Verizon signs $1 billion dark‑fiber deal with Google for U.S. AI data centers

Verizon announced a contract valued at more than $1 billion to provide dark‑fiber connectivity for Google’s artificial‑intelligence data centers across the United States. The agreement, disclosed by CEO Dan Schulman during the company’s second‑quarter earnings presentation, is part of Verizon’s AI Connect programme, which aims to meet the rapidly growing demand for high‑speed, low‑latency links between AI workloads. The deal will use both existing and newly built fiber routes and includes converting retired copper lines and central office sites into small edge data centres to support inference‑heavy applications such as autonomous vehicles, robotics and remote surgery. Schulman said this is the first of several AI‑related contracts expected to generate multiple billions of dollars in revenue before the end of the year.