Zayo said the purchase will expand its fiber network and reinforce its strategic focus on enabling AI and digital transformation across the U.S.
Communications infrastructure provider Zayo has agreed to acquire Crown Castle’s Fiber Solutions business in a deal valued at approximately $4.25 billion. Zayo, backed by DigitalBridge and EQT, said the purchase will expand its fiber network and reinforce its strategic focus on enabling artificial intelligence (AI) growth and digital transformation across the United States.
With this acquisition, Zayo will add approximately 90,000 route miles of fiber to its network, increasing its overall reach to more than 70,000 on-net locations. Crown Castle’s metro-focused fiber assets complement Zayo’s existing long-haul infrastructure, enhancing connectivity solutions for enterprises, data centers, and AI-driven applications.
The deal aligns with Zayo’s long-term investment strategy in high-capacity, low-latency fiber networks, which are critical for cloud computing, AI and enterprise connectivity. Zayo has spent more than $20 billion on fiber infrastructure expansion over the past five years and plans to continue investing billions more to strengthen the United States’ digital economy.
In January, the company announced its intentions to build more than 5,000 fiber route-miles specifically to meet the demands of AI workloads. Bill Long, Zayo’s chief product officer, told RCR Wireless News that the investment “will be critical to averting a potential bandwidth gap in the U.S. as AI-driven data center capacity is expected to grow 2-6X over the next five years.” Zayo plans to build out five new routes and add over-builds of seven existing routes over the next five years, totaling about 5,000 new route-miles of fiber transport specifically to meet anticipated demand driven by increased AI use.
Of the Crown Castle deal, Zayo CEO Steve M. Smith said: “We are strategically investing in expanding and enhancing our country’s critical network infrastructure to meet the demands of hyperscalers, data centers, enterprises, and carriers that will facilitate the growing AI economy. This acquisition strengthens our ability to deliver the reliable, low-latency, high-capacity fiber solutions our customers need to scale in an increasingly data-driven world.”
Marc Ganzi, CEO of DigitalBridge, further stated that the acquisition “underscores” the increasing importance of fiber networks as the foundation for AI-driven innovation and economic growth. “With Crown Castle’s robust metro-focused assets, Zayo will be well-positioned to fuel AI adoption, enhance connectivity solutions, and accelerate technological progress,” he continued.
Jan Vesely, Partner at EQT, echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that “the addition of Crown Castle’s Fiber Solutions business is a strategic move to help fortify the United States’ AI-driven future by delivering the bandwidth, scalability and reliability required for next-generation applications.”
In parallel with this acquisition, EQT’s Active Core Infrastructure fund will independently acquire Crown Castle’s Small Cells business in a separate transaction, bringing the total combined value of both deals to $8.5 billion. As part of the agreement, Zayo and the newly acquired Small Cells business will enter into a long-term commercial partnership, ensuring ongoing fiber support for small-cell deployments.
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
