August is often described as the silly season of the news cycle – instead Contributing Editor Annie Turner found a serious focus in new revenues over the last month, in space and around the globe

Earlier this year, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man said he plans to deploy as many as 1 million data centres in space, orbiting the Earth, to handle AI downloads. In late August, he said on X that AI data centre launches could begin in Q4 next year, two days after agreeing to use NVIDIA’s chips for the flying data centres, among other things.

Musk wrote, “SpaceX, in partnership with Nvidia, has designed a space-optimized Vera Rubin NVL72 system for launch to orbit in Q4 next year, with significant scale in 2028…Our design is significantly simpler, lower cost, denser and lighter than a traditional rack.”

“Vera gives AI agents the CPU performance to act in real time – executing code, processing data and coordinating complex tasks,” Ian Buck, VP of Hyperscale and High-performance Computing at NVIDIA, stated. “SpaceXAI is taking this architecture from massive AI factories to the next frontier of computing in orbit.”

EC can enforce EU AI Act

Back down to earth, August marked the formal start of the European Commission exercising its full supervisory and enforcement powers under the new EU AI Act, as outlined in this LinkedIn blog by Ilviu Gresoli who holds a PhD in AI. He also lectures in the topic at the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest. Dr Gresoli points out that the obligations regarding AI’s transparency are now enforceable, subjecting general-purpose AI models to strict regulatory and cybersecurity checks.

The European Commission published its new EU Action Plan on Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence on 7 July 2026 which aligns with the AI Act. Among other things, the Plan is intended to reinforce the EU’s cybersecurity by promoting the implementation of existing EU cybersecurity legislation, including the NIS2 Directive and the Cyber Resilience Act. It encourages organisations to use AI, including open-source models where appropriate, to detect and address vulnerabilities more quickly and improve their ability to prevent and respond to cyberattacks.

Mobily moves towards AN goals

Saudi Arabia’s Mobily and Ericsson signed a Memorandum of Understanding to advance network operations and optimisation, and progress toward higher levels of autonomy. This supports Mobily’s ambition to reach Level 4 network autonomy in key scenarios, focusing on AI and autonomous networks, alongside digital transformation ambitions in line with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.

The MoU establishes a framework for Ericsson and Mobily to jointly implement autonomous network use cases using Ericsson Operations Engine. It will build on the 20-year partnership between the two and more specifically, the current operating model. The aim is to reduce manual intervention in network operations, maximise the value of existing infrastructure and investigate opportunities for network monetization.

Verizon taps Google Cloud for total AI transformation

Verizon is to deploy Google Cloud’s full-stack AI through a strategic partnership to scale enterprise AI. Alfonso Villanueva (pictured), Verizon’s Chief Transformation Officer and EVP of Verizon Consumer, said, “Verizon is on a journey to become the most trusted carrier for our customers’ connected lives…Serving each and every one of our customers by name requires working AI-first at every level. Our partnership leverages Google Cloud’s AI and data capabilities across our organization to better enable our employees and keep our customers at the centre of everything we do.”

“Verizon is pioneering what a true, full-scale AI transformation looks like for a global enterprise,” added Karthik Narain, Chief Product and Business Officer at Google Cloud. “By integrating Google Cloud’s full AI stack into its business – from high-performance infrastructure and Gemini models to custom business agents – they are reshaping the future of telecommunications and building an autonomous network for millions of customers.”

SKT raises cash to invest more in AIDC

SK Telecom (SKT) will split its wholly owned subsidiary SK Broadband into a ‘surviving company’ also named SK Broadband and a newly established company (SK Horizon). Linked to this, SKT has a definitive agreement with funds managed by KKR and the IMM Investment-Stonebridge consortium for a combined total of KRW 3.08 trillion (about $2.24 billion) equity investment in SK Horizon.

The surviving company will focus on fixed-line, media and enterprise businesses, while SK Horizon’s aim will be to expand Korea’s AI data centre infrastructure (AIDC) to a total capacity of 318 MW. There are already eight data centres in operation in the country with more under construction. The strategy is for SKT to strengthen its AIDC operational expertise through SK Horizon and expand into a range of AI infrastructure businesses.

The amount invested by the KKR and IMM-Stonebridge consortium equates to about 0.16 of the newly established company, according to SKT. The ‘streamlined decision-making structure’ is intended to make it easier for the operator to secure funding for key business areas.

Surveying SPs’ growth potential from AI

A survey* conducted for Ciena by Censuswide found 90% of respondents expect high-capacity AI network services to drive revenue growth over the next three to five years. They expect the growth to come from linking enterprises, large and specialist cloud providers to relevant infrastructure. About 56% of respondents expect this to be their biggest source of net new revenue.

The survey found considerable confidence in securing growth from managed fibre network services: 96% expect to generate revenue from connecting distributed AI compute clusters within three years. Even so, 88% believe optical networks need upgrades urgently to support suitable enterprise AI service level agreements. Almost half of the respondents judged this need to be critical; 39% said upgrades are needed within the next year to 18 months.

Most respondents – 96% – stated advanced network automation, including agentic AI, is essential. Ciena’s research also found 49% of service providers think AI inference data centres will boost the need for data centres while 94% view cloud and new cloud partnerships as necessary to gain revenues from offering GPU-as-a-Service.

* The survey was carried out in July and involved more than 1,200 telecom, wholesale and regional service provider professionals in 12 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Indonesia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Singapore, UAE, the UK, the US and Vietnam.