A €5.5 billion ($6.29bn) optical-cable agreement with Molex moves Prysmian’s data-centre business from component supply into a decade-long capacity bet on AI networking.

Data Center Dynamics reported that the contract covers optical cables for deployment inside data centres and includes a €550 million ($570m) upfront payment.

The deal ties the fibre producer’s expansion plan to the physical wiring layer inside AI campuses.

Higher GPU density and AI-driven architecture shifts increase demand for optical links that can move data between racks, accelerators and network equipment without turning the data hall into a cable bottleneck.

Molex Agreement Runs For Up To Ten Years

The agreement will last for up to ten years and puts the Koch-owned maker of electronic, electrical and fibre-optic connectivity products inside the supplier’s digital-infrastructure order book.

The fibre and cable package is intended for data centres that need denser internal connectivity as AI workloads change network architecture.

The contract sits inside a wider package of new agreements and commercial initiatives with hyperscalers and data-centre infrastructure providers.

Prysmian expects that package to add more than €10bn ($11.41bn) in cumulative incremental value up to 2035 against the 2025 baseline.

That longer sales window gives the supply plan a manufacturing constraint.

Optical cable demand must be matched by glass preforming, fibre production and cable capacity in the plants that feed US and European data-centre projects.

The Milan-based cable maker already operates across energy and telecom cable markets, and the new contract extends that industrial base into data-centre connectivity.

Molex brings the customer-side connectivity role, while the manufacturing expansion supports higher-density AI halls.

€1.25bn Capacity Plan Targets Fibre Output

Prysmian said it will allocate €1.25bn ($1.43bn) up to 2031 to expand optical-cable and fibre capacity, including the glass preforming stage, across plants in the US and Europe.

The plan would more than double fibre capacity in the US compared with the current baseline.

The capacity programme is also a labour and industrial footprint commitment.

The expansion is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs globally, including around 600 in the US, while extending a business that already spans energy cables, telecom infrastructure, long-haul digital connections and submarine telecom deployment.

AI Data Halls Need Denser Fibre

The operating issue for AI data centres is not only how many chips are installed.

Compute capacity depends on whether fibre, optics, power distribution and cooling can support the amount of data moving through the campus.

The contract puts cable and fibre supply inside that buildout rather than at the edge of the AI infrastructure chain.

Recent product context includes the $950m acquisition of Channell Commercial Corporation and a partnership with hollow-core optical fibre company Relativity Networks.

The expansion plan focuses on fibre density and optical links, while individual hyperscale customers for the wider agreement package remain unnamed beyond Molex.

Molex CEO Joe Nelligan framed the contract as a US capacity expansion for data-centre solutions.

The source record leaves Prysmian’s 2031 capacity buildout as the next evidence point for turning the ten-year agreement into named data-centre deployments.