CBRECBRE Group, Inc.

“Within the BOE segment specifically, we've created a dedicated critical infrastructure services business line. This business line includes work for data centers along with the telecom and power assets captured in the Pearce business we acquired last year. Revenue in this business line totaled $1.7 billion in 2025 and $580 million in the first quarter and is expected to grow in excess of 60% this year.”

“Again, I want to reiterate some of the numbers we laid out, $3 billion. And this is independent of our land program in Trammell Crow Company. $3 billion of revenue last year, almost $1 billion of revenue in the first quarter, growing almost 50% this year, some very strong opportunities for us to do M&A in that area because of the track record we've established for M&A.”

“the most profound thing going on in our business today as we've moved into critical infrastructure in a 3 billion last year in our services business is already almost $1 billion in the first quarter, we can't hire enough people. Our biggest challenge is across that business, we're having trouble getting the various skilled people we need.”

“Our work related to infrastructure assets has become a source of significant profits and growth spanning all 4 business segments. This consists of the services we perform for data centers as well as power, telecom and transportation assets, among others.”

“data center leasing revenue more than tripled from last year's first quarter.”

“we have AI initiatives underway to create efficiencies in the company. And so for instance, we have lots of people in call centers around the world, thousands of them. We think some of that -- we think we can rationalize that by maybe as much as 25%. We're going to be able to cut back on research. We're going to be able to cut back on our human resources or people organization.”

“The whole AI job creation or job destruction thing that is unfolding and ping-ponging back and forth, lots of discussion around that, lots of headlines around all the jobs that are going to be eliminated by AI. And so we've tried to dig deep and get some kind of empirical underpinning based on the business we do with companies. And I will tell you that kind of the market-facing headlines don't sync up very well at all with what's going on in our direct conversations with these clients.”

“It's definitively not a onetime thing. We're building a capability there in multiple cities around the U.S. to recruit, train and place technical people to support Meta's data center initiative. And it is really, really hard to get those people and we're recruiting and training those people and sending them not only into CBRE's teams to support Meta, but into our competitors and others in the market.”

“we also, around the country, have secured dozens of land sites that have the potential to be data center land sites over time. And we're working with various data center users, especially the hyperscalers to get that land entitled, get that land powered, get water into the land. And we think we'll have a relatively steady stream of opportunities and data center land over the next few years.”

“The next place is efficiency. This is where there's going to be some potential loss of employees. And I commented on this earlier. We're going to see some efficiency in our offshore service centers. We're going to see some efficiency in the research area and financial planning and analysis and human resources. There's a lot of those areas, and we think the gains will be fairly significant. It's going to take time to get those gains, because you have to develop the tools and then you have to implement the tools and then you have to reorganize yourself and limits.”

“The second thing we look at is what we can do to enhance the products we have. So if you go across our 4 segments, Brokerage, Building Management, Project Management. We are developing AI-enabled tools in every 1 of those areas. We've been able to attract some very strong people. Again, I think our brand and our scale has helped us. There's a lot of interest in real estate. We've been able to attract some technology people and then some AI people that have helped us there. And we're very bullish about the product suite we've developed.”

“That land development business is not going to be disintermediated by AI. It's going to be enabled by AI. So we're not sitting here today. I'm sure there's going to be ways AI does stuff that it hasn't done before, and we're all going to figure that out over time. But we think we're reasonably well protected there. And then when you hear these anecdotes about some proptech company that says they're disintermediating the brokerage business, I would ask them to show you their revenue stream and see what you get.”

“One of the things we're watching very closely is it can get really expensive really fast if you don't control who has the access to use it and what they can use it for. And our Chief Operating Officer, Vikram Kohli, who's also over our cost control program and specifically has reporting up to him the technology part of our business right now is watching very closely how we're using AI and where we're using it. how we're using it to improve our products and where we're using it randomly around the system.”

“it's very difficult to speculate how it will impact over time, but it will. I think it will take a number of years, and it will start in our functions. I mean, Bob mentioned our HR teams, our shared service teams, but even those head count reductions, we anticipate happening a few years from now versus immediately.”

“AI is creating a considerable secular tailwind for our company right now, and it's fairly broad-based. To the point where I think our move into critical infrastructure and data center services is going to be at least as profound as our move into outsourcing was in the '90s and early 2000s and much faster.”

“our capital allocation priorities remain consistent and they have over time. We are always prioritizing M&A, and if anything, as Bob mentioned earlier, we see even greater opportunity for M&A at this point than we have historically, especially in the data center space.”

“Where we think we're most protected, and I commented on this last quarter, is in our transactional businesses. So our investing businesses, our brokerage businesses, our development business, where you lead with strategy and negotiations and creativity.”

“Where we're seeing some slower decision-making is corporate capital investment, except for data center investment.”