- 2026 is expected to be a big year for fiber manufacturers as they see huge demand from AI data centers
- Fierce reached out to CommScope, Clearfield, Corning and STL to hear their plans for meeting the expected demand for fiber
- They're working on new technologies and aligning with the supply chain partners
There’s going to be a big surge in demand for fiber in 2026, and Fierce Network checked in with some major fiber vendors — STL, CommScope, Clearfield and Corning — to gauge their plans for the year.
Anis Khemakhem, chief commercial officer at Clearfield, said, “AI has pushed fiber demand to levels we’ve never seen to ensure the incredible speeds inside data centers and between campuses. The many, massive data center builds we’re seeing today are driving huge volumes of intra-bay, inter-bay and middle-mile fiber.”
He noted that BEAD is also finally rolling out at the same time. “That dual demand elevates our fiber forecast, but it also makes the shortage more pronounced,” said Khemakhem.
John McGirr, SVP and general manager for Corning Optical Fiber & Cable, said, “The surge in hyperscale and AI network loads has significantly increased our expectations for fiber demand. Enterprise sales grew 58% year-over-year in Q3 2025, driven by continued strong adoption of Corning’s Gen AI products, largely due to AI network growth demands.”
When asked how much fiber will be needed in 2026 for data centers, Rahul Puri, CEO of the Optical Networking Business at STL, said, “AI-focused data centers require significantly more fiber — about 36x more fiber than traditional CPU-based racks — to handle the massive data volumes and high-speed connectivity required by GPU clusters.”
Puri predicts that cumulative hyperscale data capacity will increase by three times in the next few years alone. “The U.S. will need to add 213.3 million more fiber miles by 2029, more than doubling its current amount from 159.6 million fiber miles to 372.9 million miles,” Puri said.
Corning’s McGirr added more context to the demand forecast. He said, “The 72-GPU nodes, such as Blackwell, require 16 times more fiber than traditional cloud switch racks. We see no signs of AI network growth slowing down especially as operators scale up (increase computational power by adding more resources within the existing backend AI network node) and scale out (increase the number of nodes to accommodate increasing demand) their networks.”
Fierce asked the vendors about their strategy for handling large fiber orders for data centers.
CommScope’s VP of Technology John Chamberlain and VP of Hyperscale Cloud Erik Gronvall noted that the company has expanded its fiber manufacturing capacity in recent years to meet increased demand. “We are also innovating to reduce the amount of time it takes to deploy AI clusters,” said Chamberlain and Grovall.
But they noted that the biggest challenge arises from the manufacturing mix. "Data centers require products that are different than service provider products," they said. "However, CommScope has in the past and continues now to utilize existing equipment and make additional investment to meet the mixed demand."
Puri with STL said hyperscale data centers don’t just need more fiber, they need the right fiber deployed at the right time, and he said AI data center architectures are evolving.
STL’s strategy includes investments in newer technologies such as multi core fiber for bandwidth growth, hollow core fiber for ultra-low latency and high-density fibers for AI racks.
“Our roadmap is shaped directly with the world’s leading cloud, AI and data center operators,” said Puri.
For its part, Corning is working on co-packaged optics — a technology that increases network density, enables higher data processing speeds, and improves power efficiency by placing optics and electronics closer together in a switching or processing system. “Corning is engaged in cutting-edge research with co-packaged optics and glass substrates for opto-electronic circuits, and we see tremendous potential for this technology,” said McGirr.
At Clearfield, the strategy for handling large fiber orders centers on early forecasting, supply-chain coordination and modular design. “We work closely with glass and cable manufacturers, alongside our in-house operations, to anticipate large orders months in advance,” said Khemakhem.
“We also help customers maximize every strand with high-density and reduced-diameter solutions," he added. "And importantly, we do this without forgetting our commitment to smaller customers. Community broadband providers have relied on us for years while expanding their fiber infrastructure. As BEAD ramps up and edge capabilities expand, we intend to remain the partner who has their back.”
In related coverage, Fierce Network Research recently published a full report on fiber network topologies, which can be downloaded for free.
With the telecom industry anticipating a fiber shortage beginning in 2026, companies planning major fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) deployments should consider their options when it comes to network topologies because the choice can make a difference in the amount of fiber needed.