American Tower Corporation (AMT) | The Buildout — AI Infrastructure

The Verdict

American Tower owns communications towers and leases space on them to wireless carriers, broadcasters, and government agencies. It also owns and operates data center facilities in the United States through CoreSite, which houses the networking and compute that AI and cloud workloads depend on. The company sits between carriers that need sites for their networks and enterprises and cloud providers that need interconnection-rich space.

Earnings Beat

Revenue was $2,749M in the June 2026 quarter, with gross margin of 73.0% and EBITDA of $1,783M at a 64.9% margin. Consolidated property revenue grew over 5% year over year excluding noncash straight-line and FX, and organic tenant billings growth was nearly 2%, or about 4% excluding DISH churn. Data center cash revenue grew roughly 12%, and management called it another record quarter of CoreSite new leasing.

Management tone: Management raised full-year 2026 guidance for the second time this year and described the data center outlook as "a significant acceleration versus our prior outlook of 13% growth." They added detail on CoreSite record leasing and the AI and neo-cloud tenants deployed in its facilities, while also raising the debt refinancing headwind to about 150 bps from about 100 bps.

Management Guidance

Management raised FY2026 property revenue by $110M at midpoint, adjusted EBITDA by $45M, and attributable AFFO per share by $0.09, the second raise this year. The property revenue raise included about $35M of FX, about $25M of data center outperformance, and about $65M from other items including pass-through and straight-line revenue, partly offset by about $15M from the Philippines and Bangladesh divestitures. The adjusted EBITDA raise included about $35M of one-time benefits, primarily a Latin America indirect tax recovery. The revised outlook implies nearly 4% property revenue growth, over 2% adjusted EBITDA growth, and about 3% AFFO/share growth, before normalizing for DISH churn and refinancing costs.

Trajectory

Consolidated revenue has been roughly flat for four quarters: $2,717M, $2,738M, $2,738M and $2,749M. The growth is coming from data centers while the larger tower business stays steady. Gross margin compressed about 210 bps over that stretch, with operating and EBITDA margins roughly flat. Reported margin pressure reflects DISH churn; excluding DISH churn, cash adjusted EBITDA margin expanded about 30 bps in Q2 2026.

The Model

The model projects FY+1 revenue of $11,030M with EBITDA of $7,081M (64.2% margin), and FY+2 revenue of $11,771M with EBITDA of $7,651M (65.0% margin). The near-term anchor is the raised FY2026 guidance and the expected roll-off of the DISH churn, refinancing and services headwinds. FY+2 depends on whether CoreSite keeps compounding at double digits and whether tower organic growth inflects as the 2027 spectrum cycle begins.

Projections are the median of 5 independent model runs.

Management raised FY2026 property revenue by $110M at midpoint, adjusted EBITDA by $45M, and attributable AFFO per share by $0.09, the second raise this year. The property revenue raise included about $35M of FX, about $25M of data center outperformance, and about $65M from other items including pass-through and straight-line revenue, partly offset by about $15M from the Philippines and Bangladesh divestitures. The adjusted EBITDA raise included about $35M of one-time benefits, primarily a Latin America indirect tax recovery. The revised outlook implies nearly 4% property revenue growth, over 2% adjusted EBITDA growth, and about 3% AFFO/share growth, before normalizing for DISH churn and refinancing costs.

What Could Go Right — and Wrong

Looking Ahead

Over the next 12 months the key tests are whether CoreSite revenue growth reaccelerates to meet the raised ~15% full-year guide, whether DISH churn and refinancing headwinds roll off as management expects, and whether Latin America returns to positive organic tenant billings growth. Management frames 2026 as the AFFO/share trough and 2027 as the inflection year, targeting long-term AFFO/share growth in the mid- to high single digits. The services business eases from $340M in 2025 toward the $245M guided for 2026.

Financials

Annual Summary

Key Ratios (Trailing)

The Company

American Tower owns, operates and develops multitenant communications real estate, leasing space on communications sites to wireless service providers, broadcasters, wireless data providers and government agencies. As of March 31, 2026 it owned 131,726 communications towers and operated another 17,224, plus 858 owned DAS sites. Through CoreSite it also owns and operates 30 data center facilities across 11 U.S. markets, about 3.8 million net rentable square feet, and it provides tower-related services in the United States.

The company reports by region — U.S. & Canada, Latin America, Africa & APAC and Europe — alongside the Data Centers and Services businesses. It has been rotating toward developed markets, targeting about 85% of discretionary capital there, and in Q2 2026 it completed the sale of its Philippines and Bangladesh operations, exiting the APAC region. Leverage was 4.9x, inside its 3–5x target range.

Business Segments

Competitive Landscape

American Tower's 10-K names tower competitors Crown Castle International Corp., SBA Communications Corporation, Vertical Bridge, Telesites S.A.B. de C.V. and Cellnex Telecom, S.A. The supply-chain wiring source also maps data center competitors Digital Realty Trust and Equinix, and competitor Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, though those carry lower confidence. Management describes the company as "one of the largest global real estate investment trusts and a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multitenant communications real estate."

Supply Chain

American Tower buys steel tower structures, power and cooling equipment, and data center gear, and leases sites to wireless carriers and data center tenants. No supplier or cloud neighbor transcript names AMT, so the read-through is triangulation.