América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

When you look at the Latin American telecom landscape, how do you make sense of a giant like América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX), which operates in 23 countries and is controlled by the region's richest person, Carlos Slim Helú, whose net worth was US$99.1 billion as of July 2025? This is not just a phone company; it's a continental powerhouse that reported 232.9 billion Mexican pesos in revenue for the third quarter of 2025, a sign that its strategic pivot to high-value services is defintely paying off. With a massive base of 328.8 million wireless subscriptions as of September 2025, their story-from history and ownership to how they make money-is a masterclass in regional market dominance you need to understand.

América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX) History

You need to understand that América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX) wasn't a garage startup; it was a strategic, massive corporate spin-off. Its history is less about initial seed funding and more about consolidating the wireless dominance of a telecom giant across an entire continent. That origin story explains why the company operates at such scale today-it started big.

Given Company's Founding Timeline

Year established

The company was officially established in 2000, spun off from Teléfonos de México (Telmex). It began trading on the stock exchange in February 2001.

Original location

The company's headquarters have always been in Mexico City, Mexico.

Founding team members

América Móvil emerged under the strategic direction of the group led by Carlos Slim Helú, who had previously acquired the privatized Telmex. Key executives who steered the company from its earliest days include Daniel Hajj Aboumrad (CEO since 2000) and Carlos García Moreno Elizondo (CFO since 2001).

Initial capital/funding

América Móvil was created not with traditional startup capital, but by inheriting the substantial mobile assets and operations of Telmex across Mexico and other initial international ventures. It was an already significant operational entity at its inception, effectively a consolidation of existing, profitable wireless businesses.

Given Company's Evolution Milestones

Given Company's Transformative Moments

The company's trajectory was defined by three clear, transformative decisions that shifted its market position from a Mexican operator to a global telecom leader.

• The Spin-Off and Pan-Regional Expansion (2000-2006): The separation from Telmex in 2000 was the first big move. It allowed management to focus solely on the high-growth mobile sector, resulting in a rapid, aggressive acquisition spree across Latin America. This led to the creation of the Claro brand, which became the face of the company in most of the region.
• Re-Integration and Full-Service Strategy (2010): The decision to buy back Telmex International and Carso Telecom for an estimated $21 billion was a game-changer. It reversed the initial spin-off, creating a quad-play (mobile, fixed-line, broadband, and TV) operator. This allowed América Móvil to bundle services, which is defintely critical for customer retention and average revenue per user (ARPU) growth.
• The 2025 5G and Fiber Investment Push: The current focus is on a massive infrastructure upgrade. The board approved a CapEx of US$6.7 billion for 2025, slightly down from the US$7 billion budgeted for 2024, but still a huge commitment. This capital is specifically targeting the accelerated deployment of 5G and fiber-optic networks, which is the only way to stay competitive and capture the next wave of data-driven revenue. Here's the quick math: in Q3 2025, the company reported 328.7 million total wireless lines, so every infrastructure improvement immediately impacts a colossal user base.

To be fair, the company's continuous strategic alignment is best reflected in its core principles. You can read more about that here: Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX).

In Q3 2025, the company posted revenues of 232.9 billion Mexican pesos and a net income of 22.7 billion Mexican pesos, showing that the long-term strategy of scale and integration is still driving significant financial results.

América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX) Ownership Structure

América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX) is controlled by the Slim family, who hold a majority of the voting shares through various investment vehicles, ensuring their strategic vision guides the company despite its public status.

América Móvil's Current Status

América Móvil is a publicly traded company, listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: AMX). This dual listing makes it Mexico's largest publicly traded company and a leading telecommunications services provider across Latin America and Europe. The company's legal structure as a Sociedad Anónima Bursátil de Capital Variable (S.A.B. de C.V.), or variable capital stock corporation, reflects its public nature while maintaining a concentrated ownership structure.

The company operates with a dual-class share structure, which is the mechanism that allows the Slim family to maintain a dominant, controlling stake. This structure means that while a significant portion of the stock trades publicly, the family holds the shares with superior voting rights, a key point for any investor to defintely understand. Exploring América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

América Móvil's Ownership Breakdown

As of the 2025 fiscal year, the ownership is highly concentrated, with the vast majority of shares held by the controlling family and individual investors, leaving a smaller, but still significant, portion for institutional funds. Here's the quick math on the public float versus the controlling block:

What this estimate hides is that the 94.48% block is not a typical retail float; it contains the core, controlling interest of the Slim family, which holds a dominant role in the company's governance and decision-making. Institutional ownership, while a minority at around 5.52%, still represents a substantial dollar value and includes major global asset managers like BlackRock and The Vanguard Group.

América Móvil's Leadership

The leadership team is seasoned, with the average tenure of the Board of Directors being around 16.7 years as of early 2025, showing deep industry experience and continuity. The governance structure is directly influenced by the controlling family, with key family members holding the top positions on the Board.

