Lumen Technologies, Inc. today announced it has completed its acquisition of Alkira, an on-demand networking platform that helps enterprises connect clouds, sites, partners, and AI workloads quickly and easily. By combining Alkira's technology with Lumen's physical infrastructure, programmable network, and partner ecosystem, Lumen aims to simplify how enterprises build and manage their networks as environments grow more complex. Unlike providers that offer only connectivity or orchestration, Lumen now brings together both the physical network foundation and an on-demand platform.
Lumen completes acquisition of Alkira for AI-era networking.
Combines Lumen's physical infrastructure with Alkira's on-demand networking platform.
Gartner named Lumen the Company to Beat in AI Vendor Race for Enterprise WAN.
Alkira technology to become Lumen Connect solution for unified digital experience.
Supports cloud connectivity and rapid growth of data between clouds and AI infrastructure.
Lumen operates one of the largest fiber networks in North America.
Kate Johnson, CEO of Lumen, stated: "AI is reshaping how businesses operate, creating unprecedented demand for intelligent, programmable networks that can move data securely and seamlessly across cloud, edge, and data center environments. By bringing Alkira into Lumen, we're combining world-class network infrastructure with cloud networking innovation to make complex environments simpler for customers. This is another important step in our transformation and strengthens our ability to help customers build, scale, and operate in the AI era."
The acquisition strengthens Lumen's ability to support cloud connectivity and the rapid growth of data moving between clouds, data centers, and AI infrastructure. As AI workloads and inference data expand over multiple clouds, regions, and technology platforms, enterprises need a faster, more intelligent way to manage traffic through that complexity. By combining Alkira's carrier-agnostic architecture with Lumen's network, one of the largest fiber networks in North America, Lumen can help customers manage traffic consistently across global environments.
As integration progresses, Alkira's technology is expected to become a Lumen Connect solution, unifying Lumen Multi-Cloud Gateway, cloud on-ramps, and on-net and off-net connectivity into a more streamlined digital experience. Lumen Connect gives customers one place to build and manage secure connections across clouds, sites, partners, and AI workloads. This simplifies network operations, improving efficiency, and advancing Lumen's Network-as-a-Service roadmap.
Gartner named Lumen as the Company to Beat in the AI Vendor Race in Enterprise WAN and Connectivity Services for AI published in June 2026. Gartner stated that by combining Lumen's fiber footprint, dense metro infrastructure, and edge capabilities with Alkira's cloud-native control plane, the company strengthens its ability to extend its leadership into enterprise AI WAN and connectivity services.
About Lumen Technologies
Lumen is unleashing the world's AI potential. As the trusted network for AI, we ignite business growth by connecting people, data, and applications — quickly, securely, and effortlessly. Lumen's physical infrastructure, programmable network, and connected ecosystem give enterprises a simpler way to move data from virtually anywhere, to anywhere in real-time to support their AI needs. Lumen's owned fiber backbone and cloud-native control plane provide a differentiated platform for connecting, securing, and operating modern enterprise environments at global scale.
TechIntelPro empowers B2B technology decision-makers with the latest industry trends, deep insights, leadership perspectives and actionable intelligence to drive both organizational and professional milestones, and thrive on the tech pulse.
