Lumen pivots to AI-focused fiber services, landing Anthropic and Yankees as key clients

Lumen Technologies is reinventing its core business by becoming a neutral fiber infrastructure for AI and enterprise customers, a strategy highlighted by contracts with Anthropic and the New York Yankees. After acquiring Alkira, the firm can route data across any fiber or cloud, removing ownership barriers and supporting multi-cloud AI applications. The transformation follows a four-year effort by CEO Kate Johnson and President/CFO Chris Stansbury to refinance $10 billion of debt, cut dividends and sell non-strategic assets, bringing total debt under $13 billion in a single entity.

With network-as-a-service growing 20-30% quarter over quarter, Lumen aims to reach 47 million fiber miles by 2028 and 58 million by 2031, backed by nearly $13 billion in private connectivity deals. The Anthropic agreement expands the AI startup’s fiber network across North America, while the Yankees partnership delivers elastic, user-controlled connectivity at both their stadium and spring-training facility. In the latest quarter, Lumen posted revenue of $2.805 billion, beating forecasts, and strategic revenue rose 14% to $1.289 billion, now representing 53% of total business revenue.