American Tower’s Q2 2026 results make one thing clear for anyone who owns the land under a tower: the company is buying more of that ground every quarter. American Tower has now spent over $230M on land acquisitions (which includes data centers) in the first half of 2026 and is holding its full-year ground lease budget at $200M–$220M as part of their forecasted push to control the dirt beneath its sites rather than keep paying rent on it.
In Q2, American Tower’s core tower business held steady at ~4% organic tenant billings growth (sans DISH), with 85% of discretionary capital aimed at developed markets. CoreSite remains the standout including record leasing, a fifth straight quarter of double-digit growth, and a raised full-year data center outlook of ~15%, backed by over $700M in planned investment. The DISH/EchoStar litigation continues, with AMT terminating its 2021 collocation agreement and pursuing claims in court. Management raised full-year guidance for the second time this year. American Tower’s strategy remains consistent in funneling a majority of investment to developed markets and data centers, while staying disciplined on capital spend.
Overall Highlights:
- 4% organic tenant billings growth (excluding – DISH) maintained across the global tower portfolio
- Data center revenue grew 13.4% year-over-year to $297 million; CoreSite achieved record leasing activity, adding more new business than in all of 2021
- Litigation against DISH / EchoStar continues, no comments due to on-going litigation
- CoreSite expansion and growth remains a top driver for the organization.
- Data center revenue grew 13.4% year over year to $297 million,
- More than $700 million in data center development spend still planned for 2026
- Divestiture of Philippines and Bangladesh closed during the quarter, aligning with developed markets focus
- Forecast for ground lease purchases (cell tower lease buyouts) remains unchanged for full year 2026 with a forecast of $200M to $220M
Quotable: re: Satellite Need For Ground Based Cell Towers
“If you want to be a player in that market, you would need terrestrial infrastructure. If they decide to go that route, we are confident that we would be a good partner for them. If you look at how other market entrants have looked at entering the market, most recently DISH, even though that they’ve exited the market now, their path to a large scale build in the U.S. was to partner with American Tower.”
Steven O. Vondran | CEO, American Tower
Quotable: re: Preference If AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile Or Other Customer Have Master Agreement (or not)
“With respect to comprehensive agreements, we’re pretty agnostic about whether we’re in a comprehensive agreement or a pay-by-the-drink agreement”
Steven O. Vondran | CEO, American Tower
Quotable: re: Additional Spectrum and Cell Tower Deployment in Coming Years
“When you talk about radios, what they can handle and things like that, no radio can handle an infinite amount of spectrum and an infinite number of traffic going through it. The real driver for us is mobile data growth. The carriers will continue to deploy spectrum. As the mobile data growth goes up, they’re going to need to add more equipment with that to meet that demand. Just a reminder, we’ve talked about the need for the carriers to double their capacity by 2030. That’s some of the projections we’ve seen by numerous industry analysts. We’ve said for years now that we thought that that would be met half from new spectrum and new technology upgrades, but half from densification.”
Steven O. Vondran | CEO, American Tower
Information for property owners with cell tower leases is available through JW Tower & Telecom Consulting at jwttc.com
