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Barry Sternlicht

Chief Executive Officer & Non-Independent Executive Chairman of the Board, STARWOOD PROPERTY TRUST INC

Search every verified Barry Sternlicht interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Barry Sternlicht, chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital Group, discussed his company's expansion into AI data center infrastructure during an interview at the Milken Institute Global Conference. He said that Starwood has been investing in data centers for five years and is working on its first data center project in Australia, citing activity by hyperscalers in Europe and Asia. Sternlicht noted that development yields and interest rates in Australia are similar to those in the U.S. and described the firm as agnostic about geography. Sternlicht also expressed concern about wealth disparity in the United States, stating that "half the country isn't doing so great" and that this could affect politics, real estate, and taxes. He said Starwood has "shied away from blue states lately because of their propensity to tax businesses and individuals," pointing to higher growth rates in Sun Belt states such as Nashville, Dallas, Atlanta, Raleigh, and Florida. On monetary policy, he argued that if oil prices spike, the Federal Reserve should lower rates to support interest-rate-sensitive parts of the economy like housing.

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Notable quotes

“We've been very constructive on take privates of small public companies in Europe. There are a lot of small REITs in Europe that can't get to scale. And they were quicker to actually, let's say, clean the books or shareholders got stuck in one to sell a company.”

“I don't know what worries me is yes. The disparity of wealth in the United States and the fact that half the country isn't doing so great. That worries me that because it will impact politics and if it affects politics, it'll impact real estate. It'll impact taxes. It'll impact a lot of things.”

“We like to invest when with positive leverage when the yields on property are higher than the cost of debt. And that turned true in Europe a lot faster than the United States.”

“And the freight train for a 25-year-old today is AI. You know, it's it's really how do you think? Are you asking the right questions?”

“I personally am short bonds against my real estate portfolio because I think you have to think about what happens if rates get out of control and one day nobody shows up — Chinese aren't buying our debt anymore, so who's going to buy it?”

“Now we're paying a trillion dollars in interest expense — it was $200 billion three years ago — our deficit is expanding because we're paying interest on interest. Powell doesn't care.”

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