- DigitalBridge pursues a tower-led digital infrastructure strategy built on global scale, managing about 600,000 antenna sites via 11 tower platforms.
- It diversifies across towers, data centers, fiber, small cells, and edge assets and operates across the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific.
- Recent tower M&A and sale-leaseback deals (GD Towers, Telenet, Verizon/Vertical Bridge) emphasize long-term contracted cash flows and recurring revenues.
- A proposed ~$4B SoftBank acquisition (announced Dec 2025) underscores growing strategic value of digital infrastructure amid AI- and data-driven demand.
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The primary source describes DigitalBridge’s tower-led strategy under Steven Sonnenstein as built around scale, diversification, operational know-how, and global presence. This is corroborated by the firm’s continued transactions across regions and verticals, which serve both as capitalization on demand and sources of stable income.
One key part of DigitalBridge’s competitive positioning is its sheer scale: the company claims ownership and/or managerial oversight of 600,000 telecom antenna sites globally via 11 tower companies, supplemented by adjacent infrastructure assets (data centers, fiber, small cells, edge infrastructure). By comparison, in its GD Towers deal, the firm acquired a 51% stake in a portfolio of over 40,000 mobile tower sites in Germany and Austria for €17.5 billion—a valuation placing each tower around €432,000 and with high-margin contractual revenues from anchor tenants.
Transaction structures show consistency in DigitalBridge’s approach: acquiring passive infrastructure with long-term leaseback or anchor tenancy models, creating recurring revenue streams. Examples include the Verizon sale-leaseback to Vertical Bridge for more than 6,300 towers ($3.3B) where Verizon remains tenant under a 10-year lease with long extension options. Similarly, Telenet’s TowerCo acquisition in Belgium added over 3,300 sites with existing tenancy ratios and contract cash flows.
Geographically, DigitalBridge has pursued both mature and emerging markets. In Europe, through GD Towers and Telenet; in the U.S., via Vertical Bridge; and via other global platforms in Latin America and Asia-Pacific. This mix reduces country-level risk and allows capture of different growth curves—5G, tower builds, small-cell deployment, densification for AI-driven edge compute needs.
Strategically, the leverage is toward demand tailwinds: AI, data center, edge compute, wireless connectivity. The announced acquisition by SoftBank (Dec 2025), of DigitalBridge—worth approximately $4B—validates market belief in this infrastructure-led model as critical to enabling next-generation AI services, especially given the escalating importance of data-hungry infrastructure.
However, risks and uncertainties persist: high capital intensity, regulatory variation, tenancy ratio pressure, financing costs. Open questions include how the integration with SoftBank will affect capital allocation priorities, or whether emerging technologies (like satellite connectivity or mesh networks) might alter demand forecasts for ground-based tower infrastructure.
Supporting Notes
- DigitalBridge claims ownership and managerial oversight of more than 600,000 telecom antenna sites globally through 11 tower companies, along with ventures into outdoor media infrastructure to address evolving data demand and connectivity needs.
- GD Towers acquisition: over 40,500 tower sites across Germany (~33,500) and Austria (~7,000); valuation set at €17.5 billion; EV per tower approximately €432,000; EBITDAaL margin around 60% for 2021/22.
- Telenet’s TowerCo acquisition: ~3,322 sites in Belgium with €745 million purchase price (all-cash, debt-free basis), financed partially by DigitalBridge’s own balance sheet.
- Verizon–Vertical Bridge deal: 6,339 towers sold across U.S. for $3.3 billion; Verizon leases the towers back for starting 10 years with possible extensions; Vertical Bridge portfolio exceeds 500,000 sites overall including >17,000 owned/master-leased towers.
- SoftBank’s acquisition of DigitalBridge announced Dec 2025: deal valued around $4 billion; DigitalBridge manages over $100 billion in assets, including towers, data centers, and fiber networks; acquisition intended to support AI infrastructure expansion under SoftBank’s ASI strategy.
- DigitalBridge AUM: ~$106 billion as of June 2025; company operates offices globally and spans all major digital infrastructure sub-sectors—towers, small cells, fibre, data centres, edge.