Equinix, Digital Realty Face Data Center Security Risk

For investors, that creates a sharper split between the winners and the vulnerable. The immediate losers are operators exposed to physical disruption, sanctions and replacement bottlenecks, since much of the specialist equipment must be imported and is hard to source in bulk. Oleg Shakirov, a digital policy and international security specialist, said replacing destroyed hardware “in large quantity will not be easy,” underscoring how sanctions and global demand are compounding the damage. Two damaged data centers in Russia remain offline, a sign the hit may be more severe than officials want to admit.

The bigger market implication is that data-center security is now part of the capex equation, not an afterthought. Equinix, Digital Realty and American Tower sit at the intersection of cloud demand, telecom resilience and geopolitical risk, and their shares have been behaving like strategic infrastructure, not just REITs. Equinix climbed to $952.62 on Oct. 22 after trading as high as $1,066.01 earlier in the year, still holding above both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, even as its RSI dropped to 32 and the stock slipped sharply in recent sessions. Digital Realty, meanwhile, fell to $170.94 on Oct. 22 from a recent high near $175.31, leaving it close to its 200-day average after a volatile stretch. American Tower has remained firmer, closing at $181.57 and holding above its long-term trend line, a sign investors still see tower and data infrastructure as a defensive way to play the AI and security buildout.

That resilience is not accidental. Equinix disclosed in its latest filing that threats tied to critical infrastructure may force it to incur extra cybersecurity and physical-security costs, and that damage to customer infrastructure inside its facilities could lead to significant costs and disruptions. In other words, the market is beginning to price a new operating reality: more spending to harden sites, more scrutiny from governments, and a higher value placed on facilities that can survive war, cyberattacks and grid stress.

The narrative is not limited to Ukraine. A U.S. defense source told Politico that NATO already considers data centers potential targets in wartime planning, while attacks on AWS sites in the Gulf earlier this year showed the risk is spreading beyond the battlefield. Researchers have not found proof that the Yandex strikes neatly knocked out disinformation campaigns, but that misses the larger point. The strategic value of these assets is increasing precisely because they underpin both civilian life and military capability.

For investors, the opportunity lies in owning the toll roads of the AI era before the market fully prices the security premium. That means favoring infrastructure platforms with diversified footprints, robust power access and the balance sheets to spend on hardening facilities. It also means recognizing that every escalation in Ukraine, the Middle East or cyberspace increases the long-term bargaining power of the operators that keep the digital economy running. The market may still treat data centers as utilities. The war is turning them into strategic assets.