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Telco in 20Author: Danielle Rios, TelcoDR
Over the next 20 years, the telco industry will radically change as we move the entire IT estate to the public cloud to use AI. Are you ready? Telco in 20 helps telecom execs drive transformative change through the savvy use of public cloud and AI. Host Danielle Rios and high profile guests from across telecom share their vision for the industrys future, the impact of artificial intelligence, and what telcos need to do to thrive. Language: en-us Genres: Business, Management, Technology Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Ep 137 - Hyperscalers' $2T bet (Charles Fitzgerald)
Episode 137
Monday, 30 March, 2026
Hyperscaler CAPEX investments are staggering: Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta spent more than $400 billion on infrastructure in 2025 and are expected to reach over $600 billion in 2026. They’re on pace to surpass $2 trillion in cumulative CAPEX spend before the year is over. Meanwhile, U.S. telco CAPEX sits at $50 billion for 2025—and it's shrinking. For this episode, Charles Fitzgerald, Managing Director at Platformonomics, returns for his fourth (!) appearance on Telco in 20 to break down his tenth annual Follow the CAPEX report. We dive into the hyperscaler spending surge, the two big telco AI plays coming out of MWC 2026—sovereign cloud and AI-RAN, and why the gap between infrastructure spenders and operators is impossible to close. Listen now to hear: How AI supercharged hyperscaler CAPEX—and changed the math for telcos [02:59]; Why sovereign cloud may already belong to the hyperscalers [05:57]; How AI-RAN looks more like an NVIDIA play than a telco strategy [09:54]; and Why Oracle's catch-up bid is a cautionary tale [13:25]. Links and Resources: Read Charles Fitzgerald's annual 2025 Follow the CAPEX report. Check out Charles Fitzgerald’s 2024 retrospective on public cloud CAPEX spending and check out his Cloud Reactor Tracker. This was Charles's fourth appearance on our podcast. Check out his previous episodes: Ep 110 – Hyperscaler CAPEX is going nuclear Ep 88 - Cloud CAPEX: Not for the faint of wallet Ep 63 – Ante up to be a public cloud contender Is Oracle's CAPEX bet genius or madness? Fortune breaks down the numbers. Learn more about the Totogi Ontology and how it's helping Tier-1 operators turn AI into actual profit. Read the Appledore Research report on Totogi: Telecom-specific Ontology, the key to AI-native telco (paywalled). Charles has been on the podcast four times—one more and we may have to get him a Five-Timers Club jacket, SNL-style. Check out this episode on our YouTube channel. You can find the episode transcript here. Wanna talk AI and public cloud? Telco execs, set up a meeting with our team to learn how to tap the immense business value they can bring. Follow DR: Have an idea for a Telco in 20 podcast guest or topic? Send it in! Want to sponsor a podcast? Let us know Follow Telco in 20 on X @TelcoIn20 Follow DR on X @TelcoDR The Telco in 20 podcast is ranked in the top 5% of all podcasts globally by Listen Notes! 🎉 We’ve also won 2024 and 2025 MarCom Awards, 2024 and 2025 Hermes Creative Awards, and are recognized as a TeckNexus Top 12 Telco and Tech Podcast, Forrester Top 100 Channel Podcast and Feedspot Top 10 Telecom Podcast. If you enjoy the podcast, would you leave us a review? It takes you seconds to do in your app and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. And I love reading your feedback and reviews! This week’s guest: Charles Fitzgerald is a Seattle-based angel investor, with a focus on developer platforms and infrastructure. Previously, he spent 20+ years working on platform businesses at Microsoft and VMware. He can see the cloud from his house. Podcast Credits: Executive Producer and Host: Danielle Rios, TelcoDR Senior Producer: Lindsay Grubb, TillCo Media Senior Editor/Brand Manager: Alisa Jenkins, Springboard Marketing Audio Editor: Andrew Condell Supervising Producer: Amanda Avery Associate Producer: Kriselda Dionisio Music: Dyami Wilson Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
