Zayo, Nvidia Team Up to Expand Fiber for AI Traffic
Zayo will build, own and operate more than 8,000 miles of new fiber, with Nvidia as an early customer.
WASHINGTON, August 6, 2026 – Digital infrastructure provider Zayo announced Thursday that it is working with Nvidia to expand the long-haul fiber needed to support the buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The buildout includes more than 8,000 miles of new fiber-optic cable connecting cities where the companies expect AI-driven data traffic to grow fastest. Zayo said that includes six brand-new long-distance routes, plus upgrades that add capacity to its existing network in 10 markets with heavy demand.
Asked about the financial terms of the deal, a Zayo spokesperson told Broadband Breakfast that the partnership follows the company’s standard deal framework, with the same return objectives and investment criteria Zayo has applied across its business over the past decade.
Rather than an equity partner, Nvidia’s role is that of a customer, the spokesperson said. Nvidia will have significant access to capacity across both the new and overbuilt routes, but Zayo will build, own and operate the network itself, with the remaining capacity available to the rest of Zayo’s customer base.
Zayo executives framed the buildout as a response to a shift in where network infrastructure needs to exist.
“AI is fundamentally reshaping where and how network infrastructure needs to be built across the U.S.,” Zayo CEO Steve Smith said in the companies’ announcement, adding that while most of the market is focused on overbuilding existing routes, Zayo is one of a few providers targeting new locations.
Vladimir Troy, Nvidia’s vice president of engineering for AI infrastructure, said that as AI systems grow, the network connecting data centers is becoming just as important as the processing power inside them, saying the partnership pairs Zayo’s fiber buildout experience with Nvidia’s position in AI infrastructure.
The announcement builds on a broader expansion Zayo says it has undertaken over the past 18 months. New build and overbuild projects are set to cover more than 15,000 route miles across North America.
The company says its North America network now spans 32 million fiber miles, including 224,000 route miles, before counting the 8,000 new miles from the Nvidia partnership.
Its recent acquisition of Crown Castle’s fiber business added roughly 90,000 metro route miles and pushed Zayo’s total on-net enterprise reach past 70,000 locations, strengthening its metro density for AI inference workloads.
Lumen Technologies, which operates a roughly 350,000 route mile network and has also been winning large AI-related fiber contracts, is generally considered Zayo's closest rival in scale.
Zayo has increasingly positioned itself around AI infrastructure demand, including through its AI Infrastructure Blueprint.
