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Zayo is accelerating its AI-ready network expansion with three new long-haul dark fiber routes.
Source: Noah Wire Services
Zayo, a leading global provider of communications infrastructure, is significantly enhancing its AI-ready network across North America with ambitious upgrades designed to meet the surging demands of artificial intelligence workloads.
The company has recently commenced construction on three new long-haul, purpose-built dark fiber routes, according to a release on the company’s website.
Additionally, Zayo announced they have completed a full 400G upgrade of its North American core network, laying critical groundwork for the next generation of high-capacity, low-latency data transport.
New fiber builds span strategic corridors
A 385-mile, low-latency route between Chicago and Columbus aims to facilitate high-throughput AI workloads, connecting major data centers. Meanwhile, a 521-mile dark fiber link between Chicago and Minneapolis is being crafted with ultra-high fiber counts designed to scale alongside expanding AI data demands.
Completing the trio is a 123-mile high-capacity route connecting Phoenix and Tucson, one of the fastest-growing AI corridors in the U.S. Southwest. This route is particularly notable for its planned connectivity to future expansions extending into El Paso, Dallas, and even Mexico, highlighting the transnational reach anticipated for AI infrastructure.
These efforts form part of a broader, multi-year strategy announced earlier in 2025, wherein Zayo committed to adding over 5,000 new long-haul fiber route miles.
The planned expansion addresses a projected 2 to 6 times growth in AI-driven data center capacity by 2030, as the bandwidth requirements of generative AI, real-time analytics, and cloud-native applications rapidly intensify, according to Zayo.
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