A Mexican telecommunications company is pouring more than 5 billion pesos (US $280 million) into a cross-border fiber optic network designed to meet the surging connectivity demands of artificial intelligence and data centers.
C3ntro Telecom, owned by Simón Masri, is at the halfway point of building Project Tikva — a 2,500-kilometer underground fiber route linking Querétaro, one of Mexico’s busiest data center hubs, to Phoenix, Arizona, another major node in North American digital infrastructure.
The company says it has already laid roughly 1,200 kilometers of the network and expects to complete the project by the end of 2026.
Current efforts are concentrated in the northern state of Sonora, where C3ntro, accompanied by Governor Alfonso Durazo, broke ground last week. This phase of construction, which will pass through 16 cities, including Nogales, Guaymas, Ciudad Obregón and Navojoa, represents an investment of 1.25 billion pesos (US $67.4 million) and is expected to create 350 direct jobs.
The route will reach communities and sectors — agriculture, mining and manufacturing — where fiber connectivity has been largely absent.
On the whole, the project aims to reach over 27 million people, including roughly 3 million in Sonora, by selling wholesale capacity to regional internet providers who will handle the last-mile connection.
CEO Eli Sitt told the news magazine Expansión that the network is designed for hyperscaler-grade applications and that the company is already in talks — though not yet publicly confirmed — with clients including the likes of Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta.
Tikva also carries a “Hecho en México” certification under the federal government’s Plan México initiative, which helped streamline right-of-way permits for the underground deployment on both sides of the border.
Mexico’s data center industry is projected to grow sharply, with 73 new facilities expected to open by 2029 alongside the 166 already in operation.
With reports from Expansión and El Sol de México
