Mubadala secures $500m stake in US broadband firm

WIktor Szymanowicz via Reuters Connect

• Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund takes stake in Brightspeed
• Telecoms company served first fibre customers in March
• Mubadala’s digital infrastructure portfolio is growing

Brightspeed, a US-based broadband and telecommunications services company, has received a $500 million investment from Mubadala Investment Company, the sovereign investor of Abu Dhabi.

Mubadala will become a minority shareholder, joining investment funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, a statement said.

Brightspeed, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, says it has the capability to serve more than 6.5 million homes and businesses in rural and suburban communities across the US Midwest and south-east, plus Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

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Brightspeed began operations in October and started serving its first fibre customers in March with a transformation expected to reach up to three million homes and businesses over the next five years. 

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… Mubadala sees huge opportunity in supporting Brightspeed’s growth strategy in transitioning large swathes of the US to fibre connectivity.”

Brightspeed

Bob Mudge, CEO of Brightspeed, added: “We are in the early stages of our company’s growth trajectory, and we are grateful for Mubadala’s endorsement. 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 growing digital infrastructure portfolio, headed by its executive director Mounir Barakat. 

In 2022, Mubadala invested $350 million into Princeton Digital Group, a pan-Asia data centre company. It has also invested nearly $1 billion 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 fibre network.