Brightspeed and Nvidia discuss repurposing 130+ telecom buildings into small data centers

Internet telecom provider Brightspeed is reportedly in discussions with Nvidia regarding the conversion of numerous aging telecommunications facilities into smaller data centers. Nvidia previously proposed this concept to Brightspeed's parent company, Apollo Global Management, and has since submitted the required written proposal, with further information gathering and site inspections pending. Brightspeed operates approximately 130 buildings across the United States, most of which handle data and voice traffic. Nvidia estimates these sites could collectively deliver about 1 gigawatt of computing power, sufficient to house over 2,200 Supermicro Vera Rubin NVL72 racks, each containing 72 Rubin GPUs and 36 Vera CPUs. While existing power capacity meets GPU demands, the conversion requires deploying cooling systems and other necessary infrastructure. Although the project requires local government approvals, repurposing these existing structures is advantageous as it typically involves fewer permitting hurdles and less community opposition compared to greenfield construction. Separately, OpenAI and Anthropic are also exploring similar small-scale data center developments, especially as large-scale projects face delays and local resistance, though they acknowledge that unified, large-scale clusters remain the ideal setup for AI model training.