Listen to this articleBIG Fiber (formerly Bandwidth IG), a Sunnyvale, California-based metro dark fiber provider, closed a $250 million debt facility, with a $100 million accordion feature that brings total potential borrowing capacity to $350 million.
This financing was led by Stonepeak Credit and La Caisse (Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec), with continued support from existing equity sponsors Columbia Capital and SDC Capital Partners. Proceeds will refinance existing debt, inject new growth capital, and support major network expansions, particularly in Greater Atlanta.
This debt raise directly addresses surging demand for high capacity, low atency dark fiber driven by AI workloads, hyperscale data centers, and machine to machine connectivity. BIG Fiber specializes in newly constructed, 100% underground dark fiber networks intentionally routed with minimal overlap to legacy infrastructure, offering high fiber counts for scalability.
Key expansion details include:
- A significant multi market buildout in Greater Atlanta, adding over 205 route miles and 165,000 fiber miles.
- Post expansion totals: Approximately 850 route miles and over 3 million fiber miles across core markets.
- Phased ready for service (RFS) dates expected in early 2027.
The company currently operates in three primary markets:
- San Francisco Bay Area: >320 route miles, serving 65+ data centers.
- Greater Atlanta: >550 route miles (pre expansion), serving 30+ data centers, a fast growing data center hub.
- Greater Portland: >20 route miles, serving 15+ data centers.
This positions BIG Fiber to serve hyperscalers, large enterprises, and data center operators needing dedicated, high volume fiber without relying on lit services or congested legacy corridors.
Stonepeak Credit and La Caisse bring deep infrastructure expertise. Stonepeak targets essential digital infrastructure with stable, recurring revenue, while La Caisse emphasizes long term, resilient assets.
Quotes from the announcement highlight confidence in BIG Fiber’s model:
- Bruce Garrison (CEO): Emphasized scalability for AI era demands.
- Arun Varanasi (Stonepeak): Noted critical bandwidth for data and compute.
- Jérôme Marquis (La Caisse): Highlighted resilient business model with long term contracts.
This follows BIG Fiber’s 2024 milestone as the first dark fiber provider to secure a green loan, signaling strong ESG alignment in sustainable infrastructure. The rebrand from Bandwidth IG to BIG Fiber in 2025 coincided with sustained growth and reinforced its AI/cloud focus.
The deal exemplifies the AI infrastructure boom extending beyond GPUs and power to the physical network layer. Hyperscalers and data center operators are investing heavily in new markets, creating bottlenecks in fiber capacity. BIG Fiber’s approach, greenfield construction and overbuilds of “exhausted” corridors, targets this gap with ultra high strand counts for future proofing.
It aligns with 2026 trends of rising U.S. fiber investment, driven by private capital, AI needs, and broader digital infrastructure spending. Atlanta’s emergence as a key data center market makes the targeted expansion particularly timely.
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What is BIG Fiber?
Founded in 2019, BIG Fiber focuses exclusively on metro dark fiber (unlit fiber leased to customers who light it themselves). Its leadership team draws heavily from Zayo, Level 3, and other telecom veterans:
- Bruce Garrison (CEO, noted in announcements).
- Executives with experience at Zayo, AGL Networks, AT&T, and data center services firms, providing expertise in construction, sales to hyperscalers, and scaling operations.
The company owns and operates 100% of its networks, enabling custom, high diversity solutions.
This is structured as debt (not equity), preserving ownership while scaling the balance sheet. The accordion feature provides flexibility for opportunistic growth. It strengthens BIG Fiber’s position among specialized dark fiber players by accelerating capacity in high demand corridors, where legacy providers may face constraints.
In a competitive landscape of fiber operators, BIG Fiber differentiates through new-build quality, high density, low latency, and focus on AI driven enterprise/hyperscale needs rather than residential broadband. The financing enhances its ability to compete for long term contracts in a capital intensive business.
The $250M facility represents a strategic acceleration for BIG Fiber amid the AI infrastructure land rush, bolstering its footprint in key markets and solidifying its role as a critical enabler of next generation digital connectivity.
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