Verizon signs $2 billion AWS AI deal, raises 2026 forecast
Photo by Leon Bredella on Unsplash.
- Verizon announced an AWS AI infrastructure deal worth more than $2 billion and raised its full-year 2026 guidance for the third quarter in a row, helped by 406,000 postpaid phone additions.
- The news matters to telecom investors and to the AI sector, because it shows carriers can earn new revenue by renting fiber capacity to hyperscale data centers.
- With a separate $1 billion-plus Google agreement already in place, Verizon is positioning its network as a connectivity layer for AI computing.
Communications giant Verizon has signed an AI infrastructure agreement with Amazon Web Services worth over $2 billion while raising its 2026 outlook for a third straight quarter. The company cited record subscriber gains and an increasing demand for its fiber network, according to Quartz.
What the Verizon AWS deal covers
Verizon will provide fiber connections to Amazon Web Services (AWS) to support AI systems. The deal will link AWS data centers with high-speed fiber lines to handle the large amounts of data these systems need to process, according to Reuters.
“Technology leaders are choosing our fiber network to support the next wave of AI infrastructure,” Verizon CEO Dan Schulman said in a statement from the company.
The deal follows a similar move Verizon made earlier this year. Telco Magazine reported that Verizon had signed a separate deal worth over $1 billion with Google to connect data centers using dark fiber. Finalizing these deals puts Verizon in a great position to make even more money beyond its phone and internet services.
A record quarter for subscribers
Verizon added 406,000 postpaid phone customers in the third quarter of the year. This figure is over 820% above what the company had at the same period a year earlier. It also represents its strongest Q3 result in five years, Quartz reported.
The carrier said its Simplicity plan, launched in June with fixed prices and unlimited data, helped to improve results. Cutting discounts on phones also helped lower costs.
According to Telco Magazine, the number of postpaid phone customers that stopped using Verizon fell to 0.94%, down 0.04 percentage points from a year earlier. The company also cut the cost of attracting customers using promotions by 41%.
Verizon added 137,000 postpaid accounts during the quarter, representing its best result for that measure in over 10 years.
Verizon also added 314,000 broadband connections, including 159,000 fixed wireless lines and 155,000 fiber connections. This brought its total broadband connections to 17.4 million.
Guidance raised across board
Verizon now expects to add 1.1 million to 1.2 million postpaid phone customers this year, up from its earlier forecast of 750,000 to 1 million, Traders Union reported. It also raised its earnings forecast to $5.04 to $5.06 per share. The company also expects free cash flow to grow by nearly 12%, up from the previous estimate of 9% to 10%. Capital spending forecast has been kept at $16 billion to $16.5 billion.
The quarter was not flawless, however. The carrier’s revenue rose 1.5% from a year earlier to $34.3 billion, but fell short of the $34.74 billion analysts had expected. Revenue from equipment sales dropped 9% as fewer customers upgraded their phones.
Mobile and broadband services saw revenue increase by 2.9% to $23.5 billion. Verizon reported net income of $5.3 billion, or $1.25 per share, and $7.8 billion in free cash flow, Quartz reported. Its shares rose 2.4% before the market opened.
Fiber as a new AI revenue stream
The deals with AWS and Google show how telecom companies are using their networks to support AI. Verizon plans to bring fiber internet to more than 32 million homes and businesses by the end of 2026, with a goal of reaching up to 50 million, Telco Magazine reported. More than half of its new fiber customers chose plans with download speeds above 1 gigabit per second.
The company’s expansion plans are facing challenges in the U.S. data center industry. Rising borrowing costs, construction delays and power shortages are making projects harder to complete on time and within budget, Traders Union reported.
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Opeyemi Olanrewaju
Opeyemi specializes in creating and refining high-quality content focused on cryptocurrency, global financial markets and the economy. He graduated from the University of Ibadan with an MBBS degree. He has worked as Editor-in-Chief for his College’s editorial publication and previously at CFA. For over six years, he has helped safeguard uniqueness as news editor at Cryptopolitan.
