Data Center REITs Diverge From Healthcare REITs

Real estate sector performance is bifurcating sharply, with data center REITs gaining while healthcare REITs underperform in the same session — a rotation signal within the REIT complex that reflects AI-driven infrastructure demand overwhelming traditional defensives. Data center REITs are benefiting from insatiable power and compute demand from hyperscalers, while healthcare REITs face headwinds from Medicaid reimbursement uncertainty and elevated operating costs. This intra-sector divergence creates a relative value trade: long data center REITs versus short or underweight healthcare REITs, capturing the AI infrastructure buildout without taking broad market direction risk. The trend is durable given multi-year hyperscaler capex commitments.