通信行业投资策略周报：云厂商AI需求及投资回报路径清晰，持续看好算力基建产业链

Investment Rating - The report maintains a "Buy" rating for the communication industry [2][3]. Core Insights - The financial reports of four major cloud vendors indicate continued high growth in AI business and capital expenditures (CapEx). The demand for AI and the investment return paths are becoming clearer [7][8]. - Google reported a significant increase in cloud revenue, driven by AI infrastructure and solutions, with Q3 revenue reaching $11.35 billion, a year-on-year growth of 35.0% [7][8]. - Microsoft faces a capacity gap affecting cloud growth but remains optimistic about future AI returns, with Q1 FY25 intelligent cloud revenue at $24.09 billion, a 20% year-on-year increase [9]. - Meta's advertising business has seen substantial growth, with Q3 revenue of $40.589 billion, up 19% year-on-year, largely due to AI advancements [10]. - Amazon's AWS revenue reached $27.45 billion in Q3, a 19.1% year-on-year increase, with CapEx growing significantly due to AI demand [11][12]. Summary by Sections 1. Core Insights - The financial performance of major cloud vendors highlights the accelerating monetization of AI investments, with Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon all reporting strong growth in their respective cloud and AI-related businesses [7][8][9][10][11]. 2. Market Review - The communication sector experienced a decline of 3.28% this week, underperforming the broader market [14]. However, year-to-date, the communication sector has outperformed the Shanghai Composite Index by 8.3% [14][17]. 3. Industry Data Updates - As of the end of 2023, China has built 3.377 million 5G base stations, a net increase of 1.065 million from the previous year, representing 29.1% of total mobile base stations [25]. - In September 2024, domestic smartphone shipments totaled 25.371 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 23.8%, with 5G smartphones accounting for 88.9% of total shipments [26]. - The number of 5G users in China reached 539 million by September 2024, with significant growth in IoT terminal users [28][30]. 4. Recent News - Apple is investing $1.5 billion in Globalstar to enhance satellite communication capabilities, which has led to a significant increase in Globalstar's stock price [37][38]. - Huawei reported a revenue of 585.9 billion yuan for the first three quarters of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 29.45% [39][40].