Nov 5 (Reuters) - Fibre-optic cable provider Lumen

Technologies ( LUMN ) raised its annual free cash flow forecast

on Tuesday thanks to AI deals with large cloud companies, even

as weakness in its legacy business was a drag on its quarterly

results.

The company has secured deals worth more than $8 billion in

total from cloud and tech companies such as Alphabet's Google,

Microsoft ( MSFT ), Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Meta

Platforms ( META ) for its networking solutions, Chief Financial

Officer Chris Stansbury said.

"AI needs data centers and data centers need to be connected

and that's what we do," Stansbury told Reuters in an interview.

The clutch of AI deals have helped Lumen capitalize on Big

Tech's push to build out data centers that can support apps such

as ChatGPT, which requires huge amounts of computing power.

The company's shares have quadrupled this year, after

worries about Lumen's high debt load and decline in its business

that includes voice, broadband and ethernet services hammered

its stock in the last two years.

Lumen's deals with a group of lenders have also given it

access to more than $2 billion in fresh capital, while extending

its debt maturities to at least 2029.

However, revenue fell nearly 12% to $3.22 billion for the

third quarter, in line with expectations, according to

LSEG-compiled analysts' estimates.

"We are humble about the weight of the legacy business and

the past and we are doing what we can to manage that," Stansbury

said, referring to the company's efforts towards growing its

digital fiber connectivity solutions.

Lumen now expects annual free cash flow to be between $1.2

billion and $1.4 billion, up from its prior forecast of between

$1 billion and $1.2 billion.

It posted an adjusted loss of 13 cents per share in the

third quarter, which was wider than expectations of 9 cents.

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by

Anil D'Silva)