With the Charter-Cox deal past the finish line, Charter CFO Jessica Fischer will soon get a change in scenery, and a much heavier dose of data centers and AI.
Charter announced Monday that Fischer, who has been with the operator for nearly a decade, will exit the company on October 15, 2026, to “relocate for another professional opportunity.” Soon after, Fischer posted on LinkedIn that she’s joining a Blackstone-Google AI infrastructure joint venture formed in May. “I leave behind an incredible team. Together we made important investments in the future of cable and brought together businesses with tremendous potential,” she wrote.
Fischer did not specify her role at the JV. But we know a few details about where she’s going, and what kind of financial resources the JV will have access to in the early going.
The Google-Blackstone venture is focused on developing efficient data center capacity and tapping into Google Cloud’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) for a compute-as-a-service offering. The initial target is to bring the first 500 megawatts of capacity online in 2027, with Google supplying a mix of TPUs and software and services. Google vet Benjamin Treynor Sloss is the JV’s CEO.
As noted in May, the JV intends to give customers a new option to access cloud TPUs, which are custom chips from Google designed to accelerate AI workloads, in addition to using them through Google Cloud. Google is also planning to use TPUs for Project Suncatcher, its orbital data center project. In June, Elon Musk noted that SpaceX is also exploring the use of TPUs in orbital data center reference designs for its “Starmind” initiative, along with its planned use of Nvidia chips.
Per the terms of the JV, Blackstone is making an initial commitment of $5 billion from funds it manages.
Charter-Cox integration underway, new COO Nick Jeffery starts today
Fischer’s departure will leave some big shoes to fill as Charter and Cox move ahead with the integration process. Her exit also opens a big opportunity for someone to step in as CFO of what is now the world’s largest cable operator, with about 37 million customers and a network passing about 70 million homes and businesses.
Charter said it will start a search for Fischer’s replacement immediately. Meanwhile, the company named Kevin Howard, currently Charter’s EVP and chief accounting officer and controller, to interim CFO, effective October 15. Charter noted that Howard, who also served as interim CFO in 2010, has helped to lead the financial integration with other Charter acquisitions, including Bresnan, Time Warner Cable, Bright House and (now) Cox. Charter stressed that it is making no changes to its financial outlook or financial policies as a result of Fischer’s coming departure.
New Street Research analyst Vikash Harlalka speculated in a research note (registration required) that Perley McBride, most recently CFO of Cox and former CFO of Frontier Communications, is a potential candidate.
While Charter’s stock price and customer base has been in decline, Harlalka said he blames much of it on the cable’s industry’s broader perception issues. “Despite trying for years, Cable’s cNPS [component net promoter scores] is nowhere near competitors,” he explained.
Harlalka notes that the newly combined Charter/Cox, which will use the Spectrum brand across the board and rely heavily on Charter’s pricing and packaging, will now look to new COO Nick Jeffery to drive improvements. Jeffery, who led the turnaround of Frontier Communications (now part of Verizon), reports to CEO Chris Winfrey.
“Charter now has the opportunity to see what a former fiber operator can do to fix their operating performance as Nick Jeffery joins as COO today,” the analyst added.
Jeffery made note of his first day via this LinkedIn post, referencing intentions to develop a “more creative go-to-market approach” and explaining what drove him to the opportunity. “Let’s get to work, The Great Cable Comeback starts here,” he wrote.
Editor’s note: The story has been updated with commentary by Nick Jeffery, Charter’s new COO.
