fiber-optics
(8)
Insight Communications
For 27 years, Insight Communications wired the parts of the Midwest the coastal giants ignored - then sold the whole thing to Time Warner Cable for about $3 billion.
Netceed
Netceed sells the unglamorous pieces that make modern networks possible - then adds the engineering, inventory and logistics discipline that keeps thousands of those pieces arriving in the right order.
TE Connectivity
It is one of the largest companies most people have never heard of - the connector and sensor maker behind your car, your factory floor, and the AI data centers everyone else is busy hyping.
Accelight Technologies, Inc.
Accelight Technologies (ATI) is an ISO-certified ODM founded in 2017 that designs and manufactures high-speed optical connectivity products - transceiver modules from 100G to 1.6T, active optical and electrical cables, passive optical modules, and optical amplifiers - for hyperscale data centers, AI computing infrastructure, and telecom carriers. With R&D centers in Wuhan Optics Valley and Silicon Valley and manufacturing in China and Thailand, ATI positions itself as a supply-chain-secure alternative for cloud and AI networking optics.
SCTE® a subsidiary of CableLabs®
SCTE is the non-profit professional society that trains, certifies, and sets the technical standards for the people who build and run cable broadband networks. Founded in 1969 and a subsidiary of CableLabs since 2021, it runs the only ANSI-accredited standards program for the broadband industry, issues role-based professional certifications, delivers online and hands-on technical education, and hosts SCTE TechExpo (formerly Cable-Tec Expo), the largest cable telecommunications event in the Americas. In short: if a technician splices a fiber, proctors a DOCSIS install, or writes a Remote PHY spec, SCTE is usually the reason there's a shared playbook.
Boston Micro Fabrication (BMF)
Boston Micro Fabrication (BMF) builds 3D printers that work at a scale most machines can't reach - resolutions down to 2 microns with tolerances of about plus or minus 10 microns. Its microArch printers use a proprietary process called Projection Micro Stereolithography (PuSL) to make tiny, complex parts for medical devices, microfluidics, optics, connectors and semiconductor packaging. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Maynard, Massachusetts, BMF has placed machines with more than 2,000 customers across roughly 35 countries.
Quantum Corridor
Quantum Corridor is a Midwest network-infrastructure company building North America's first inter-state, quantum-safe commercial fiber backbone. Its live coherent optical network links Chicago to Northwest Indiana with 40 Tbps capacity and 0.274 ms round-trip latency, connecting quantum research labs, hyperscalers, data centers and defense partners. Formed in 2021 as a public-private partnership, it is extending the route toward Purdue, Indianapolis and the Crane naval research base.
Qunnect
Qunnect is a New York-based deep-tech company building hardware that turns ordinary telecom fiber into scalable quantum networks. Its room-temperature, field-deployable devices distribute entangled photons over existing infrastructure - no cryogenics or vacuum chambers required. The flagship Carina product suite powers real-world quantum testbeds in New York and Berlin, and is sold to customers across finance, energy, telecom, and defense.