CPP Investments Backs AT&T’s Next Fibre Expansion
Matthew Leo · Published October 9, 2026 · Business & Policy
CPP Investments has agreed to help finance a new U.S. fibre company with AT&T and Global Infrastructure Partners, the BlackRock-owned infrastructure manager. The deal gives Canadians indirect exposure to a large broadband build through the fund that invests Canada Pension Plan contributions.
It does not bring new fibre service to Canada. The network will operate across 16 U.S. states, and the transaction is not expected to close until the first half of 2027, subject to the usual approvals and conditions.
What the joint venture will own
The companies plan to combine two businesses: Gigapower, AT&T's existing wholesale fibre venture with GIP, and Forged Fiber 37, a subsidiary holding network assets and construction operations AT&T acquired from Lumen.
AT&T will own 50 per cent. GIP and CPP Investments will collectively own the other 50 per cent. Neither the announcement nor the independent reporting reviewed by Mapletechie discloses CPP Investments' individual percentage or how much money it will commit.
At closing, the combined operation is expected to have nearly five million fibre locations and more than one million subscribers. It will operate as an open-access wholesale network, allowing service providers to use its infrastructure rather than limiting it to one retail brand. AT&T plans to sell fibre service over the network.
Why Canada's pension fund wants fibre
Fibre infrastructure can produce long-lived, contracted revenue while benefiting from rising demand for cloud services, video, remote work and AI-related data traffic. CPP Investments described the venture as a way to gain exposure to a scaled infrastructure business and generate long-term value for the CPP Fund.
That is the investment case, not a guaranteed return. Fibre builds require large upfront spending, and results depend on construction costs, take-up rates, wholesale pricing and competition. The venture also carries regulatory and execution risk as two existing operations are combined.
AT&T's broader goal is to reach more than 60 million fibre locations by the end of 2030. The company calls the partnership a capital-light way to expand beyond its traditional territory. That phrasing is important: outside investors supply part of the capital and receive part of the economic exposure.
What Canadians can and cannot evaluate yet
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board invests on behalf of more than 22 million contributors and beneficiaries, but individual Canadians do not choose specific portfolio holdings. The relevant public-interest questions are the terms, concentration, governance and expected risk-adjusted return.
The announcement answers the ownership split at the top level and identifies the assets being combined. It does not disclose the valuation, CPP Investments' cheque size, expected construction budget, target return or the rights each minority partner will hold. Those omissions do not make the deal unusual, but they limit any attempt to calculate the exposure or return from public information.
Canadians should also avoid reading the investment as a view on domestic broadband policy. The assets are in the United States. The deal may offer lessons about wholesale fibre financing, but it does not change Canadian prices, coverage obligations or competition rules.
What to watch before closing
- whether competition or telecom regulators impose conditions;
- the final ownership held separately by GIP and CPP Investments;
- how much capital each partner commits and over what period;
- whether the five-million-location starting figure changes before close; and
- how quickly the open-access network adds wholesale providers beyond AT&T.
Until those details appear, the accurate Canadian takeaway is narrow: the national pension investor is taking an undisclosed share of the non-AT&T half of a large U.S. fibre platform, with closing targeted for the first half of 2027.
Sources
- AT&T: transaction structure, assets and closing target
- Reuters: independent reporting on the agreement
Tags: CPP Investments, AT&T, fibre broadband, infrastructure, Canada