The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that CPPIB is forming a joint venture with telecommunications giant AT&T and BlackRock's infrastructure arm to build fibre optic Internet cables to more U.S. homes. The Globe's James Bradshaw writes that the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which manages $864-billion, is investing an undisclosed sum in the venture with AT&T and BlackRock-owned Global Infrastructure Partners, or GIP. AT&T aims to use proceeds from the joint venture to speed up construction of fibre connections in communities in 16 U.S. states, including Arizona, Colorado and Florida. It is part of a plan to connect more than 60 million fibre locations in the U.S. by the end of 2030. There is also increasing urgency to expand that network to meet growing demand for high-capacity broadband connections, as adoption of artificial intelligence causes traffic on networks to surge. Building the network requires "an awful lot of capital," CPPIB head of infrastructure James Bryce told The Globe. The joint venture announced on Tuesday will merge AT&T subsidiary Forged Fiber 37 with Gigapower, an existing wholesale fibre joint venture that the telecom company previously entered with GIP.