Nvidia, Apollo weigh AI data centers in 130+ US exchange buildings
Nvidia sent Brightspeed a business proposal on November 4 and has assessed roughly 1 gigawatt of available power across the carrier's facilities.
NVIDIA is discussing with private equity firm Apollo Global Management a plan to convert more than 130 buildings owned by US broadband carrier Brightspeed into AI data centers, forming a distributed network across 20 states. Nvidia sent a business proposal and a request for additional materials to Brightspeed on November 4, according to The Information, which reported the talks on November 5.
Brightspeed owns more than 130 buildings housing voice and data communications equipment across the US. Nvidia has assessed that many of them already have enough power to run the latest AI servers, providing roughly 1 gigawatt of available power in total.
Nvidia has discussed with suppliers installing next-generation Vera Rubin server racks at some converted facilities starting in the first quarter of 2027, and is also considering adopting technology from AI chip startup Groq.
The company described the facilities as an inference network focused on running already-developed AI models rather than training large models from scratch. Cloud companies and AI developers including SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI were mentioned as potential customers, though it has not been confirmed whether Nvidia and Apollo are discussing actual lease contracts with them.
Facility upgrades such as dedicated chip cooling systems would require some permits or approvals from local governments.
Background
Nvidia secured a technology license from Groq at the end of last year, and Apollo recently agreed to buy tens of billions of dollars' worth of Vera Rubin chip systems to lease to SpaceX. Ahead of the US midterm elections, some gubernatorial candidates in states such as Texas are calling for a moratorium on new data center construction.
Quick answers
What does Nvidia plan to do with Brightspeed's buildings?
It is discussing a plan with Apollo Global Management to convert more than 130 Brightspeed facilities into AI data centers forming a network across 20 states.
When would Vera Rubin server racks be installed?
Nvidia has discussed with suppliers installing next-generation Vera Rubin server racks at some converted facilities starting in the first quarter of 2027.
Who could use the AI data centers?
Cloud companies and AI developers including SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI were mentioned as potential customers, but no lease contracts have been confirmed.