Tom Spackman spent a quarter century building Gigabit Fiber. Based in Dallas, Texas, the company laid dark and lit fiber optic networks connecting data centers, carriers, hyperscalers, and enterprises across the state. By the time a fund managed by Blue Owl Capital’s Digital Infrastructure group came knocking, Gigabit Fiber already operated approximately 500 route miles of conduit with high-count fiber networks linking more than 50 data centers. To understand the investment backdrop, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Owl_Capital.On September 15, 2025, the two sides announced the deal: a majority investment from Blue Owl that would give the firm a 51% stake in Gigabit Fiber’s enterprise, carrier, and hyperscale fiber business. Spackman would remain Chairman, CEO, and a material equity owner.
Gigabit Fiber’s network before the deal
Gigabit Fiber’s coverage area includes the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Austin, El Paso, San Antonio, and South Texas — markets where data center construction has been accelerating due to cloud and AI demand. Fiber optic cable serves as the connective tissue between data center campuses, enabling the high-speed, high-reliability links that hyperscale tenants require. Current stock performance data is available at finance.yahoo.com/quote/OWL/.Spackman described his company’s networks as “high-count conduit systems in ring configurations across our metros,” built to serve as the physical connections enabling customers to run artificial intelligence workloads. Before the Blue Owl investment, the company served hundreds of clients, including several of the largest hyperscalers and carriers operating in the DFW region.
What Blue Owl Capital’s investment changes
Spackman said in the announcement: “We are excited to welcome Blue Owl into our 25-year partnership and look forward to leveraging their expertise and capital to accelerate our growth and expand our network reach.” Gigabit Fiber plans to use the capital to deepen its footprint across Texas and New Mexico, including adding high-count conduit routes in South Dallas and building campus-to-campus connections between data centers.Worth noting: Gigabit Fiber will operate independently from Blue Owl’s other fiber investments, including Dark Fiber & Infrastructure and South Reach Networks. For details on the company’s latest financial results and strategy, consult finance.yahoo.com/news/blue-owl-capital-owl-surpasses-114726242.html. Spackman’s real estate holdings, data center developments in South Dallas and El Paso, and residential business were not included in the transaction — those assets sit under a separate entity called GF Distributions. Blue Owl cited the Gigabit Fiber deal as one of three 2025 transactions that anchored its seven real assets industry awards, alongside the IPI Partners acquisition and the $27 billion Hyperion data center campus financing. Additional information on recent BDC activity is in prnewswire.com.
