Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala will invest $500 million in Brightspeed, a US-based broadband and telecommunications services company, the companies said on Tuesday.
With this, Mubadala will become a minority shareholder alongside investment funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, Inc.
Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Brightspeed is the fifth-largest incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) in the US, with the capability of serving more than 6.5 million homes and businesses in mainly rural and suburban communities across the US Midwest, Southeast and parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Brightspeed officially launched operations in October 2022 and began the build-out of its state-of-the-art fiber optics network, which started serving its first fiber customers in March 2023. Brightspeed’s planned fiber optics transformation is expected to reach up to three million homes and businesses over the next five years, including in many places where fiber and advanced technology has not historically been deployed.
Khaled Abdulla Al Qubaisi, CEO of Real Estate and Infrastructure Investments at Mubadala, said: “Digital infrastructure is driving growth and development across all sectors of society, enabling people and economies to reach their full potential. As a responsible global investor, Mubadala sees huge opportunity in supporting Brightspeed’s growth strategy in transitioning large swathes of the US to fiber connectivity and promoting digital equity and inclusion. We’re delighted to be partnering with Apollo and Brightspeed to capitalise on the growth opportunities in fiber deployment and create not only sustainable, long-term value, but also support the digital infrastructure development across the US”
Bob Mudge, CEO for Brightspeed, said: “We are in the early stages of our company’s growth trajectory, and we are grateful for Mubadala’s endorsement of Brightspeed’s vision and strategy. The added investment from another well-respected institutional investor is a testament to the value we will create and the connections we will enable for homes and businesses across our 20-state footprint.”
The Brightspeed investment is part of Mubadala’s rapidly growing digital infrastructure portfolio headed by its Executive Director Mounir Barakat. In 2022, Mubadala invested $350 million into Princeton Digital Group, a leading pan-Asia data centre company focused on expanding world-class data centre services to meet increasing demand across Asia. Mubadala has also invested 800 million pounds into CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent full-fibre platform. To date, CityFibre has enabled connectivity for more than 2 million homes in the UK to its advanced fiber network.
