Verizon, aiming to leverage Silicon Valley’s massive investments in artificial intelligence, has signed a contract worth over one billion dollars with Google to connect Google’s data centers through its dark fiber routes. This agreement is part of Verizon’s new "AI Connect" initiative, which was announced in the company’s second quarter 2026 financial report. Verizon is also converting its headquarters into small data centers suited for processing AI-related workloads and replacing old copper cables with fiber.
Dan Schulman, Verizon’s CEO, announced that they expect to sign more multi-billion dollar contracts in AI infrastructure by the end of the year. He emphasized that the growing need for fast and optimized connectivity between data centers for processing AI models and applications with ultra-low latency, such as robotics, remote surgery, and autonomous vehicles, has prompted companies to move computing power closer to users and to the edge of the network.