Nuclear power companies are poised to be big winners of Trump’s aggressive push to build out power-hungry AI data centers.”
Tech giants are already locking in their power supplies. Meta (META) and Microsoft (MSFT) both signed long-term deals with Constellation Energy (CEG) to secure nuclear-generated electricity.
But powering AI is only half the story. Networking infrastructure is rapidly emerging as a critical bottleneck in data center development, and Amphenol Corporation (APH) just made a big move to cash in on the trend.
$10.5 billion fiber bet
On Monday, Amphenol announced it will acquire CommScope’s (COMM) Connectivity and Cable Solutions (CCS) business for $10.5 billion in cash.
Earlier this year, Amphenol bought CommScope’s Outdoor Wireless Networks (OWN) and Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) businesses for $2 billion. Combined, those assets are expected to generate about $1.3 billion in 2025 sales.
With this latest deal, Amphenol plans to finance the acquisition with a mix of cash and debt, expecting it to boost diluted EPS in the first full year after closing (excluding acquisition costs).
The deal expands Amphenol’s “interconnect product capabilities in the fast-growing IT datacom market, particularly adding fiber optic interconnect products for artificial intelligence and other data center applications,” the company said.
On the news, CommScope’s stock soared 86.3% Monday, while Amphenol gained 4.1%.
The acquisition highlights how critical fiber-optic networking has become for AI-driven data centers. Nvidia’s networking chief Gilad Shainer told Barron’s last year that “the network is the most important element because it determines the way the data center will behave.”
That soaring demand is fueling broader consolidation.
Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) bought Juniper Networks for $14 billion, Nokia (NOK) acquired Infinera for $2.3 billion, and now Amphenol is stepping in with its largest acquisition yet.
CommScope: A data center powerhouse
CommScope’s CCS division operates three businesses, including its Data Center Connectivity Solutions arm, which sells fiber optic interconnect products directly to IT datacom customers.
CCS is expected to generate $3.6 billion in 2025 sales and was already CommScope’s largest unit, bringing in $2.8 billion in net sales last year.
“CCS’s broad portfolio of fiber optic interconnect solutions for the rapidly growing IT datacom market, including for artificial intelligence applications, is highly complementary to Amphenol’s already strong product offerings in this market,” said R. Adam Norwitt, president and CEO of Amphenol.
The Wall Street Journal reported that multiple strategic buyers and private equity firms were vying for CCS, underscoring its value in the AI-driven data center boom.
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