Our report forecasts $462bn in global demand for edge computing services in 2030. We explore the global demand for on-prem, network, and regional edge represented by 20 use cases and 16 verticals. The forecast helps telcos and other edge providers to identify which areas of the market and the value chain are most suitable for them to capture.

This is the third release of STL’s edge computing revenue forecast

In this release, we update the forecast and refine our model by splitting estimated edge platform revenues from application revenues.

The edge computing market continues to invite different types of players including telcos, hyperscalers, data centre operators and enterprise connectivity providers. The varying requirements across verticals, business sizes and use cases create an opportunity that can accommodate all these different players. However, it is important for any edge provider to understand how to position its service in the space and what areas of the market to pursue vertically and horizontally.

Through quantitative analysis, this report aims to help telcos and others to identify where opportunities lie. This report presents the key findings of STL Partners’ demand forecast model for edge computing services. Its purpose is to:

• Assess the demand from 20 use cases which currently rely on edge or will require edge to fully develop;
• Identify the total revenue across the value chain: device, connectivity, application, edge platform, edge infrastructure (regional, network and on-premise), and integration and services;
• Output a full set of results for over 90 countries over the 2020–2030 period per use case and per vertical.

This report is accompanied by a dashboard which presents a summary of our model output and the associated graphics for the world’s regions and for 20 major markets. The dashboard also presents the full revenue output for the 97 countries.

Download the accompanying spreadsheet (Filesize 40MB) 

Edge computing addressable revenue will reach US$462 billion by 2030

High-level findings from the model indicate that:

• The total edge computing addressable market will grow from US$9 billion in 2020 to US$462 billion in 2030 at a CAGR of 49% over the 10-year period.
• The growth in the number of connected devices, as well as the need for higher levels of automation, operational efficiency and cost reduction, will drive the adoption of edge computing across many use cases and verticals over the next 10 years. This will result in increased spend across the value chain.
• A major change in this version of the edge computing market sizing forecast is the splitting out of estimated revenues from edge platforms, alongside the compute infrastructure, network, application and services.
• Therefore, we now breakdown the total edge value chain into six main components which are device, cellular connectivity, edge platform, application, integration and services, and edge infrastructure, which in the full dataset we breakdown into on-premises edge, network edge and regional edge.
• The vertical opportunities in on-premises edge and distributed edge are quite different. Telcos and other providers that are looking into the various types of infrastructure to offer edge services should evaluate these differences and assess their own capabilities and willingness to compete in these verticals.

Total edge computing addressable revenue 2020–2030

Source: STL Partners – Edge computing market sizing forecast (Third release)

Table of contents

• Executive summary
• Key forecast updates for 2024
  • Revenue by value chain
  • Revenue by vertical
  • Revenue by use case
  • Revenue by country
• Methodology
• Further reading

Related research

This forecast is part of our Edge Insights Service which also includes:

• Our edge reports and articles ​
• Network edge data centre forecast
• Edge Computing Use Case Directory
• Edge Computing Ecosystem Tool
• Edge Computing Investment Tracker

Emma Buckland

Emma Buckland

Principal Analyst

Emma has worked in the TMT sector since the end of the 1990s, first at operators in France and the UK and later as a consultant and analyst. In her day to day job at STL Partners, she gets involved in quantitative analysis and is part of our telco cloud practice. Since 2022, she has been the lead analyst of the Telco cloud insights service and is a frequent contributor to its tools and reports, including on open RAN and cloud-native transformation. Emma holds an MSc. Engineering from Ecole Centrale de Lyon.