AI and hyperscaler fiber projects
Zayo is building 8,000+ miles of new long-haul fiber with NVIDIA. Lumen has fiber deals with Microsoft, Meta, AWS and Google. Uniti booked $88.2 million from a hyperscaler dark fiber IRU in 2026, and Lightpath’s Columbus AI network has grown to 304 route miles.
6 providers · checked 2026-11-11
| BSO | Asia-Pacific | Dark fiber + wavelength | Metro | — | — | —Named Tokyo metro data-center endpoints.1 | 2026-11-11 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lightpath | North America | Dark fiber + wavelength | Metro + long haul | 12,600112,600+ route miles of owned fiber across 11 metro markets.1 | — | 1941194+ on-net data centers on the dark fiber product page.1 | 2026-11-11 |
| Lumen | North America | Dark fiber + wavelength | Metro + long haul | 25,000125,000+ route miles of low-loss next-generation intercity fiber; 163,000 on-net buildings and 530+ sites with up to 400G on the same product page.1 | — | 2,20012,200+ on-net third-party data centers on the dark fiber product page.1 | 2026-11-11 |
| Telxius | Global | Wavelength | Long haul | —100,000+ km of submarine cables and terrestrial backhaul.1 | — | —26 landing stations and data centers on the network.1 | 2026-11-11 |
| Uniti Wholesale | North America | Dark fiber | Metro + long haul | 240,0001About 240,000 fiber route miles across 47 states for the combined Uniti group (Q3 2026 10-Q), including the Kinetic consumer network.1 | — | —May 2026 wholesale expansion added dark fiber and colocation sites; no group on-net data-center count published.2 | 2026-11-11 |
| Zayo | North America | Dark fiber + wavelength | Metro + long haul | 224,0003224,000 North American route miles and 32 million fiber miles (August 2026), including the acquired Crown Castle fiber.3 | — | — | 2026-11-11 |
Which of these routes are live today?
Each project carries its announcement date and stage. Zayo’s NVIDIA routes and Lumen’s NorthLine are under construction; Lightpath scheduled a third of its Columbus build for the first half of 2026 and the rest for 2027. Telxius’s MAREA cable has carried traffic since 2018.
Use the field definitions to read each scope and source. All dark fiber providers includes the full dataset.