•Forecast puts AI infrastructure market at $120–150bn by 2027
•AI traffic and hyperscaler backbones push carriers beyond bandwidth into infrastructure roles
The fact
The Global Leaders' Forum (GLF) has issued a strategic paper calling for international wholesale carriers to reposition themselves as the "AI backbone" of global connectivity. The paper argues AI is reshaping traffic topology towards hub-to-hub corridors linking hyperscale and regional AI data centre clusters, with high-utilisation bursty replication flows and strict latency requirements. It outlines five carrier product layers and a $120–150bn addressable AI infrastructure market by 2027, with carriers capturing 20–30%.
The assessment
GLF's framing signals a structural shift for telecom operators, from bandwidth providers to AI-era corridor infrastructure enablers. Value will concentrate in standardised, performance-guaranteed services rather than raw capacity. The co-opetition stance with hyperscalers creates dual dependency: carriers remain essential partners while facing displacement risk from private backbone expansion.
What to watch
Watch for carrier AI corridor products to adopt standardised SLAs and API-based automation, and early consortium models for subsea interconnect as hyperscaler traffic growth accelerates.
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