CNBC Television · Oct 7, 2026
With Willy Walker, Chairman and CEO of Walker & Dunlop
US data centers rose from 571 at the end of the first quarter to 1,400 at the end of the third, Willy Walker said, and 2,000 more are in planning.
Candidates in the midterms are running against data centers, and some projects have been delayed. Walker said that does not change how much capital is going into them. His bigger concern is the rest of commercial real estate, where owners face a wall of debt to refinance at higher rates.
"Now is the perfect time to be putting a shovel in the ground, except no one's going to do it." — Willy Walker
Willy Walker, Chairman and CEO of Walker & Dunlop, on CNBC's Closing Bell Overtime, runs one of the world's largest commercial real estate finance and advisory firms, the lender and broker owners come to when their loans come due.
The full segment is covered here so you can skip it.
Here are the 5 calls that matter.
Key Takeaways
Delays at a few data center projects will not slow the capital going into them, Walker said
The hyperscalers are expected to spend $800 billion on data centers in 2026
$1.5 trillion of apartment debt has to be refinanced in the next four years
Borrowers moving to short-term loans are making the maturity wall bigger for 2029 and 2030
Debt is plentiful; equity is the open question for 2027
New office construction is running at 9% of its normal annual level, which Walker called a perfect time to build
1. Data Centers Keep Coming
The host said data center projects were being delayed, that the industry faces higher interest rates and a Federal Reserve that is raising them, and that many midterm candidates are running against data centers.
Walker said the build-out is far larger than the delays
"First of all, there were 571 data centers at the end of Q one in the United States, there were 1400 at the end of Q3." — Willy Walker
"There are 2000 in planning right now." — Willy Walker
"The hyperscalers are going to supposedly invest $800 billion in data center build-out in 2026." — Willy Walker
The open question is political
"So the capital is there to continue to move forward. Is the political will there? We'll see come election day" — Willy Walker
He said governors in states such as Pennsylvania and Texas have pulled back from fully backing data centers.
Developers are finding new ways to raise money
Walker said Related is building a very large data center in Michigan and financed it in the bond market instead of through a group of banks. It used Rule 144A, which lets companies sell bonds privately to large institutional investors.
"Instead, they went to the bond market and did 144 A registration." — Willy Walker
He added that there is plenty of equity capital, given the market values of companies such as Nvidia and Google.
