Verizon (NYSE: VZ) is an AI-enabler of first-class quality, and it isn’t getting enough attention. Its fiber optic networks are critical for AI connectivity, spanning all levels of the stack from data centers to devices. While not a semiconductor manufacturer, networker, or model builder, AI data can’t get where it needs to go without the long-haul and metropolitan fiber networks on which Verizon’s business is built. It is the data highway hyperscalers need, and the deal with Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is the proof.
Verizon CEO Dan Schulman unveiled an industry-unlocking event when he announced that Alphabet would rent its dark fiber. Worth more than $1 billion in revenue, it is expected to be the first of many such deals as hyperscalers rush to lock in long-distance fiber-optic capacity.
