• Ciena signals uptick in telco spending 
• Multimodal AI model developer raises $30m 
• MVNE specialist banks $73m in new investment round

In today’s industry news roundup: Ciena sees years of sales growth ahead, driven by cloud and AI; SK Telecom is among the latest investors in multimodal AI model developer Twelve Labs; mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE) startup Gigs has attracted a significant new tranche of funding; and much more!

Ciena offered a spark of hope for at least part of the vendor community on Thursday when it provided its latest financial outlook and CEO Gary Smith and CFO Jim Moylan discussed industry trends during the optical system and software vendor’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call. For the three months that ended on 2 November, Ciena reported revenues of $1.12bn, down slightly year on year, and adjusted EBITDA of $136.7m, down 23.5% year on year, while for the full year the company reported sales of just over $4bn (down 8.5%) and adjusted EBITDA of $481m (down almost 28%). But it was the other news that sent the company’s share price soaring. First, Smith noted that, during the quarter, “service provider orders in North America actually outpaced revenue for the first time in nearly two years,” a sign that telcos are loosening their purse string after an extended period of reduced capital investments. Smith also noted that four of Ciena’s top-10 customers for the full fiscal year were cloud providers and that “cloud and AI are the lead drivers of demand” for the vendor’s products. Then CFO Jim Moylan noted on the earnings call that the company is “seeing very positive market dynamics, including powerful trends in cloud and AI,” and that “we are seeing plans for strong capex investments by our cloud provider customers as they continue to invest in networks to support AI training and, increasingly, inferencing. And we expect service provider order patterns to continue to improve. Their inventory is basically at normal levels, and we believe their orders and actual consumption are coming into balance. Accordingly, we now expect average annual revenue growth of approximately 8% to 11% over the next three years,” a significant hike from Ciena’s previous forecast of annual sales growth of between 6% and 8%. As a result, Ciena’s share price leaped by more than 15% to $84.52, its highest price in more than 20 years. Ciena’s stock is up by 87% this calendar year. But what does Ciena’s outlook mean for the rest of the telco vendor sector? Will this translate into a broader uptick in network investments in 2025? The signs look more positive for fixed network infrastructure (optical, IP routing, broadband access) because the main driver of growth is the increasing traffic running to and from (including between) datacentres, as well as in more general enterprise connectivity, but whether this spells a better year ahead in, for example, the radio access network (RAN) sector, where growth is more reliant on mass market consumer trends, is hard to say.    

San Francisco-based Twelve Labs, which is developing multimodal foundation AI models that “bring human-like understanding to videos, enabling precise semantic search, summarisation, analysis, Q&A, and more”, has raised $30m in funding from a range of investors including SK Telecom, Databricks and Snowflake Ventures. The funding “underscores the value Twelve Labs delivers to end customers, particularly across the media and entertainment space, including professional sports leagues, major film and production studios, and the world’s largest content creators and developers, as well as other businesses utilising large stores of video content,” the company noted in this announcement. In addition, Twelve Labs has hired Yoon Kim as president and chief strategy officer: His previous roles include CTO at SK Telecom and as part of the team that developed Apple’s AI assistant, Siri (he joined Apple in 2013 through the acquisition of Novauris Technologies, a pioneer in mobile speech recognition, where he served as CEO). As part of their respective investments, Databricks and Snowflake will deliver Twelve Labs’ capabilities to users through interoperability with their vector databases. This represents an important milestone in the AI ecosystem, validating the value end customers experience with Twelve Labs. “We’re incredibly excited to partner closely with leading data platforms. It’s a no-brainer for us to bring our video foundation models to the largest and most trusted enterprise infrastructure providers,” said Jae Lee, CEO of Twelve Labs. “This is just the beginning. Today we have interoperability with their leading vector databases and we’re looking forward to building out the next generation of AI tooling within these platforms.” SK Telecom, the self-styled AI company that has invested $3m in the company, noted in this separate announcement it is exploring “various opportunities for collaboration” with Twelve Labs. “Through the cooperation of the two companies, we will further strengthen our competitiveness in the multimodal AI field,” said Lee Jae Shin, head of AI growth strategy at SK Telecom. “We plan to expand our business areas and the range of services we offer so that customers can truly experience AI innovation.”

Mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE) Gigs has raised $73m in a Series B funding round that attracted investments from Ribbit Capital and all of the company’s existing backers, including Gradient (Google’s early-stage fund), YC (Y Combinator) and Speedinvest. The company previously raised $20m in September 2022. The funds will be used to expand its suite of products and grow internationally. The team at Gigs has developed a system that has all the main functions needed for a company to become an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) and has brokered wholesale connectivity deals with mobile network operators. As a result, it is able to offer companies the ability to “launch their own mobile service on premium networks globally within weeks, all through a single integration,” the company claims. “Gigs is radically democratising access to the mobile service industry. The company’s mission is to reduce the cost of setting up a mobile service in one or multiple markets, as well as lowering operational and service costs to near zero. Without Gigs, it would take new entrants to the mobile service market years to develop and refine their service,” it noted. Dennis Bauer, co-founder and president at Gigs, noted: “Leading tech brands with large, highly engaged audiences – ranging from high-growth neobanks like Nubank and Wealthsimple to major HR platforms, travel companies and phone manufacturers – are leveraging Gigs’ connectivity platform to integrate phone plans into their core services, delivering unique and seamless product experiences.”  

T-Mobile US, its parent company Deutsche Telekom and DT’s tech incubator hubraum, have unveiled the top-five US finalists in the first-ever Telecommunications Network API Challenge. “The competition called on developers to use cutting-edge 5G standalone (SA) network APIs to create innovative solutions for businesses and consumers, showcasing the transformative potential of advanced network technologies,” noted T-Mobile US in this announcement. Participants were tasked with focusing on “real-world use cases that leverage 5G SA’s advanced capabilities – such as ultra-low latency and enhanced reliability – via the Quality on Demand (QoD) API from T-Mobile’s DevEdge developer platform. Finalists demonstrated groundbreaking applications spanning healthcare, transportation, industrial safety, and entertainment,” noted the operator. For details about the finalists, check out this press release. 

​​AI and high-performance computing (HPC) will drive growth in advanced chips, 2 nanometre (nm) technology, and packaging, reshaping the semiconductor industry in 2025, according to research firm IDC, which expects the value of the global chip sector to grow by 15% next year. “Major application markets, ranging from cloud datacentres to specific industry segments, are expected to undergo upgrades, heralding a new boom for the semiconductor industry,” noted IDC in this press release. 

– The staff, TelecomTV