Verizon and Corning have reached a multi-billion-dollar agreement covering more than 80 million miles of high-density optical fiber and connectivity solutions, supporting Verizon’s broadband expansion and the long-haul network infrastructure needed for growing AI workloads.
The agreement runs from 2027 through 2032 and is designed to support both consumer and business broadband expansion as well as Verizon’s strategy of building high-capacity connections between major data centers used by AI hyperscalers.
Verizon plans to use the additional fiber supply as it works toward 40 million to 50 million broadband passings, expanding fiber connectivity to homes and businesses while creating a common network architecture connecting residential neighborhoods, enterprise data centers and wireless infrastructure.
Rather than building separate networks for different use cases, Verizon is pursuing a converged architecture in which mobile connectivity, broadband and long-haul infrastructure operate across the same high-capacity fiber backbone.
The company said the approach can provide customers with more consistent connectivity as they move between home broadband and mobile services while giving enterprises and hyperscale technology companies access to the bandwidth and latency characteristics required for increasingly demanding applications.
The deal also represents a major infrastructure component of Verizon’s AI Connect strategy, which involves deploying ultra-dense fiber cables across major long-haul corridors to interconnect data centers.
AI infrastructure is placing growing demands on telecommunications networks because large-scale training and inference workloads require substantial amounts of data to move between data centers with high throughput and low latency.
Verizon is positioning its fiber network as part of the underlying infrastructure supporting that expansion, including connections serving major hyperscale cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services.
The same infrastructure will also support conventional broadband services, allowing Verizon to use its network investments across residential, commercial, wireless and AI-related applications.
The agreement expands a strategic relationship between Verizon and Corning that has lasted approximately 30 years.
Corning will provide fiber, cable and connectivity technologies while continuing to scale its U.S. manufacturing operations to support Verizon’s network deployment plans.
Among the technologies covered by the agreement is Corning Contour Flow Cable, a flexible ribbon cable designed to allow substantially more optical fiber to be installed within existing conduit pathways.
Increasing fiber density inside existing infrastructure can help Verizon expand network capacity without requiring equivalent increases in physical conduit space, improving the economics of network upgrades while supporting higher bandwidth requirements.
For Corning, the agreement provides a large multiyear demand commitment spanning broadband expansion and AI infrastructure.
For Verizon, securing a long-term supply of fiber helps reduce supply-chain uncertainty as the company expands its fiber-to-the-home footprint and constructs long-haul routes connecting data centers.
The agreement reflects the increasingly close relationship between broadband expansion and AI infrastructure investment. The same underlying fiber systems capable of delivering high-speed residential internet can also form parts of the backbone connecting wireless networks, enterprises and hyperscale data centers.
Verizon is seeking to use that overlap to build a single multi-purpose network rather than maintaining entirely separate infrastructure for each application.
The strategy also allows investments originally focused on broadband and mobile connectivity to support emerging demand associated with generative AI, cloud computing and increasingly distributed data center architectures.
KEY QUOTES:
“Securing this volume of fiber allows us to continue building the network of the future at an unprecedented scale,” said Kyle Malady, CEO of Verizon Business. “We are deploying a single, converged architecture that unites mobile connectivity and broadband into one seamless experience for millions of families and businesses, while simultaneously building the high-capacity, low-latency backbone AI hyperscalers demand. With Corning as our partner, we are securing the physical foundation of America’s AI economy.”
Kyle Malady, CEO of Verizon Business
“Corning is thrilled to deepen our three-decade partnership with Verizon as we provide our latest optical innovations in fiber, cable, and connectivity to link AI data centers together while ensuring more Americans have access to AI with high-speed fiber connections at home,” said Mike O’Day, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Corning Optical Communications. “This partnership demonstrates that Gen AI and broadband expansion are part of the same transformative opportunity. Corning is proud to build on our 175-year legacy of supporting our customers’ growth with breakthrough innovations that we manufacture at scale here in the United States.”
Mike O’Day, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Corning Optical Communications
