American Tower's second quarter arrived with the most precise version yet of the question the company has been answering for three years: can a global tower landlord - built on long-dated wireless-lease cash flow - also own and grow a hyperscale-relevant data-center business, and can it do so without letting the tower engine cool? The quarter gave a partial but real answer. Total revenue rose 4.7% to $2.75 billion, total property revenue rose 6.3% to $2.69 billion, Adjusted EBITDA rose 3.2% to $1.81 billion, and Adjusted Funds From Operations attributable to common stockholders rose 3.8% to $1.26 billion (or $2.71 per share, up 4.2%). On the surface, this reads as another steady-as-she-goes quarter from a business that does not promise steady-as-she-goes. The underneath is more interesting, and more divided.
Two forces moved in opposite directions and netted to the modest headline. On the upside, a $42.1 million foreign-currency gain in the current quarter - against a $484.0 million foreign-currency loss in the year-ago quarter - added a touch under $1.90 per share of GAAP swing. CoreSite, the U.S. data-center business acquired in 2021, generated a record leasing quarter, and management raised the full-year 2026 outlook for the second consecutive quarter, lifting the midpoint of AFFO attributable to common stockholders by $45 million and the midpoint of AFFO per share to $11.08 (a 3.0% growth rate against the prior year). On the downside, U.S. & Canada property revenue fell 2.5% on a mix of straight-line accounting headwinds and what management called DISH churn - the consolidation-driven exit of a single tenant whose billings the company explicitly described as a one-time event, not a recurring problem. Strip out the FX swing and the DISH drag, and AFFO per share growth was mid-single-digit, which is the company's own framing of the quarter.
The structural story underneath the numbers is a portfolio being rebalanced mid-cycle. The international segments - Latin America, Africa & APAC, and Europe - together grew property revenue roughly 16% in the quarter (a weighted average across the three), with Africa & APAC up 23.5% and Europe up 11.5%; the U.S. & Canada tower business shrank; and the Data Centers segment grew 13.4% in the quarter on a property-revenue basis (the disclosed $297.1 million versus $261.9 million). The 2026 full-year outlook for the first time has Data Centers growing faster than the U.S. tower business - a 14.9% midpoint growth rate against a -3.0% U.S. & Canada midpoint - and the segment is on track to be the company's fastest-growing and most strategic asset. That is the kind of evolution that does not show up in a single quarter's headline but does show up in a five-year re-rating if management executes.
The risks, in order: DISH-style customer consolidation reappearing in another carrier; the straight-line accounting drag continuing to compress U.S. reported revenue and Adjusted EBITDA growth; interest expense of $354.5 million this quarter absorbing a meaningful share of operating cash flow; and a $37.2 billion debt load at 4.9x net leverage against second-quarter annualized Adjusted EBITDA. The price action already reflects the tension: the stock closed at $170.43 on August 12, 2026, down roughly 20.6% from its August 2025 52-week high of $214.79 and only modestly above its July 6, 2026 52-week low of $160.06. The Q2 report did not break either side of the argument, but it kept the question open.