The core leadership steering the organization as of November 2025 includes:

• Carlos Slim Domit: Chairman of the Board.
• Patrick Slim Domit: Co-Chairman of the Board.
• Daniel Hajj Aboumrad: Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
• Carlos García Moreno Elizondo: Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
• Oscar Von Hauske Solis: Chief Fixed-line Operations Officer and Chief Information Security Officer.

This structure means that key strategic and capital allocation decisions are ultimately driven by the long-term vision of the controlling family, so you should always consider their priorities when assessing the stock.

América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX) Mission and Values

América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX) defines its existence beyond its massive subscriber base-which exceeded 280 million mobile customers in 2024-by focusing on connecting communities and driving socio-economic progress across Latin America. Its cultural DNA is rooted in a commitment to innovation and social responsibility, balancing market leadership with a role as an agent of change.

Honestly, a company with over $41 billion in revenue in 2024 has to have a purpose bigger than just the bottom line; this is what drives their long-term value.

América Móvil's Core Purpose

The company's core purpose is to be a catalyst for development, recognizing that connectivity is the foundation for modern life and economic growth. This commitment extends past simple service provision into active community and environmental stewardship.

For a deeper dive into the financial stakeholders, you can check out Exploring América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Official mission statement

The mission statement is clear: deliver superior service and customer experience using advanced technology to foster human connection and regional development. It's a direct link between their operational excellence and their social impact.

• Provide the best service and customer experience with state-of-the-art communications solutions.
• Bring people closer together using information technology and digital content.
• Accelerate the development of the countries where we operate.
• Promote equal opportunities among people.

Vision statement

The vision statement maps their ambition to their ethical responsibility, aiming to maintain market dominance while using that position to improve the world for all stakeholders. It's about being the defintely indispensable telecommunications leader.

• Consolidate the company as an agent of change through advanced connectivity services.
• Maintain leadership in the telecommunications industry.
• Confirm commitment to stakeholders to make the world more promising for everyone.

América Móvil slogan/tagline

While various brands under the América Móvil umbrella have their own slogans (like Telcel and Claro), the overarching corporate purpose, particularly in its sustainability reporting, serves as the central tagline for its global impact:

• Our Purpose: Enabling a Better World.

América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX) How It Works

América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX) operates as a massive, vertically integrated telecommunications powerhouse, generating value by owning and aggressively expanding its core network infrastructure-fiber optic cables and mobile towers-to deliver a comprehensive suite of connectivity services across 23 countries, primarily in Latin America. The company makes money by converting its vast network reach into high-margin postpaid mobile and fixed-line broadband subscriptions, a strategy that drove its Q2 2025 revenue to 234 billion pesos.

América Móvil's Product/Service Portfolio

América Móvil's Operational Framework

The company's operational framework is built on a capital-intensive, centralized model that prioritizes massive scale and network modernization to drive down unit costs and enhance service quality. Here's the quick math: with over 404 million total access lines at the end of June 2025, even a small efficiency gain is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Value creation is a three-part process:

• Infrastructure Investment: The 2025 capital expenditure (CapEx) budget is projected to be around $6.7 billion, primarily allocated to accelerating 5G network deployment and expanding the fiber optic footprint across Latin America.
• Digital Transformation: Streamlining internal processes and investing in automation to improve operational efficiency, which helps reduce costs and speed up service delivery.
• Subscriber Migration: Aggressively shifting customers from lower-margin prepaid services to higher-margin postpaid plans, which accounted for 137 million of the total client base by mid-2025.

This focus on infrastructure and digital tools is defintely what keeps them ahead of local competitors. You can read more about the core principles that guide these decisions in the Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX).

América Móvil's Strategic Advantages

América Móvil's market success rests on a few clear, durable advantages that smaller competitors simply can't match, giving them a significant competitive moat (a long-term advantage). This is what allows them to maintain a healthy balance sheet, with a net debt-to-EBITDA after leases ratio of 1.56 times in Q2 2025.

• Unmatched Scale and Diversification: Operating in 23 countries, the company can leverage massive economies of scale in equipment purchasing and network management, plus it hedges against economic volatility in any single market.
• Infrastructure Dominance: They hold a leadership position in 5G and fiber broadband penetration across key markets like Mexico and Brazil, positioning them to capture the majority of future high-speed data growth.
• Financial Resilience to FX: A cost structure largely denominated in local currencies allows the company to capitalize on foreign exchange (FX) shifts; for instance, Q2 2025 net profit was significantly bolstered by an 11 billion pesos FX gain.
• Strategic Consolidation: They actively pursue strategic partnerships and acquisitions, like the joint venture with Liberty Latin America in Chile, to consolidate market share and create stronger, more diversified fixed-line businesses.

América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX) How It Makes Money

América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX) generates the vast majority of its revenue by selling telecommunications services-mobile, fixed-line, and internet-across its extensive Latin American and European footprint, plus a smaller but important stream from selling mobile phones and other equipment.

