Wangsu Science & Technology (SZ:300017) CAITONG SECURITIES·2026-02-26 02:40Investment Rating - The report maintains a "Positive" investment rating for the industry [2] Core Insights - The CDN industry is undergoing a transformation driven by AI, evolving from static caching to intelligent computing, with a projected global market growth from $27.8 billion in 2025 to over $79.2 billion by 2034, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.3% [7][19] - The rise of AI is reshaping the CDN landscape, as service providers transition from low-margin bandwidth intermediaries to high-stickiness edge cloud suppliers, emphasizing the importance of technology and compliance in the new ecosystem [71] Summary by Sections CDN Transition to AI Era - The CDN market is entering the AI and computing 4.0 era, evolving from static resource acceleration to intelligent edge services [11] - The CDN industry is positioned in the midstream of the network service value chain, with upstream hardware vendors and telecom operators providing foundational infrastructure [14] - The global CDN market is expected to grow significantly due to demands from video streaming, gaming, and AI, with North America leading the market [19][23] AI and Edge Computing - The demand for "CDN + edge computing" is reshaping the industry ecosystem, as traditional roles of CDN and origin servers are evolving to meet the needs of real-time interactions and AI inference [28][37] - CDN providers are becoming essential platforms for edge computing, leveraging their extensive global nodes to facilitate real-time processing and reduce upstream traffic costs [42] CDN and Edge Preprocessing - The industry is entering a "Tokens explosion" era, with token consumption expected to increase tenfold by 2026, prompting CDNs to shift towards edge preprocessing [44] - Data sovereignty issues are leading CDNs to potentially act as intermediaries in value exchanges between AI and content creators, allowing for new revenue models [49] Financial Metrics of Major CDN Providers - Cloudflare is rapidly growing its revenue through a subscription model, while Akamai focuses on large enterprise clients, showcasing different business strategies [52] - In 2025, Cloudflare's revenue is projected to reach $2.168 billion, with a year-on-year growth of 29.8%, while Akamai's revenue is expected to be $4.208 billion, growing at 5.4% [55][56] Investment Recommendations - The report suggests focusing on technologically advanced and commercially viable CDN service providers such as Cloudflare, Akamai, Fastly, and Wangsu Technology [69]