Insider Brief
- Lumen Technologies announced three initiatives focused on energy-aware AI networking with Emerald AI, research into quantum connectivity with The Ohio State University, and post-quantum security capabilities through its Fortinet-based SASE solution.
- Lumen and Emerald AI are exploring a pilot to route AI inference workloads to locations based on power availability, cost, latency, security and network performance.
- Lumen is funding research into long-distance quantum networking and distributed sensing, while planning to add Fortinet post-quantum cryptography capabilities to its SASE offering, with initial availability targeted for November 2026 and general availability for January 2027.
PRESS RELEASE — Lumen Technologies (Nasdaq: LUMN) today announced three new initiatives using intelligent networking to address AI energy challenges, future quantum connectivity, and emerging security threats. As enterprises’ AI and quantum ambition begin to outgrow traditional networks, Lumen is turning its network into an active platform for innovation—combining fiber connectivity scale, programmable control, software intelligence, and a connected ecosystem of partners to help enable the next generation of computing.
- With Emerald AI , Lumen’s intelligent network enables AI workloads to automatically shift to alternate locations based on power availability, cost, and other factors.
- Lumen is investing in research at The Ohio State University to explore how its fiber infrastructure could support quantum connectivity over distances.
- Lumen is also preparing to introduce quantum-resistant security capabilities through its Fortinet -based Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution to help enterprises protect sensitive information against future quantum threats.
“The network must do more than just connect. It must help solve the defining challenges of our time,” said Kate Johnson, CEO of Lumen. “We’re innovating our network to help AI computing adapt to available energy, lay the foundation for a connected quantum future, and prepare enterprises for continuous and emerging security threats. These are distinct challenges that demand a network built for what’s next.”
Making Networks Part of the AI Energy Solution
AI’s explosive growth is creating an urgent power challenge. Limited power capacity could constrain AI expansion, increase costs, and reduce infrastructure flexibility and resilience. Dynamically moving workloads to where electricity is available could help organizations make better use of existing energy resources, manage costs, and scale AI without waiting for new power capacity to come online. Gartner ® predicts that “by 2030, data center power limits will force 75% of I&O leaders to mandate energy-aware AI workload placement.” *
By integrating Emerald AI’s energy intelligence platform with Lumen’s programmable network and edge locations, the companies are working together on capabilities to automatically shift AI computing among locations based on energy availability, while accounting for network performance, latency, security, and cost. This first-of-its-kind effort for both companies will expand Emerald AI’s power-aware technology beyond the data center and into network routing. The companies are exploring a pilot using Lumen’s edge and network infrastructure to test the approach.
“The network has traditionally connected computing resources wherever they happen to be. We’re exploring how to turn that equation around, making the network an active part of how and where computing happens,” said Jim Fowler, chief technology and product officer at Lumen.
“Power is a critical bottleneck to AI growth, and flexible AI data centers could unlock up to 100 gigawatts of capacity on the existing U.S. grid while being good grid citizens—helping keep electricity affordable and the power system reliable,” said Dr. Varun Sivaram, founder and CEO, Emerald AI. “Our collaboration with Lumen brings that opportunity to AI inference. By combining our Emerald Conductor platform with Lumen’s programmable fiber network, we’re developing energy-aware routing that can move inference requests to locations with available power while keeping latency low and performance high. This is designed to give data centers a way to ease demand during rare periods of grid stress while continuing to serve their customers, helping AI grow alongside the communities that power it.”
Exploring How Fiber Could Connect the Quantum Future
Lumen is also tackling one of the biggest hurdles for distributed quantum computing—connecting quantum computers over long distances. Unlike conventional data, quantum information cannot simply be copied or amplified using traditional networking equipment, so new optical networking technologies are needed to distribute fragile quantum signals.
Lumen’s investment supports Ohio State’s quantum research, which builds on federal and state funding to advance quantum information science and engineering using deployed optical fiber. The research will help inform how Lumen’s extensive fiber infrastructure could support quantum networking in the future.
The research focuses on two quantum areas:
- Long-range networking: Investigating the optical technologies needed to link geographically distributed quantum systems.
- Distributed sensing: Studying how quantum technologies could improve geophysical monitoring and identify conditions affecting network performance.
Preparing Today’s Networks for Tomorrow’s Security Challenges
As quantum computers become more powerful, they could eventually break widely used encryption methods. This creates a “harvest now, decrypt later” risk, where information stolen today could be decrypted years from now.
To address emerging quantum-enabled threats, Lumen plans to bring Fortinet post-quantum cryptography (PQC) capabilities , available in FortiOS, to its SASE solution. Lumen leverages FortiGate technology as the foundation of its SASE solution, with initial PQC availability in November 2026, and general availability planned for January 2027.
The enhancement is designed to strengthen enterprise communications against those emerging risks, while Lumen helps organizations identify encryption vulnerabilities and transition toward quantum-resistant security.