Lightpath today announced it has secured an anchor award to construct new long-haul fiber infrastructure spanning approximately 392 route miles between Columbus, Ohio and Chicago, Illinois, leveraging eight LightCube Data Centers. The award allows Lightpath to deliver 327 miles of new, 100% underground, multi-conduit fiber network across three states and establishes Lightpath’s first organically built long-haul route. The route will be delivered in phases with end-to-end completion by the end of 2028.
The strategic corridor connects two of the fastest-growing data center markets in North America. Columbus has risen from an unranked global data center market in 2024 to sixth globally in 2025, and Chicago has climbed to ninth globally over the same period, according to the Cushman & Wakefield 2024–2025 Global Data Center Market Comparison. The build directly leverages approximately 17 percent of Lightpath’s existing and recently announced Columbus network infrastructure, reinforcing the market’s role as a regional data center and connectivity investment hub.
The Columbus-to-Chicago corridor is Lightpath’s second owned long-haul route, following the company’s acquisition of a 323-mile New York-to-Ashburn 864 count fiber system in late 2024, anchoring its AI infrastructure strategy along the Eastern Seaboard.
The route will include eight LightCube Data Centers — seven new — providing colocation space, power, amplification and interconnection along the route. Lightpath intends to provide a full range of service including conduit, inter-ducts, multi-count dark fiber, colocation service, high-capacity wavelengths and higher-stack connectivity services for hyperscale, carrier, and enterprise customers.
“This award marks a significant milestone in Lightpath’s infrastructure strategy,” said Chris Morley, CEO of Lightpath. “The Columbus-to-Chicago corridor reflects sustained hyperscale demand for high-capacity, long-haul fiber built to production-grade standards. Connecting two of the world’s fastest-growing data center markets on our own purpose-built infrastructure positions Lightpath to support the next generation of AI and cloud workloads at scale.”
The southern span of the route, from Columbus to South Bend, is expected to be the first segment to come online, with full route completion targeted for Q4 2028. Lightpath is also evaluating additional in-line amplifier options along the route to increase available capacity for incremental fiber and optical transport customers.
“Building this corridor from the ground up — on a timeline driven by a real anchor award — demonstrates what our team is capable of delivering,” said Tim Haverkate, Chief Commercial Officer at Lightpath. “This route opens a new dimension of the network for our customers and creates a durable entry point into the Chicago market toward continued strategic expansion.”
The Columbus-to-Chicago route is part of Lightpath’s broader program of building dense, all-fiber infrastructure across key U.S. markets to support hyperscale, carrier, and enterprise customers with scalable, production-ready connectivity.
About Lightpath
Lightpath owns, builds and operates an AI-grade, all-fiber network across eleven major U.S. metro markets, delivering high-capacity, low-latency connectivity for cloud, hyperscale, data center and mission-critical enterprise workloads. Purpose-built for scale and resilience, Lightpath supports dark fiber, wavelength and Ethernet services with direct operational accountability from the teams that design and run the network. For more than 30 years, enterprises, public-sector organizations and cloud providers have trusted Lightpath to support essential systems and large-scale digital infrastructure. Lightpath is jointly owned by Optimum Communications, Inc. (NYSE: OPTU) and Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners.
