Report Says AI Makes Power the New Location
A new Urban Land Institute and Heitman report examines how artificial intelligence is reshaping real estate value and investment strategy.
Updated on Nov. 9, 2026 in Commercial
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The Urban Land Institute and Heitman released Investment Strategies in the AI Era: Power Is the New Location, the sixth report in their Evolving Real Estate Investment Risks and Opportunities series. It argues that access to reliable power, digital connectivity, and infrastructure capacity is increasingly central to property value.
Why it matters
The report suggests that markets with abundant energy, transmission capacity, fiber connectivity, and fast power delivery may attract more investment. Demand driven by AI could ripple across nearly every property sector, shifting how investors and developers assess location.
The report projects global data center investment will exceed $7.6 trillion by 2031, with roughly $2.1 trillion tied directly to real estate. The figures are projections, and the extraction does not detail the methodology behind them.
The players
Urban Land Institute
The Urban Land Institute is a global nonprofit research and education organization focused on land use and real estate development.
Heitman
Heitman is a global real estate investment management firm that co-produced the report series with the Urban Land Institute.
The details
The report examines how AI demand for computing power affects real estate investment and development, based on analysis of power, land, connectivity, and infrastructure demand across property sectors. It frames reliable power and digital connectivity as increasingly important factors in where capital flows.
Timeline
• Projected global data center investment exceeds $7.6 trillion by 2031.
Industry Trajectory
This report is the sixth in the ULI-Heitman Evolving Real Estate Investment Risks and Opportunities series, which tracks how changing forces reshape property investment. Its focus on AI-driven power demand marks a shift from earlier concerns toward infrastructure and energy as central investment criteria.
Investors and property owners may need to weigh access to power, fiber connectivity, and transmission capacity more heavily when evaluating commercial sites. Those factors could influence asset values and where capital is directed in coming years.
The takeaway
Location in real estate is increasingly defined by energy and connectivity, not only traditional factors like land and transit. Property decision-makers may find that infrastructure capacity is becoming as important as proximity to markets.
Further reading
For broader context on how commercial property markets are shifting, explore Commercial.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Reference Hub.
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