Verizon Lands $1B+ Dark Fiber Deal with Google for AI Data Centers July 26, 2026 Verizon has signed a deal valued at more than $1 billion with Google to provide dark fiber connectivity for the company’s data centers, according to statements made by Verizon CEO Dan Schulman during the carrier’s second-quarter 2026 earnings call on July 24. The Deal Schulman disclosed the agreement on the earnings call, describing it as covering “several of our dark fiber routes for well in excess of a billion dollars.” The fiber will be used to connect Google data centers supporting AI and cloud workloads. Revenue from the deal is expected to begin in 2027. The company also indicated it anticipates announcing additional AI-related infrastructure agreements by the end of 2026, which together could generate multiple billions of dollars in revenue over the next several years. What Is Dark Fiber and Why It Matters for AI Dark fiber refers to unused optical fiber strands that are leased to a customer without any active transmission equipment provided by the carrier. The customer installs and controls their own optical equipment at both ends. This differs from traditional “lit” fiber services, where the carrier provides the full managed connection. Key advantages of dark fiber for AI workloads: Dedicated capacity — The customer has exclusive use of the fiber strands. Full control — The customer chooses the optical equipment and can scale to much higher bandwidth. Scalability — Modern optics can deliver hundreds of gigabits to multiple terabits per fiber pair. Predictable performance — Lower latency and jitter compared to shared connections. Security & isolation — Physical separation of traffic. Large AI training and inference clusters often need to move massive datasets between data centers. Dark fiber gives hyperscalers direct control over this critical layer of infrastructure. What Verizon Could Do With This Build-Out While Verizon has not outlined specific future plans beyond this deal, the nature of dark fiber contracts creates several potential opportunities: Generate long-term, high-margin recurring revenue through multi-year leases. Monetize existing long-haul and metro fiber routes with relatively low incremental investment. Layer on additional services later (lit capacity, interconnection, edge connectivity, or managed networking). Support edge computing initiatives by pairing dark fiber with repurposed central offices. Use this deal as a reference to win similar connectivity agreements with other hyperscalers. Sources Reuters reporting on Verizon Q2 2026 earnings call (July 24, 2026) Light Reading Yahoo Finance and earnings call coverage Verizon Q2 2026 earnings release This article follows standard verification protocols. All figures and statements attributed to Verizon come directly from the July 24, 2026 earnings call or contemporaneous reporting.