Nvidia has reportedly pitched Apollo Global Management, Brightspeed's parent, on using the ISP's legacy central offices as Edge compute nodes for a new inference network. The Information reports that the companies are sharing information and arranging potential site visits. Brightspeed has around 130 buildings across the US that could reportedly host up to 1GW of GPU capacity, with first capacity possibly live as soon as Q1 2027. The sites would also include hardware from Groq, the AI chip startup with which Nvidia has a major technology license.
Reuse of central offices is a live question for telecoms as copper networks are decommissioned. The article says these old sites are very low-density and not designed for AC power, so the 1GW figure would depend on significant power and cooling upgrades and possibly permit changes. Telefónica and Ziply are already looking at repurposing such sites for Edge colocation, so an Nvidia-backed inference network would add a GPU-focused option.
The headline names Nvidia and US telecom Brightspeed in a plan to build an inference network on central-office sites, which is a new angle on edge AI capacity. It ranks below the larger capacity deals because it is a report rather than a confirmed announcement.