AMT vs VICI: How American Tower Corporation and VICI Properties Compare (2026)

Same yardstick, side by side (as of July 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

Reading it: VICI is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. AMT and VICI share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined AMT and VICI exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

American Tower Corporation (NYSE: AMT), founded in 1995 and headquartered in Boston, is a real estate investment trust that owns, operates, and develops multitenant communications real estate. Its core business is leasing vertical space on wireless towers to mobile network operators, government agencies, and broadcasters under long-term contracts with annual escalators, generating 97% of 2025 revenue from property operations. Beyond towers, AMT owns CoreSite, a portfolio of 30 U.S. data centers offering colocation and interconnection services to enterprises, cloud providers, and network operators, which has become a fast-growing second revenue engine. The company manages nearly 150,000 communications sites across the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia-Pacific, providing global scale that smaller peers cannot easily replicate.

Full AMT guide

VICI Properties is a New York-based real estate investment trust that owns experiential real estate, meaning properties people travel to and spend time in rather than shop or work in. Its core holdings are trophy casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and in regional markets, including Caesars Palace, the Venetian Resort, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, and the Park MGM, plus a growing set of non-gaming experiential assets such as Chelsea Piers, Bowlero bowling centers, Great Wolf Lodge resorts, and golf courses. VICI does not run these venues. It owns the real estate and leases it to operators under triple-net agreements, meaning the tenant pays rent plus taxes, insurance, and maintenance, and most leases carry contractual rent escalators tied to fixed rates or the consumer price index. As of the end of 2025 the portfolio spanned 93 experiential assets, including 54 gaming properties and 39 other experiential properties, across 26 U.S. states and one Canadian province, at 100 percent occupancy.

Full VICI guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• AMT drivers: 5G Densification and Mid-Band Upgrades; CoreSite and AI-Driven Data Center Demand.
• VICI drivers: Long leases with built-in escalators create visible, inflation-linked growth; Expansion beyond gaming into broader experiential real estate.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: The most immediate risk is customer concentration: in 2025, four carriers (T-Mobile at 18%, AT&T at 17%, Verizon at 14%, and Telefonica at 10%) collectively represented roughly 59% of total revenue, so any material lease dispute, consolidation event, or technology shift (such as carriers building private networks or relying on low-earth-orbit satellites) could disproportionately hurt results. For VICI, the dominant risk is tenant concentration: Caesars and MGM together provide more than two-thirds of VICI's rent, so a severe downturn, leverage problem, or operational failure at either tenant would hit a disproportionate share of income, even though the leases are legally senior and the underlying real estate is prime.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick AMT if you believe its drivers more; VICI if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the AMT and VICI guides.

AMT. AMT's trailing P/E of approximately 27x is well below its own 3-year average of roughly 45x and its 10-year average of roughly 56x, reflecting both earnings normalization after a period of large one-time items and a broader re-rating of rate-sensitive REITs in a higher-for-longer interest rate environment. For tower REITs, investors typically focus on AFFO per share rather than GAAP earnings, because the latter is heavily influenced by depreciation and one-time currency gains or losses. On that basis, FY 2025 delivered high-single-digit AFFO per share growth, and management's 2026 guidance projects continued quarterly revenue in the $2.67 billion to $2.77 billion range per quarter, suggesting mid-single-digit full-year growth if realized.

VICI. VICI is best valued on AFFO (adjusted funds from operations) rather than GAAP earnings, because real estate depreciation depresses reported net income for property REITs. On that basis the stock has recently traded around 10 to 11 times AFFO, below its own historical average and a discount that bears and bulls interpret differently: bears point to concentration and rate risk, while bulls note that a mid-single-digit and growing yield backed by 40-year leases at 100 percent occupancy is a relatively defensive profile. Because roughly 90 percent of taxable income must be distributed, most of the total-return case rests on the dividend plus contractual and acquisition-driven per-share AFFO growth.

Headline figures (approximate, 2026-06-27): AMT shows revenue (q1 2026) ~$2.74 billion, revenue (fy 2024, most recent full year) ~$10.13 billion, adjusted ebitda (q1 2026) ~$1.84 billion (margin ~67%), affo per share (q1 2026) ~$2.84 (up ~3.3% year-over-year); VICI shows revenue (fy 2025) ~$4.0 billion, affo per share (fy 2025) ~$2.38, affo per share guidance (fy 2026) ~$2.42 to $2.45, annualized dividend ~$1.80 per share.

AMT and VICI are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined AMT and VICI exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.