Verizon has signed an AI infrastructure agreement with Amazon Web Services worth more than $2 billion, while also raising its 2026 outlook for a third consecutive quarter. Under the deal, Verizon will supply high-speed fiber connections linking AWS data centers, helping support the massive data flows required by AI systems.
“Technology leaders are choosing our fiber network to support the next wave of AI infrastructure,” Verizon CEO Dan Schulman said. The AWS agreement follows a separate Verizon deal with Google valued at over $1 billion to connect data centers using dark fiber.
Verizon added 406,000 postpaid phone customers in the third quarter, its strongest Q3 result in five years and more than 820% above the same period a year earlier. The carrier’s Simplicity plan, launched in June with fixed prices and unlimited data, helped improve results, while lower phone discounts reduced costs. Postpaid phone churn fell to 0.94%, down 0.04 percentage points year over year, and Verizon added 137,000 postpaid accounts, its best result in more than 10 years.
Broadband additions totaled 314,000 connections, including 159,000 fixed wireless lines and 155,000 fiber connections, bringing total broadband connections to 17.4 million. Verizon now expects to add 1.1 million to 1.2 million postpaid phone customers in 2026, up from a previous forecast of 750,000 to 1 million. Earnings guidance was raised to $5.04 to $5.06 per share, and free cash flow growth is now expected to be about 12%, compared with 9% to 10% previously. Capital spending guidance remained at $16 billion to $16.5 billion.
However, quarterly revenue of $34.3 billion missed the $34.74 billion analysts expected, though it rose 1.5% from a year earlier. Equipment sales fell 9%, while mobile and broadband services revenue increased 2.9% to $23.5 billion. Net income was $5.3 billion, or $1.25 per share, with $7.8 billion in free cash flow. Shares initially rose 2.4% premarket but later reversed gains, as the revenue shortfall and SpaceX competition complicated the turnaround story.
Verizon plans to bring fiber internet to more than 32 million homes and businesses by the end of 2026, with a goal of up to 50 million. Its expansion faces broader data center industry challenges including rising borrowing costs, construction delays and power shortages.
