It was revealed earlier this month that ISED prepared a pitch deck for AI Minister Evan Solomon to use with international investors. The deck made two bold claims about Canada AI data center power: Canada had about 337 MW of AI data center capacity; and 20 GW of projects under planning or development, a figure… Read More: The Fractured Race for Canada AI Data Center Power »
Capital continues to surge into AI data center development at a pace rarely seen in digital infrastructure. Developers and hyperscalers announce multi gigawatt campuses every week. These announcements create momentum, but they often mask a large data center capacity gap between headline numbers and real, committed capacity. This post examines why the data center capacity… Read More: The Phantom Gigawatts: Understanding the Data Center Capacity Gap »
Capital is flooding into AI data center development at a pace that has few precedents in digital infrastructure. Hyperscalers, developers, and financial sponsors are committing tens of billions of dollars to campuses that, in many cases, did not exist as a line item in anyone’s capacity plan three years ago. Much of the investor scrutiny… Read More: AI Data Center Power Risk: A Framework for Grid and… »
FCC Auction 113 offered the remaining AWS-3 inventory, largely the former EchoStar holdings. What unfolded was not a broad land grab but a disciplined portfolio exercise. Verizon, T Mobile, and AT&T shaped the auction’s trajectory, driving $3.57 billion in proceeds over 72 rounds. Large markets cleared early; smaller markets carried the auction into its later… Read More: Big Carriers Get Selective: Lessons from the $3.57 Billion AWS-3… »
Following the update on the U.S. telecom market, I wanted to take a snapshot of how the Canadian telecom restructuring is unfolding in 2026. At the macro level, the themes are familiar. The 5G deployment cycle is winding down and operators are focused on debt reduction through lower capex and selective divestments. Yet the Canadian… Read More: Canadian Telecom Restructuring and the Quiet Collapse of Pricing Power »
Following Xona Partners’ annual market update, I wanted to share a clearer view of the U.S. telecom market as I see it today. The industry has entered a structural reset. Operators are consolidating around fiber as the strategic asset, convergence as the competitive lever and disciplined capital allocation as the operating reality. Strategic acquisitions and… Read More: Towers to Trenches: Re-digging Telco’s Strategic Moat in a Convergence-First… »
Orbital Data Centers (ODCs) surged into the spotlight after SpaceX filed for a constellation of 1 million satellites and StarCloud spoke of a 5 GW orbital data center powered by a 4×4 km solar array. Processing data in space is not new. Satellites already run GPU class compute to filter and compress data before downlink.… Read More: Orbital Data Centers: Is Space the Escape Hatch for AI… »
The Amazon Globalstar acquisition, valued at $11.57 billion, centers on the strategic value of MSS spectrum. However, there are several additional elements worth noting. I will drill into these aspects to provide a more rounded view of the deal and its market impact. Strategic Assets and Operational Synergy MSS spectrum is one of the most… Read More: The Amazon Globalstar Acquisition: Decoding the Strategy for D2D Dominance »
The 2026 trade show season, which spanned PTC in Honolulu, MWC in Barcelona, and Satellite 2026 in Washington, made it abundantly clear that the telecom industry revolves around AI as both a user and an infrastructure enabler. Current investment patterns reveal a fundamental re-orientation. Terrestrial infrastructure increasingly gears itself toward servicing AI workloads, while traditional… Read More: Beyond the Pipes: Navigating the Intelligence-First Era of Digital Infrastructure »
It’s been a year and a half since I published my July 2024 paper (Mobile Infrastructure Capex: Permanent Weakening or Short-Term Decline) explaining why the telecom capex downturn would run deeper and longer than previous cycles. This piece aims to capture a current market snapshot by examining the most notable bankruptcies and market exits since… Read More: The Second Great Telecom Reckoning: Endurance in the Age of… »
The LEO satellite sector keeps moving at a fast pace. If you want the latest market outlook, you can download our Insight Note below. I wanted to add a bit more context here, especially since a new development for SpaceX emerged after we released the Note. SpaceX just received FCC authorization to scale its Gen2… Read More: The New LEO Landscape: The Quest for Mobile Dominance »
In the final days of 2025, talk of a 6G race suddenly exploded after the White House issued a presidential memoranda on December 19 titled “Winning the 6G Race.” It immediately brought back memories of the 5G race, which faded into obscurity once 5G rolled out and failed to deliver on its promise. Here are… Read More: The Mirage of a 6G Race »
While investments in access telecom networks continue to stagnate (see here), the subsea fiber market is bucking the trend. Growth in connectivity infrastructure for cloud services has kept activity strong, and the buildout of AI infrastructure and data center interconnects is adding new momentum. In fact, this is the most significant wave of subsea investment… Read More: Subsea Fiber Market Update: A Transformational Build Cycle Anchored in… »
In these final days of 2025, markets are hitting record highs on the strength of AI-driven valuations. Yet the conversation around an emerging AI correction risk has intensified as investors weigh stretched multiples and rising capital costs. The year began with a jolt when DeepSeek briefly rattled the market in January, raising fears of a… Read More: AI Infrastructure: Momentum, Mismatch, and the Emerging Correction Risk »
With 2025 drawing to a close, we (Xona Partners) recap key highlights in digital infrastructure across data centers and telecom assets, including wireless, fiber, satellite, and submarine systems, while looking ahead to developments in 2026 (download below). We titled the preface Digital Infrastructure: Momentum in 2025, Validation in 2026 to reflect our view that 2026… Read More: Digital Infrastructure: Momentum in 2025, Validation in 2026 »