May 19, 2026

Midco has signed a five-year multistate deal to support AI infrastructure beginning in North Dakota.

It’s part of a partner with Switch, a provider of AI, cloud and enterprise data centers that serves hyperscale AI and cloud providers, healthcare, financial services and banking, government and other enterprise sectors.

The initial work will support AI data center operations in Ellendale, North Dakota.

“This connectivity deal strengthens Midco’s position as the nation’s largest 400G circuit provider, enabling hyperscalers and data centers to grow with confidence,” Midco president and chief operating officer Ben Dold said in a statement.

“With unmatched network customization, engineering responsiveness and high-capacity transport reach, Midco is redefining what high-bandwidth fiber connectivity can deliver.”

The agreement includes more than 500 individual 400 gigabit-per-second circuits delivered across two different geographic routes, providing full-path redundancy between Ellendale and Chicago, including the north side of Sioux Falls, Brandon and eastward. In total, the network enables 200 terabits of capacity.

“Switch selected Midco because of its ability to engineer a creative, resilient network design that meets the customer’s stringent diversity and performance requirements while remaining on schedule in a highly constrained supply environment,” said Scott Gutierrez, Switch senior vice president of connectivity.

“Midco demonstrated strong control over a complex equipment supply chain and leveraged a combination of owned infrastructure and strategic partnerships to deliver a large-scale, high-capacity solution. Their flexibility, execution discipline and willingness to think beyond conventional designs made them the right partner for this critical deployment.”

To support the scale and performance of the deployment, Midco is leveraging optical networking solutions from Nokia, delivering high-capacity transport with enhanced efficiency and reliability across its network.

“The common requirements for our customers are clear: scalable, resilient and future-ready connectivity delivered with precision and accountability,” Gutierrez added.

“Having successfully managed complex initiatives for our Ellendale customer over the past three years, Switch brought the proven expertise, vendor relationships and execution framework necessary to deliver a winning strategy. This network solution with Nokia was critical. Without it, the customer would not have been positioned to secure a multibillion-dollar contract. Midco played an integral role as a nimble and innovative partner, collaborating closely with Switch to design and deploy the infrastructure required to meet the moment.”

The partnership demonstrates “that the Midwest is open for business,” added Jeff Sanders, Midco director of wholesale.

“It shows that our region, with its favorable climate, abundant natural resources, renewable energy and strong business environment, continues to be the optimal location for data centers and hyperscalers. Our network covers the heart of the region, and our long-haul routes connect business customers to major points-of-presence sites like Minneapolis, Omaha, Chicago and Denver, allowing the transmission of massive volumes of voice, video and data at reliable 400G speeds.”