US telecoms company Lumen has secured $5 billion in new business, which it said was primarily due to AI sales.

The company's share price jumped more than 70 percent on the news, with the company adding that it was in active discussions with customers to secure another $7bn in sales.

Lumen will more than double its intercity network miles over the next five years, the company said.

"The AI economy is changing business operations, and companies are recognizing they need powerful network infrastructure to manage the unprecedented data flows today and the demand in the future," said Kate Johnson, president and CEO, Lumen Technologies.

"Our partners are turning to us because of our AI-ready infrastructure and expansive network. This is just the beginning of a significant opportunity for Lumen, one that will lead to one of the largest expansions of the Internet ever."

Last month, the company announced that Microsoft plans to deploy Lumen’s Private Connectivity Fabric (PCF) to improve its data center network infrastructure.

At the same time, Lumen said that it will move its own workloads to Microsoft's Azure cloud.