Today’s telecom news includes announcements on Data Center Capex, Orange Jordan, Lightera, optical fiber manufacturing, among others.
Global Data Center Capex Forecast to Exceed $3 Trillion by 2030 as AI Infrastructure Expands
Worldwide data-center capital expenditure is forecast to exceed $3 trillion by 2030, according to Dell’Oro Group, as hyperscalers, sovereign AI projects, neocloud providers and model developers accelerate infrastructure spending. Dell’Oro says its 2030 forecast has nearly doubled since January 2026, driven by higher hyperscaler guidance, greater projected power capacity and rising equipment costs. The top four U.S. hyperscalers could account for about half of global capex. AI-specialized cloud companies, including model builders and neoclouds, are projected to expand at nearly 60 percent CAGR. High-end accelerators will remain the largest spending category, while inference, agentic AI and storage workloads will also increase demand for general-purpose servers, networking, storage and physical data-center infrastructure.
Orange Jordan to Provide Fiber Connectivity for 400 MW Al-Risha AI Data Center Campus
Mindstream Energy is expanding its Al-Risha Sovereign AI and Digital Infrastructure Campus in Jordan through collaborations with Orange Jordan and Park Place Technologies. The modular AI and HPC campus is designed to scale toward approximately 400 MW as customer demand grows. Orange Jordan has been selected as the planned fiber-optic communications provider, bringing domestic connectivity plus access to Orange’s regional and international networks. Park Place Technologies will contribute data-center operations, monitoring, infrastructure maintenance and optimisation capabilities. The companies will evaluate opportunities spanning AI infrastructure, cloud computing, cybersecurity, networking, edge computing and modular data centers. Mindstream’s energy-first strategy aims to place large computing clusters near available power while ensuring the high-bandwidth, resilient connectivity required for sovereign AI and HPC workloads across Jordan and the broader Middle East.
Lightera Expands Optical Fiber Manufacturing in US, Brazil, Japan and India for AI Networks
Lightera, part of Furukawa Electric Group, plans a major expansion of optical-fiber and cable manufacturing to meet demand from AI data centers, hyperscale cloud providers and next-generation communications networks. Investments will cover facilities in the United States, Brazil, Japan and India, with additional production capacity expected to come online progressively from the second half of fiscal 2028. Long-term customer purchase commitments are supporting the expansion. Lightera is increasing capacity for high-performance optical fiber and rollable ribbon cable, which enables higher fiber density in data-center and telecom networks. The company is also investing in multicore fiber, hollow-core fiber, ocean fiber, connectors and fusion-splicing technologies. The expansion reflects rising fiber requirements created by AI clusters, cloud infrastructure and future 5G and 6G networks.
SHAFANA FAZAL
