Telecom operators around the world are making increasingly ambitious investments in AI infrastructure, as they pursue new growth opportunities in compute, according to Omdia’s latest research.
While sovereign AI for enterprise use cases currently provides the clearest path to monetisation, emerging AI token plans suggest operators are also beginning to explore how AI infrastructure could be monetised in the consumer segment.
Sovereign AI drives global telecom investments
AI infrastructure investment momentum is strongest in Asia, but significant activity is also taking place across Canada, Europe, and the Middle East as governments and enterprises seek greater control over data and compute capacity.
The growing focus on sovereignty is creating favourable conditions for telecom operators that position themselves as trusted national infrastructure providers.
However, Omdia notes that sovereignty alone may not be sufficient to justify the scale of AI infrastructure investments currently being announced. While sovereign AI provides a compelling market entry point and an important source of differentiation, most organizations run a mix of sovereign and non-sovereign workloads.
As a result, operators will need to broaden their value propositions and tap into additional sources of demand to maximize utilization of increasingly large AI data center investments and generate sustainable returns.
Expanding consumer AI monetization with token plans
“Sovereign AI has become the clearest monetization opportunity for telco AI infrastructure investments,” said Julia Schindler, Principal Analyst, Service Provider Strategy, at Omdia. “But operators are also showing growing interest in consumer AI infrastructure monetization, with AI token plans highlighting a potentially significant new opportunity. Over time, AI could evolve into a metered consumer utility that is bundled with telecom services.”
The launch of AI token subscription plans by Chinese operators has demonstrated a potential framework for integrating AI consumption into telecom offerings and provides an early blueprint for how operators could package, bill, and monetize AI services in the consumer market.
Overcoming AI infrastructure financing challenges
While investments continue to scale, Omdia notes that financing AI infrastructure will become a growing strategic challenge for telecom operators. “AI infrastructure requires substantial long-term investment, placing increasing pressure on telco capex,” Schindler added. “Operators have two options: either reallocate investment from traditional connectivity infrastructure to AI infrastructure or work with partners to share the financial burden.”
Technology partners can play an important role by participating in new ventures and investment structures alongside telecom operators, helping to accelerate AI infrastructure deployment while reducing capital requirements and risk.
