Tokyo area SINGAPORE, Feb. 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), the largest global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions, today announced that its upcoming NRT14 data center in the Greater Tokyo area will be one of the first facilities in Japan to achieve the DGX-Ready Data Center certification.