Chi a is p ojected to accou t fo about 5,400 MW of modeled pote tial AI g id capacity, highlighti g how telcos ca tu existi g i f ast uctu e i to ew AI eve ue st eams
NEW YORK, Oct. 29, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Global tech ology i tellige ce fi m
“The ea -te m AI g id oppo tu ity is ot about putti g GPUs eve ywhe e i the etwo k,” said Michael Mo e o, Resea ch A alyst at ABI Resea ch. “It is about ide tifyi g the wo kloads whe e lowe late cy, data sove eig ty, a d tighte etwo k i teg atio c eate measu able busi ess value, the buildi g outwa d f om ce t alized a d egio al sites that ca suppo t those eco omics.”
ABI Resea ch’s model shows that ea ly deployme ts will be co ce t ated i existi g high-capacity sites. Co e data ce te s accou t fo app oximately 5,000 MW of modeled pote tial AI g id capacity a d ce t al offices a d excha ges ep ese t about 1,500 MW, togethe maki g up oughly 98% of activatable capacity ac oss the ope ato s studied. This mea s the fi st comme cial wave will ce te o facilities that al eady have the powe , cooli g, a d co ectivity eeded fo accele ated compute, while cost-pe -toke a d GPU utilizatio will become c itical be chma ks fo dete mi i g whethe dist ibuted AI ca compete with ce t alized cloud i f ast uctu e.
The epo t also fi ds that ope ato s have multiple paths to pa ticipate i the AI g id value chai , f om leasi g sites a d powe to AI p ovide s, to ope ati g thei ow compute, bu dli g AI i f ast uctu e with co ectivity a d etwo k se vices, a d eve tually offe i g b oade AI platfo ms. Ve do st ategies a e al eady eme gi g ac oss the ecosystem: Akamai sta ds out as a ea ly eve ue-ge e ati g example with a o chest atio -led model spa i g oughly 20 ce t ally located GPU sites, while NVIDIA is exe ti g outsized i flue ce ove AI g id a chitectu e th ough its co t ol of GPUs, etwo ki g, a d softwa e, alo gside pa t e ships with compa ies i cludi g Nokia, Cisco, a d AT&T.
“Telcos will captu e mo e value o ly if they move beyo d bei g la dlo ds fo AI i f ast uctu e,” Mo e o said. “The highe -value oppo tu ity is to combi e compute with co ectivity, secu ity, t affic ma ageme t, wo kload placeme t, a d SLAs, but ope ato s should scale dist ibuted deployme ts o ly whe e custome s a e willi g to pay a p emium ove ce t alized alte atives.”
These fi di gs a e f om ABI Resea ch’s AI G id Deployme t St ategies epo t, pa t of the compa y’s Telco AI esea ch se vice, which i cludes esea ch, data, a d ABI I sights.
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