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Deutsche Telekom AG
Deutsche Telekom sells phone, internet, and IT services to consumers and businesses, mostly in Germany and the United States.
Deutsche Telekom is a phone and internet company. It sells mobile plans, home broadband, landline service, and IT services to regular people and to businesses, and it does most of its business in Germany and the United States, with more operations across Europe.
Its biggest and most valuable piece is T-Mobile US, the American wireless carrier it controls. That business is simple: millions of people pay every month for mobile service, and the money arrives predictably whether or not customers think about it. After years of being the scrappy underdog, T-Mobile US became one of the three big American carriers and now competes with Verizon and AT&T. In Germany, the company's home market, it sells mobile, broadband, and TV to households and businesses and faces rivals like Vodafone and Telefónica. It also runs networks in other European countries and a large IT services arm, T-Systems, that builds and runs technology for big organizations such as governments and large companies. The business is capital-hungry. Phone and internet networks cost a fortune to build, and companies bid huge sums for the rights to use radio spectrum. The German government still holds a big stake in Deutsche Telekom, a legacy of its history as the state phone monopoly, and the company pays a dividend, a signal that it sees itself as a steady cash machine rather than a fast grower.
The bet that matters most now is that owning the network works better when you combine it with selling mobile service. T-Mobile US was the growth engine for years, and the company keeps leaning on that American profit to fund its German and European operations. The risk is the reverse: competition is fierce on both sides of the Atlantic, regulators watch dominant carriers closely, and the constant need to invest in faster networks eats into the cash left over for shareholders.
Saved answer · last researched 12 Nov 2026
Timeline
Telekom Becomes a Stock Company
For most of its life, Deutsche Telekom was not a company at all. It was Deutsche Bundespost Telekom, a government agency that ran the phones. At the start of 1995, a German law turned it into a publicly listed stock corporation. That change kicked off its slow evolution from a government office into an international telecom business.
The Volksaktie Goes on Sale
Less than two years later came the big moment: the company sold shares to the public. It was pitched as a 'Volksaktie' — a people's share — and around two million ordinary German investors bought in. The point was not just cash. Access to international capital markets was the key that would let the company expand beyond Germany.
A Share Price Roller Coaster
In March 2000 the share price hit its all-time high, right at the peak of the technology boom. Then the tech and telecom bubble burst, and the stock fell hard. Years later it bottomed out at an all-time low. Investors who bought the people's share early learned a painful lesson about hype.
A Slimmer Headquarters
In early 2002 the company rethought how its center should work. Headquarters became a strategic management holding, and the divisions took full entrepreneurial responsibility for their own markets. The center shrank to around a thousand employees. Fewer people at the top, more power in the businesses.
From Cleanup to Growth
After years of paying down debt and fixing the business, the company turned its focus to growth and value creation. It organized itself into three strategic areas: broadband and fixed network, mobile communications, and business customers. A far-reaching transformation program, the Excellence Program, set out to make the whole machine sharper.
The Un-carrier Shakes Up America
Across the Atlantic, T-Mobile USA had a new CEO, John Legere, who launched a contract-free plan called Simple Choice under a strategy he named 'Un-carrier'. It was a spectacular hit: 4.4 million new customers in 2013 alone. The run kept going for 28 straight quarters of over a million new customers each, pushing the base past 84 million. The American arm that once looked like a problem had become a growth engine.
Höttges Takes Over
René Obermann left at his own request at the end of 2013, after seven years as CEO. The CFO, Timotheus Höttges, who had been with the company since 2000, stepped into the top job. His task: keep the growth story going.
Thirty Years as a Company
In July 2025 the company marked its 30th anniversary. In three decades it had gone from a government agency to an international telecommunications company. The long arc of the story was finally visible.
A Bet on AI With NVIDIA
Next came a striking new chapter: a strategic partnership with NVIDIA to build one of Europe's largest AI data centers in Munich. The Industrial AI Cloud, available from early 2026, is meant to give German and European companies secure, high-performance AI infrastructure. The aim is bigger than profits — it is about Europe's digital and technological sovereignty.
The Munich AI Factory Fills Up
The Munich AI factory launched in February 2026 with around 10,000 Blackwell GPUs and was fully booked within seven months. Deutsche Telekom is putting in nearly another €250 million to double capacity. The bet supports an AI strategy targeting more than €1 billion in annual AI-related revenue outside the U.S. by 2030.