Industry experts point to network capacity as a major constraint on AI growth
DENVER – Zayo, a leading digital infrastructure provider, today announced it is delivering critical network capacity to power today’s AI ecosystem and accelerate the next generation of AI innovation with NVIDIA AI infrastructure. Through this collaboration, Zayo is building more than 8,000 miles of new long-haul fiber across the fastest-growing AI corridors and significantly expanding capacity across its existing infrastructure. As the gap between compute demand and available network capacity widens, Zayo is expanding bandwidth to help AI factories operate, scale, and innovate.
“AI is fundamentally reshaping where and how network infrastructure needs to be built across the U.S. Zayo has invested significantly in modelling where AI-driven demand will emerge and is actively expanding infrastructure ahead of that demand,” said Steve Smith, CEO at Zayo. “As AI adoption accelerates and compute demand grows across the ecosystem, the need for new network corridors and scalable connectivity is increasing. While much of the market remains focused on overbuilding existing routes, Zayo is one of the few providers adding capacity to existing infrastructure while building in the locations and at the scale AI requires for long-term growth. Zayo’s work combines decades of experience building and operating large-scale network infrastructure with NVIDIA accelerated computing to support AI connectivity across North America.”
Closing the AI Network Capacity Gap
“The next constraint for AI is not just compute – it is the ability to connect massive, distributed AI infrastructure at scale. As GPU clusters, AI factories, and hyperscaler deployments expand beyond the traditional data center hubs, long-haul fiber becomes a critical layer of the AI supply chain,” said Dylan Patel, CEO, SemiAnalysis. “Zayo’s work with NVIDIA directly addresses one of the most important infrastructure gaps in the market: building new high-capacity corridors where AI demand is emerging, not just adding capacity where networks already exist.”
AI factories are reshaping the requirements of global network infrastructure, driving demand for fiber capacity at a scale the industry has never seen before. Long-haul fiber is critical to connecting workloads across the increasingly distributed AI ecosystem, including in new and emerging AI corridors where existing long-haul capacity is scarce or does not yet exist. But building this infrastructure remains one of the most complex challenges. Zayo’s buildout will deliver six net-new long-haul routes across emerging AI corridors as well as overbuilds of existing network across 10 high-demand markets.
“AI is moving faster than ever, and the network is quickly becoming just as critical to that progress as compute itself,” said Vladimir Troy, VP Engineering, AI Infrastructure, NVIDIA. “Zayo’s work with NVIDIA is helping us get ahead of that curve; pairing Zayo’s expertise in large-scale network infrastructure with NVIDIA’s AI leadership to build the connectivity backbone the entire ecosystem needs to keep innovating.”
Zayo Builds Network Capacity for a Broader AI Ecosystem
AI cannot scale broadly if access to connectivity is limited to only the largest hyperscalers. Neoclouds, frontier model developers, and enterprises across healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and other industries increasingly depend on the same high-capacity network foundation that Zayo’s network expansion will deliver.
“If we look at neoclouds specifically, we know their customers depend on them to make compute infrastructure accessible as soon as they need it, and network capacity is imperative to making that happen,” said Smith. “As AI infrastructure becomes more distributed, access to high-capacity connectivity in the right markets is becoming critical to how quickly providers, like neoclouds, can bring new GPU capacity online and support customer demand. That’s what makes our work with NVIDIA so important. Building new AI corridors where infrastructure is actually scaling helps remove a major bottleneck for the broader AI ecosystem.”
Over the last 18 months, Zayo has significantly expanded its AI-focused network buildout, with build and overbuild projects now underway spanning more than 15,000 route miles across North America. Its recently completed acquisition of Crown Castle’s Fiber Solutions business also added 90,000 metro route miles and 40,000 on-net enterprise locations, strengthening Zayo’s metro density for AI inference workloads. Zayo also recently introduced its AI Infrastructure Blueprint, a first-of-its-kind framework for connecting training, inference and interconnection environments across the AI ecosystem.
“This is more than a network expansion; it’s a strategic move to enable distributed environments and more specifically, the AI ecosystem. By working with NVIDIA and building additional capacity in key AI corridors, Zayo is enabling not just hyperscalers, but also neocloud providers and enterprise AI deployments to have the WAN connectivity required to scale. This kind of forward-looking strategy reflects a growing recognition that AI success depends on coordinated infrastructure across compute, storage, and network,” said Bob Laliberte, Principal Analyst – Networking & Observability, theCUBE Research.
To learn more about Zayo’s network expansion and how it’s powering the next generation of AI, visit https://www.zayo.com/backbone-for-ai/
About Zayo
The world’s digital future depends on networks that perform. Zayo builds and operates those networks. As the leading digital infrastructure provider, the Zayo network spans 32 million fiber miles and 224,000 route miles across North America and connects more than 400 markets globally. With dense long-haul and metro fiber connectivity, tailored connectivity solutions, and managed services, Zayo’s network underpins the cloud, AI, and enterprise platforms powering the digital economy. Carriers, cloud providers, data centers, enterprises, schools, and governments rely on Zayo’s future-ready infrastructure and expertise to design, scale, and operate the networks that connect what’s next. Discover how Zayo connects what’s next at www.zayo.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
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