América Móvil's Revenue Breakdown

As a global telecom operator, the core of América Móvil's financial engine is its recurring service revenue, which provides the stability necessary for its massive infrastructure investments. Based on the company's strong performance in the second quarter of 2025, the split clearly favors the sticky, subscription-based services.

The total revenue for Q2 2025 was a robust 234 billion pesos, and that 13.4% growth in Service Revenue is defintely the number to watch because it shows customers are sticking with their plans and buying more advanced services.

Business Economics

The company's strategy is a classic telecom pivot: move customers from low-margin, volatile prepaid plans to high-value, recurring postpaid and fixed-line services. This is how they build pricing power (the ability to raise prices without losing customers) even in competitive markets.

• Postpaid Focus: They are aggressively adding postpaid subscribers, which are far more profitable than prepaid users. In Q2 2025 alone, América Móvil added 2.9 million new postpaid clients, with Brazil and Mexico being the largest contributors.
• ARPU Expansion: The goal is to increase Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) by selling value-added services like 5G access and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband. This is a much better way to grow than just adding more users.
• Infrastructure Investment: Capital expenditures (CapEx) are the lifeblood here. The company has a CapEx plan of US$6.7 billion for 2025, focusing on deploying 5G networks and expanding fiber broadband coverage, which directly supports the high-margin service growth.
• Regulatory Headwinds: A key risk is regulatory scrutiny. For example, the company's Mexican subsidiary, Telcel, faced a substantial fine of $1.8 billion in Q2 2025 for alleged anti-competitive practices, which underscores the ever-present regulatory risk in their core markets.

The long-term play is simple: dominate the high-speed data market and increase the value of each customer connection. You can read more about their long-term goals in the Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX).

América Móvil's Financial Performance

The 2025 year has shown a strong financial resurgence, driven by operational discipline and favorable foreign exchange tailwinds in the first half of the year.

• Revenue and Profit: Total revenue for the third quarter of 2025 reached 232.9 billion pesos, with a net income of 22.7 billion pesos. This follows a strong Q2 2025 where net profit hit 22.3 billion pesos, a significant turnaround from the prior year.
• EBITDA Margin: Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) is the key profitability metric in telecom. Q3 2025 EBITDA totaled 93.8 billion pesos, and the EBITDA margin remained stable at around 40.3%, showing excellent cost control despite the heavy CapEx.
• Leverage: The company maintains a healthy balance sheet, with its net debt-to-EBITDAaL ratio (excluding leases) standing at a manageable 1.55 times at the end of September 2025. This low leverage gives them flexibility for future acquisitions or further infrastructure investment.

Here's the quick math: The company generated 138 billion pesos in operating cash flow in the nine months to September 2025, which comfortably covered the 85 billion pesos in capital expenditures for the same period, plus all shareholder distributions.

América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX) Market Position & Future Outlook

América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX) maintains a position as the undisputed telecommunications leader in Latin America, but its future hinges on a successful pivot from legacy mobile services to high-margin 5G and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband. The company's financial strength, demonstrated by a trailing twelve-month (TTM) revenue of $46.65 billion USD as of Q3 2025, gives it the capital to execute this transition, even as regulatory and competitive pressures intensify across its core markets. Exploring América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Competitive Landscape

In the telecom business, scale is everything, and América Móvil's sheer size across 23 countries is its primary defense. Still, competition is fierce, especially in the high-value postpaid and fixed-line segments where rivals are investing heavily.

The table shows América Móvil's dominance in its home market of Mexico, but look at Brazil: Telefónica (Vivo) is the market leader there with roughly 39% mobile share, which means AMX has to fight a two-front war for high-value customers. That's why the shift to fiber and 5G is defintely critical.

Opportunities & Challenges

The company's strategy is clear: double down on infrastructure investment and push higher-value services. The $6.7 billion USD capital expenditure (capex) forecast for 2025 is primarily allocated to this end, prioritizing 5G and fiber expansion over everything else.

Industry Position

América Móvil is the regional incumbent, a position that grants it significant operational and financial advantages, but also makes it a constant target for regulators. The company's focus on postpaid, which is a more stable and higher-value customer segment than prepaid, has driven strong financial results, including a Q3 2025 net income of 22.7 billion Mexican pesos.

• Lead the region's 5G rollout, with 5G services live in 100 Mexican cities.
• Drive fixed-line growth by converting customers to fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), with 90% of its broadband customers connected via fiber by Q1 2025.
• Maintain a disciplined balance sheet, with net debt-to-EBITDAaL ratio at a conservative 1.56 times as of Q2 2025.
• Pursue strategic consolidation, such as the proposed 50:50 joint venture with Liberty Latin America in Chile, aiming for operational synergies.

The company isn't just a telecom; it's an infrastructure giant. That deep, owned infrastructure-the fiber and the spectrum-is the moat that protects its market position against all comers.