Verizon lifts annual forecasts, signs more than $2 billion AI infrastructure deal with AWS
AMZN•Verizon raised its annual subscriber and adjusted earnings forecasts after adding 406,000 postpaid phone subscribers in the third quarter, and signed an AI infrastructure deal worth more than $2 billion with Amazon Web Services.
1. Forecasts raised
Verizon now expects to add 1.1 million to 1.2 million postpaid phone subscribers this year, up from its previous forecast of 750,000 to 1 million. It raised its full-year adjusted earnings per share forecast to $5.04 to $5.06 from $4.99 to $5.04. Third-quarter postpaid phone subscriber additions reached 406,000, versus analysts’ estimate of 209,439.
2. Revenue and AI deal
Third-quarter revenue was $34.3 billion, below analysts’ estimate of $34.74 billion, as customers held on to phones longer after Verizon began cutting device subsidies. Under its deal with Amazon Web Services, Verizon will provide high-capacity fiber-optic connectivity for AWS data centers to support AI computing workloads. Verizon also announced a more than $1 billion agreement with Google in July to connect data centers using dark fiber.
