Hyperscale cloud providers are driving the demand for high-capacity optical connectivity as they expand their AI and data center infrastructure. In response, optical fiber manufacturer Lightera, USA, announced that it is planning to nearly triple production capacity for submarine optical fiber by 2029. The company said it is making a significant capital investment to expand its fiber manufacturing operations in Denmark and the United States. “Artificial intelligence is fundamentally transforming the world’s communications infrastructure and driving unprecedented requirements for fiber density, performance and scale,” said Lightera CEO Holly Hulse.

Toward modernized connectivity infrastructure

Lightera spun off from Furukawa Electric Group in April 2025, after Furukawa began integrating its global fiber and cable business to strengthen collaborations and improve operations, according to the company.

In May 2026, Lightera announced a collaboration with multinational telecommunications giant Nokia, Finland, aimed at expanding the integration of optical local area network (LAN) solutions for businesses and organizations across Europe. The groups plan to combine Lightera’s experience deploying optical LAN solutions and expertise in passive optical infrastructure with Nokia’s passive optical network technology to modernize their customers’ connectivity infrastructure.

“As AI-driven workloads continue to reshape network requirements, enterprises need infrastructure built for a new era of secure, deterministic and efficient connectivity. This is an architectural shift, not simply a technology refresh,” said Sylvain Rajaud, vice president and head of partner sales management for Europe at Nokia. “Through our collaboration with Lightera, we are bringing advanced fiber technology together with strong infrastructure expertise to help organizations across Europe modernize their LAN environments with solutions that are scalable, trusted and ready for future digital demands.”

Growing submarine networks

Now, Lightera has announced a “major” capital investment—of an undisclosed amount—to expand submarine optical fiber manufacturing at its facilities in Brøndby, Denmark, and Norcross, GA, USA. The company says that it has early insights into future demand and technology trends through its direct relationships with submarine cable manufacturers and hyperscalers because optical fiber is usually ordered a year before it is deployed.

Lightera plans to nearly triple manufacturing capacity by 2029 to support existing customer commitments and future submarine cable programs as hyperscalers and network operators drive demand for increased global connectivity, according to the company. “As demand for global bandwidth continues to accelerate, the industry will require both greater manufacturing capacity and next-generation optical technologies,” said Hulse.

The expansion will also help the company prepare for the commercialization of its multicore fiber (MCF) technology, which enables multiple optical channels within a single fiber, increasing transmission capacity. Lightera predicts submarine deployments of MCF will begin sometime between 2029 and 2030, and it already has MCF technology that is compatible with submarine networks. Its TeraWave SCUBA 4× contains four cores for space division multiplexing, which the company says delivers four times more bandwidth in ocean applications than classical submarine fiber cables, and it has demonstrated attenuation below 0.165 dB/km at 1550 nm and adjacent-core crosstalk of –70 dB/km at 1550 nm.

 “This major expansion reflects our confidence in the long-term future of submarine communications and enables us to deliver both. It is part of a broader series of strategic investments Lightera is making across our global manufacturing footprint to expand capacity, advance next-generation technologies and support long-term customer demand,” Hulse said. “By expanding capacity today while preparing for multicore fiber, we are ensuring Lightera remains the partner of choice for customers building the next generation of global communications infrastructure.”