Tech companies are pouring billions of dollars into AI, and real estate companies are capitalizing on the surge in demand.

The WSJ Leadership Institute’s Kristin Broughton took a look at one company in particular: Prologis, the world’s largest owner of industrial real estate. The San Francisco-based company is ramping up development of data centers, and it’s talking with investors about launching a new investment vehicle to expand the business.

Key stats:

This year, Prologis expects to start between $4 billion and $5 billion in new developments, with data centers accounting for approximately 40% of the projected value. In 2025, new development starts totaled just over $3 billion, with about 10% coming from data centers, Kristin reports.

Also, Prologis anticipates margins of between 25% and 50% on the sale of data centers, compared with margins of between 15% and 20% for warehouses.

💬 CFO quote: The discussions with investors have been exploratory, said Tim Arndt, the company’s chief financial officer. “The interest is very real, and probably beyond our expectations,” Arndt said.

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Meanwhile, here are more data points to back up the larger trend on tech spending...

A recent 2026 KPMG U.S. Technology Survey found that U.S. organizations are investing more in technology than their global counterparts, with $190 million annually for the U.S., on average, versus the $174 million global average.

GenAI is one obvious reason for the influx of dollars, the report found, yet there has been a gap between those investments and the implementation of the technology. Only 10% of U.S. firms said that their tech implementation progress on average was fully scaled and evolving, which is down from 25% last year.

KPMG interviewed 2,500 global tech professionals, including 648 from the US, from companies with more than $100 million in revenue. The sectors covered included manufacturing, healthcare, technology, energy, financial services, consumer and retail, and government.

For the full survey findings, read on here. (And scroll below for details on Siemens Energy’s latest plans.)

📆 Earnings: Aflac, Allstate, Alphabet, Arm Holdings, Boston Scientific, CME Group, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Crown Castle, Eli Lilly, Equifax, GE HealthCare Technologies, GSK, Johnson Controls International, Merck, Metlife, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Old Dominion Freight Line, O’Reilly Automotive, Phillips 66, PTC, Qualcomm, Stanley Black & Decker, Steris, T. Rowe Price Group, Uber Technologies, UBS Group and Yum Brands

📈 Economic Indicators

The Institute for Supply Management releases its Services Purchasing Managers’ Index for January.

Other AI investments. Prologis is just one among the many looking to boost spending due to the AI data-center boom. Siemens Energy plans to spend $1 billion to boost its manufacturing of grid and power-generation equipment in the U.S. as demand for electricity soars, Jennifer Hiller writes.

CEOs are on the move. Disney has a new boss. Josh D’Amaro will be the ninth person to lead Disney in the company’s 102-year history, succeeding Bob Iger at America’s best-known entertainment brand. And PayPal replaced its chief executive, saying its board decided “the pace of change and execution was not in line” with expectations.

• Exclusive: Nelson Peltz Takes a Shot at Bob Iger Over Disney’s CEO Transition
• Finance Leaders Weigh In on Trump, the Fed, Investing and AI Risk (See what Ken Griffin, CEO of Citadel, and others told WSJ Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker)

Walmart joins $1 trillion club. The retail giant has hit a market capitalization of $1 trillion, becoming the first traditional retailer to reach the milestone. Other companies that have reached this achievement? So far, the exclusive group includes Amazon.com, Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Microsoft.

French authorities raided the Paris office of Elon Musk’s X and summoned the billionaire for an interview, a major escalation of European regulators’ battles with the social-media platform.

Cybercrime prosecutors said Tuesday that they were searching X’s office as part of a sprawling investigation first opened early last year. The probe initially focused on alleged bias in X’s content algorithm but has since expanded to examine the platform’s responsibility for sexualized deepfake images produced by its Grok chatbot.

📰 Other headlines

• Stephen Miran, Temporary Fed Governor, Resigns From White House Role
• Threat of New AI Tools Wipes $300 Billion Off Software and Data Stocks
• House Approves Measure to End Partial Government Shutdown
• Wall Street Laments Departure of the ‘High Priest’ of the S&P 500
• Some Brands Aren’t Spending Like YouTube Is the New TV
• With Jobs Data Delayed, Analysts Flock to Unofficial Data
• 🎧 Podcast: The Showdown Between Coinbase and Big Banks

📈 Earnings wrapup

• AMD Sales Climb on Help From Data-Center Business
• Amgen Logs Higher Fourth-Quarter Revenue on Double-Digit Volume Boost
• Chipotle Revenue Rises Despite Decline in Transactions
• Mondelez International Fourth-Quarter Profit Falls, Hurt by High Cocoa Costs
• Pfizer Sales Fall on Continued Lower Covid-19 Drug Demand
• Capri Swings to a Profit as Versace Sale Offsets Revenue Drop
• Archer Daniels Profit, Revenue Fall on Biofuel Policy and Trade Uncertainty

This March 23–24, financial leaders will gather in Palo Alto for The WSJ CFO Council Summit to examine how CFOs are navigating market volatility, evolving trade and regulatory policy and the growing impact of AI on the future of the enterprise. Join the CFO Council and be part of the conversations shaping the future of finance and corporate leadership.

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The Wall Street Journal's CFO Journal offers corporate leaders and professionals CFO analysis, advice and commentary to make informed decisions. We cover topics including corporate tax, accounting, regulation, capital markets, management and strategy.

Follow us on X @WSJCFO. The WSJ CFO Journal Team comprises reporters Kristin Broughton, Mark Maurer and Jennifer Williams, and Bureau Chief Walden Siew.

You can reach us by replying to any newsletter, or email Walden at walden.siew@wsj.com.