Verizon Stock Rises After Earnings Beat and $2B Amazon AI Deal Boosts Outlook

Key takeaways

• Verizon stock rose 2.4% in premarket trading after stronger-than-expected Q3 earnings
• Verizon added 406,000 postpaid phone subscribers, which exceeded Wall Street expectations
• The company also announced a $2 billion-plus AI infrastructure deal with Amazon Web Services

Verizon shares climbed approximately 2.4% in premarket trading on Monday after the telecommunications giant reported stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings, raised its full-year outlook and announced an artificial intelligence infrastructure deal worth more than $2 billion with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

<iframe src=”https://widgets.coincodex.com/w/096fe9a3-ebf3-4c27-868a-bd2b62291a38?site=coinpaper&mode=light” width=”100%” height=”420” frameborder=”0” referrerpolicy=”no-referrer-when-downgrade” style=”border:0;background:transparent;border-radius:0px;”></iframe>Verizon Earnings Beat Expectations as Subscriber Growth Surges

Verizon reported third-quarter revenue of $34.3 billion, up 1.5% year over year, while net income increased 5.2% to $5.3 billion. Adjusted earnings per share rose 8.3% to $1.31, which exceeded Wall Street expectations of approximately $1.27. Adjusted EBITDA also climbed 8% to a record $13.8 billion.

(Source: verizon.com)

However, subscriber growth was arguably the biggest surprise. Verizon added 406,000 postpaid phone subscribers during the quarter, compared with just 44,000 in the same period last year. The figure also exceeded analysts' expectations of approximately 195,000 additions.

The company recorded another 137,000 postpaid account additions, which is its strongest performance in more than a decade, alongside 314,000 broadband net additions.

After the stronger results, Verizon raised its 2026 adjusted earnings forecast to between $5.04 and $5.06 per share. It also increased its expected annual postpaid phone additions to between 1.1 million and 1.2 million, up from its previous forecast of 750,000 to 1 million.

Verizon Announces $2 Billion Amazon AI Infrastructure Deal

Alongside its earnings announcement, Verizon unveiled an expanded partnership with AWS valued at more than $2 billion. The agreement established a commercial framework to expand distributed computing infrastructure supporting generative AI and agentic AI workloads.

These technologies require high-speed connectivity and computing resources that are capable of processing information across multiple locations in real time.

The partnership also followed a separate agreement worth more than $1 billion with Google to provide fiber connectivity between data centers. 

What's Next for Verizon Stock?

Verizon's latest results suggested that its turnaround strategy was gaining momentum, with stronger customer acquisition, improved profitability and higher cash generation.

Free cash flow climbed 12.1% to $7.8 billion during the quarter, while management increased its full-year free cash flow growth outlook to between 11.5% and 12%. However, the company still faced intense competition in the wireless market, alongside pressure to balance infrastructure investment with debt reduction.

For investors, Verizon's stronger subscriber growth and expanding AI infrastructure business could provide more reasons for optimism, although sustained gains will depend on whether the company maintained its improving financial performance.