Verizon Raises Annual Subscriber Forecasts and Secures $2 Billion AI Infrastructure Deal with AWS
Verizon (VZ) has raised its full-year outlook for postpaid phone subscriber additions to between 1.1 million and 1.2 million, up from previous estimates of 750,000 to 1 million. This guidance follows a strong third quarter where the company reported 406,000 monthly-bill-paying wireless subscriber gains, nearly doubling analyst expectations. The company also increased its full-year adjusted earnings per share forecast to a range of $5.04 to $5.06. Beyond subscriber growth, Verizon signed a significant infrastructure agreement worth over $2 billion with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Under this deal, Verizon will provide high-capacity fiber-optic connectivity for AWS data centers to support increasing AI computing workloads. This follows a similar $1 billion agreement with Google, signaling a strategic shift toward leveraging dark fiber and connectivity to capture new revenue streams from the growing AI sector.