Data Center Connectivity & AI Infrastructure Conference & Expo
Tue Oct 20, 2026
Data Center Connectivity & AI Infrastructure Conference & Expo
Investment, Development and Infrastructure Strategy for the Region's Most Active Build Cycle
Part of the Bisnow DICE Series
To Be Hosted in Virginia
$195.00
Registration Questions?
**Please note we have pricing tiers based on ticket availability. Ticket prices will increase once we sell out of the current pricing tier. We cannot redeem a lower price once the ticket prices have been raised.
**Bisnow is a cashless, checkless operation. Please only submit payment via credit card.
What is the Bisnow DICE Series?
DICE (Data Centers Investment Conference & Expo) is Bisnow's dedicated conference series for the data center industry. Each event convenes the developers, investors, operators and infrastructure providers actively shaping data center growth in that market, with programming built around the deals, challenges and opportunities specific to the region or topic. View all upcoming DICE events here!
Are you an end user?
Hyperscalers, colocation providers (non-sales), investors, private equity, or enterprise tenants - email Virginia.Baker@bisnow.com to be considered for a complimentary pass.
Speakers and Panels
Jasmeet Singh
Khalil Benlemlih
Sam Rudek
Ashley Massey
Why Attend Data Center Connectivity & AI Infrastructure Conference & Expo
Why This Matters
The data center industry spent the last decade optimizing for cloud. The next decade is being built around AI — and the infrastructure requirements are not an incremental upgrade. AI training clusters push hundreds of gigabits per second between nodes. Inference workloads have latency tolerances that punish poorly designed network paths. The gap between what legacy connectivity infrastructure was built to handle and what AI-scale demand requires is now wide enough to reshape where campuses get built, how they get connected and which operators win the next cycle of customer commitments.
At the same time, the network layer itself is under pressure from every direction. Hyperscalers are building private backbone capacity that bypasses traditional carrier relationships. New submarine cable systems are coming online faster than inland interconnection infrastructure is being upgraded to capture them. Spectrum auctions, fiber rights-of-way and middle-mile constraints are turning public policy into a direct variable in private infrastructure investment. And the capital markets are trying to underwrite assets whose revenue assumptions depend on technology transitions — from 100G to 400G to 800G — that are happening faster than most depreciation schedules anticipated.
DICE Connectivity & AI Infrastructure is built for the practitioners who are working through those intersections right now. Not a survey of trends but a room full of people who are making network architecture decisions, signing interconnection agreements, routing capital into fiber and switching infrastructure and trying to figure out which connectivity bets hold up as AI demand matures and the hyperscale build cycle continues to evolve.
The questions worth spending a day on: what the AI infrastructure stack actually demands from the network layer that the cloud stack did not. How carriers and colo operators are repricing interconnection as 400G becomes the baseline expectation. What private backbone buildout by hyperscalers means for the independent fiber and carrier ecosystem. And where the next wave of submarine cable capacity lands commercially — not just geographically.
What You'll Learn
- What AI training and inference workloads actually demand from network architecture that cloud-era infrastructure was not designed to provide
- How interconnection economics are changing as 400G becomes the baseline and hyperscalers increasingly build around traditional exchange and carrier relationships
- What the private backbone buildout by the largest cloud platforms means for independent fiber operators, carriers and neutral colocation providers
- Where the next generation of submarine cable capacity is landing and which inland operators and interconnection venues are positioned to capture it commercially
- How capital markets are underwriting connectivity and AI infrastructure assets when the technology transition curve is moving faster than traditional depreciation models
Who You'll Network With
Carriers and fiber network operators, neutral colocation and interconnection platform executives, hyperscaler and cloud network strategy and deployment teams, digital infrastructure investors and lenders, submarine cable system developers and landing station operators, AI infrastructure operators and GPU cluster developers, enterprise network architects and CIOs, economic development officials in major network hub markets and technology and equipment vendors serving the connectivity and AI infrastructure stack.
For questions or interests in becoming a speaker or sponsor, please email our global director, data centers, Adam Knobloch, at adam.knobloch@bisnow.com
To request disability-related accommodations, please contact ally.araco@bisnow.com no later than seven business days prior to the event.
Venue
Hyatt Regency Dulles
2300 Dulles Corner Blvd.
Herndon, VA 20171
Ballroom/Floor: Luray ABC + DEF / 1st floor
Parking Information:
Complimentary
Agenda
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
|
7:30 AM 8:30 AM |
Registration, Breakfast and Networking
|
|
8:30 AM 9:15 AM |
What AI Actually Needs from the Network: Infrastructure Gaps the Cloud Build Cycle Left Behind
AI training and inference don't scale up cloud network architecture, they break it. Training clusters overwhelm interconnect designs built for east-west cloud traffic, and inference latency tolerances expose routing gaps cloud workloads could absorb. The fiber, switching and power decisions operators locked in during the cloud build are now the constraint. What's different about AI-native network builds, and where is legacy infrastructure falling short?
|
|
9:15 AM 10:00 AM |
The Interconnection Repricing: How 400G, Private Backbone and Hyperscale Bypass Are Changing the Economics
Next-generation speed tiers are rolling out across major colocation portfolios while hyperscalers simultaneously build private backbone that bypasses traditional exchange relationships entirely. Faster speeds plus more bypass is pressuring interconnection economics that held through the cloud era. Who still needs exchange-based interconnection badly enough to anchor the model, and where does the margin pressure land first?
|
|
10:00 AM 10:20 AM |
Coffee and Networking Break
|
|
10:20 AM 11:05 AM |
Fiber, Spectrum and the Right-of-Way Problem: Why Public Infrastructure Is Now a Private Investment Variable
Permit timelines, pole attachment rules and federal broadband funding programs now sit directly in the path of private infrastructure investment. Execution risk is already showing up in state-level oversight, and spectrum licenses are only worth what the backhaul supporting them gets built. How are operators navigating rights-of-way and public program sequencing, and where's the gap widest between funding awarded and networks lit?
|
|
11:05 AM 11:50 AM |
Capital Finds the Stack: How Investors Are Underwriting Connectivity and AI Infrastructure When the Technology Curve Won't Slow Down
Revenue assumptions behind fiber, submarine cable and interconnection-heavy colo depend on a speed-tier transition moving faster than depreciation schedules assumed. AI infrastructure demand forecasts hinge on model architecture decisions that could still shift, and the hyperscale leases anchoring project financing come from counterparties building around the same assets they're leasing. Are investors pricing the right risks?
|
|
11:50 AM 12:00 PM |
Post-Event Networking
|
Platinum Sponsors
Gold Sponsors
Silver Sponsors
Media Partners
Impact Partners
Want to get a recap of everything covered at the event?
Purchase the post-event summary and get the highlights sent to you in a post-event summary. Purchase here.
