As AI demand grows, FiberLight is specializing in fiber growth, edge entry and strategic acquisitions
As hyperscalers demand sooner, denser and extra direct fiber routes, FiberLight is positioning itself as a crucial associate — not only a supplier — within the race to assist AI infrastructure at scale. Following the firm’s $500 million refinancing and the acquisition of Metro Fiber Networks (MFN), CEO Invoice Main outlined FiberLight’s growth technique, emphasizing the urgency of delivering low-latency fiber for an AI-driven future.
A ’25-year-old startup’ finds its stride
In April 2025, FiberLight introduced a $20 million funding to increase its community, with a concentrate on supporting AI workloads and autonomous methods. That funding, Main mentioned, is a part of a broader technique to remodel the corporate right into a scalable, nationwide participant. “It’s a 25-year-old startup,” he mentioned, describing the operational overhaul that adopted Morrison’s 2023 acquisition of FiberLight. The corporate has spent the final two years modernizing inner methods and making ready for aggressive development.
A significant step in that development: the acquisition of MFN, a totally underground duct and cable system stretching from Richmond to Northern Virginia. The deal provides FiberLight a ready-built path into one of many world’s densest knowledge heart markets. Main claimed that 70% of all of the oceanic or transatlantic communications hit Virginia Seashore.
“That is an asset to speed up that growth for all the information facilities that the hyperscalers are constructing,” he mentioned. “If we have been to go construct that asset, the… allow to get the York River crossing or the Bay crossing would take roughly two years.” With the MFN buy, nonetheless, Fiberlight now has “instant demand” within the area.
Supporting hyperscalers on the edge
Demand from hyperscalers is shaping how and the place FiberLight builds. Based on Main, the mannequin for connectivity is evolving: “Ten years in the past, when a hyperscaler was deploying, they have been in search of a single route. Then it was twin routes. Now they’re in search of three and 4 extra routes,” he mentioned.
That shift is influencing the corporate’s regional expansions. Within the Texas Panhandle, for instance, FiberLight just lately accomplished a 500-mile construct to assist an edge knowledge heart deployment in partnership with Area 16. “The sting has been talked about… for a protracted, very long time, however I do see it now materializing,” he mentioned.
Texas is the information heart epicenter
Whereas AI knowledge heart development faces growing energy and land constraints in conventional tech corridors, Texas is rising as a vacation spot for brand spanking new infrastructure — and FiberLight is leaning in with the relocation of its headquarters from Atlanta to Plano. “That’s an enormous transfer,” mentioned Main. “And I feel a fairly clear indicator of how helpful that a part of the nation goes to be.”
The state’s mixture of obtainable land, reasonably priced energy and open water entry makes it enticing for hyperscalers and infrastructure suppliers alike. One Dallas-area hotspot, Crimson Oak, is already being known as a “mini-Ashburn” as a result of quantity of latest knowledge heart tasks. (Ashburn has lengthy been thought of the information heart capital of the world.) Demand can also be rising in areas like Midland and Odessa, the place actual property builders and even former bitcoin mining services are being transformed to satisfy AI infrastructure wants.
Whilst energy challenges make headlines throughout the U.S., Main says rural Texas stays well-positioned to deal with demand — at the very least for now.
Future consolidation
As fiber and infrastructure suppliers throughout the nation pursue M&A exercise, FiberLight is actively bidding to increase its attain. With three acquisition targets in play, the corporate sees alternative to scale as regional consolidation accelerates. “My aim is to be the acquirer, not the acquired,” he mentioned. “There’s loads of information coming your means, I promise.”
