On the desk today · American Tower
Three carriers. One tower. Three rent checks. That is the whole model.
| NYSE · AMT |
Buffett's ‘Rule’ Could Make This Company Soar
Warren Buffett famously said:
"If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die."
The answer may already be sitting on your nightstand…
Mode Mobile has created technology that turns idle phone time into passive income.
Their EarnPhone has already helped users save and earn over $1B, driving the company's growth to an impressive 32,481%.
Buffett also taught us to look for companies with:
✓ Simple business models (Mode pays users for phone usage)
✓ Strong user base (490M+ users and growing)
✓ Proven revenue ($115M+ and climbing)
✓ Market leadership (#1 fastest-growing software company in 2023 - Deloitte)
Now, with their Nasdaq ticker $MODE secured, early investors can still invest at just $0.52/share.
But their share price is changing on August 14.
Buffett has spoken openly about the opportunities he missed by not recognizing certain transformative technology companies early enough.
The lesson?
Sometimes the bigger mistake is never taking a closer look.
The Landlord Your
Phone Pays Every Day
You made a phone call this morning. Or sent a text. Or streamed a song on the way to work. In the fraction of a second between pressing play and hearing music, your phone's signal traveled to a tower — a steel structure bolted to the ground somewhere between your car and the nearest city. That tower is not owned by your carrier. It is owned by a company in Boston that your carrier pays rent to, every month, under a contract that lasts a decade.
That company is American Tower. You have been paying its landlord your entire mobile life without knowing it.
I looked up from a parking lot last week and noticed the tower — right there, behind a strip mall, between a Wendy's and a tire shop. I'd driven past it a thousand times without seeing it. There were three sets of equipment bolted to it at different heights. Three carriers. One tower. Three rent checks. And the company that owns the tower barely has to do anything. The steel just stands there.
Most people think the carriers — AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon — own their own towers. Some do. But the majority of the wireless infrastructure in America and much of the world is owned by independent tower companies. American Tower is the largest. It owns approximately 225,000 communications sites across 25 countries on six continents. It leases space on those towers to wireless operators, broadcasters, and government agencies. Each tenant hangs their equipment on the tower, connects it to their network, and writes a monthly check.
American Tower was established in 1995 as a subsidiary of American Radio Systems, a broadcasting company. When American Radio was acquired by CBS in 1998, the tower division was spun off as an independent business. The logic was simple — radio stations needed towers, but towers were worth more on their own, leased to multiple tenants, than tied to a single broadcaster. In 2012, the company converted to a Real Estate Investment Trust. In 2021, it made two transformative acquisitions — Telxius Towers for $9.4 billion, expanding into Europe, and CoreSite Realty for $10.4 billion, entering the data center business.
In fiscal 2025, American Tower reported $10.65 billion in revenue — up 5.1% from the year before. Adjusted EBITDA margins ran at roughly 66%. AFFO per share — the cash flow metric REITs use in place of earnings — reached $10.76, up 8%. The company did all of this with fewer than 5,000 employees. That is $10.65 billion in revenue from 4,866 people. Roughly $2.2 million per employee. And most of the assets are steel towers that require almost no maintenance. The rent just arrives.
|
This is where Elon Musk is housing an AI technology that Jeff Brown believes will help power the next monster IPO on Wall Street.
You see, while everyone was distracted by the SpaceX IPO…
Elon Musk quietly started backing a NEW AI startup that has been called…
"The fastest-growing business in the history of capitalism."
And Jeff will also show you how to claim a stake for as little as $50.
That 66% EBITDA margin tells you everything about the economics. Building a cell tower costs roughly $250,000 to $300,000. The first carrier that leases space on it pays rent — typically enough to cover the cost of the tower within a few years. Then a second carrier arrives. They hang their equipment at a different height on the same structure. The incremental cost to American Tower is almost nothing — a small amount of structural engineering and a power connection. But the second tenant pays nearly as much rent as the first. Then a third carrier shows up. Same economics. Same tower. Three rent checks. Almost zero incremental cost. This is why margins are 66%. Every tenant after the first is nearly pure profit.
The leases are locked. In the United States, contracts typically run 5 to 10 years with multiple renewal options and 3% annual rent escalators built in. Internationally, escalators are tied to local inflation. A carrier that signed a lease in 2015 is paying roughly 30% more today than when they started — and the lease renews automatically unless they actively cancel. Almost none do. Pulling equipment off a tower means losing coverage in that area. No carrier volunteers to create a dead zone.
Steven Vondran — who became CEO in late 2024 — put it plainly in the fourth-quarter 2025 earnings release: "We delivered another strong year, achieving high-single-digit growth in AFFO per Share, as adjusted, while continuing to execute our strategy. Leasing demand across our global tower portfolio and data center business remains robust, underpinned by sustained growth in mobile data consumption, continued 5G deployment, and increasing hybrid-cloud and AI-related workloads."
The flywheel runs on data. Global mobile data consumption roughly doubles every few years. Every video streamed, every call made, every app refreshed needs more network capacity. Carriers respond by densifying their networks — adding more equipment to existing towers and building new ones. American Tower collects more rent from existing tenants as they add equipment, and more rent from new tenants as carriers expand. In the fourth quarter of 2025, organic tenant billings grew 5.9%. The data center business — acquired through CoreSite — grew 19%. The world's appetite for connectivity only moves in one direction.
WHY THIS WORKS
Multi-tenant leverage is the engine. The first carrier on a tower covers the cost. Every additional tenant generates nearly pure profit on the same steel structure.
Leases lock in for a decade. Contracts run 5 to 10 years with 3% annual escalators in the U.S. and CPI-linked escalators internationally. Carriers don't leave because leaving means losing coverage.
Data consumption only grows. Mobile data traffic roughly doubles every few years. Every increase in demand requires more network capacity — and more rent paid to American Tower.
225,000 towers, 4,866 employees. American Tower generates $10.65 billion in revenue from fewer than 5,000 people. The assets are steel and concrete. They don't break. They don't depreciate in any meaningful way. They just stand there and collect.
American Tower sold its entire India business in 2024 — 76,000 towers, roughly a third of its global portfolio at the time. The $2.5 billion transaction triggered a $1.2 billion loss on paper. But the company used the proceeds to reduce debt, return to its target leverage range, and reinvest in higher-return markets. The portfolio shrank. The earnings per share grew. A tower company that subtracted 76,000 assets and got stronger is telling you something about which towers matter — and which just collect a check.
*Mode Mobile recently received their ticker reservation with Nasdaq ($MODE), indicating an intent to IPO in the next 24 months. An intent to IPO is no guarantee that an actual IPO will occur.
*The Deloitte rankings are based on submitted applications and public company database research, with winners selected based on their fiscal-year revenue growth percentage over a three-year period.
*Please read the offering circular and related risks at invest.modemobile.com.
