Nvidia weighs converting Brightspeed telecom sites for AI inference

Nvidia sounded out Apollo Global Management about converting a portfolio of aging telecom buildings into small AI data centers, according to the report.[1] Brightspeed, the Apollo-backed broadband provider, operates more than 130 sites originally built for voice and data traffic.[1] Nvidia submitted a written proposal to Brightspeed on Wednesday and also requested additional information and site visits, the report said.[1] The report does not establish how many buildings Nvidia wants to convert, so the size and scope of any deployment remain open questions.[1]

The Brightspeed portfolio is reported to have roughly 1 gigawatt of electrical capacity available for the proposed sites, potentially supporting tens of billions of dollars of Nvidia Vera Rubin servers.[1] Nvidia staff discussed with suppliers starting retrofits with Vera Rubin racks in the first quarter of 2027.[1] That discussion indicates a possible retrofit starting point, not a confirmed schedule for the overall project. The planned facilities would run already-trained models rather than host large-scale training clusters.[1] The design could also incorporate technology from Groq, whose technology Nvidia licensed last year.[1]

The report says existing telecom sites could offer inference capacity sooner than a new campus because their power capacity is already in place.[1] Repurposing buildings is intended to speed hardware deployment and avoid local opposition to new construction.[1] It would not remove the need for local permits: upgrades such as specialized cooling would still require approval, although the report says the retrofit approval path is shorter than for new construction.[1] Older telecom buildings can unlock underused power, but aging equipment can also make them more expensive to run.[1]

The report does not identify who would buy or lease chips installed at the sites.[1] It names cloud providers and AI developers including SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI as possible users of the telecom-site capacity.[1] Apollo separately agreed to buy tens of billions of dollars of Vera Rubin chips to lease to SpaceX.[1] Brightspeed was reportedly nearing bankruptcy, adding financial context to the proposal without resolving its outcome.[1] The report also noted that regulatory fears around data-center buildout weighed on the sector; Nvidia shares closed down 9%, their worst session since January 2025.[1]