MrBeast is looking to conquer a new sector: telecommunications.
The world’s top YouTuber has plans for a mobile-phone service, according to a leaked investor deck from early 2025 viewed by Business Insider.
A person close to the company said the MrBeast team has been moving forward with a wide range of new initiatives and partnerships and has no specific timeline for its mobile-phone project, which isn’t an immediate priority. The leaked deck indicated it would launch in 2026.
The 27-year-old creator, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, won’t need to build a telecom company from scratch. Instead, he could work with a carrier like T-Mobile or Verizon to offer a MrBeast-branded mobile service that runs on their networks.
The deck indicates that MrBeast plans to use this business strategy, referred to as a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, which is in vogue among celebrities. Public figures like Ryan Reynolds, Donald Trump, and the actors behind the “SmartLess” podcast have launched, or plan to roll out, their own phone networks.
The payoff for a successful MVNO can be huge. Reynolds sold his company, Mint Mobile, to T-Mobile in 2023 in a deal valued at up to $1.35 billion, according to the companies. MrBeast has over 400 million subscribers on his YouTube channel. If he converted even a small percentage of those fans into paying mobile customers, it could become a competitive business.
While shifting from YouTube videos to a wireless service may feel like a jump, it’s part of a larger push by Donaldson and executives at Beast Industries to diversify the MrBeast brand beyond media. The team now has a chocolate bar brand, Feastables, a Lunchables competitor called Lunchly, and a toy line, among other ventures. The company has also considered branching out into other industries, like fintech or mobile games, according to additional pitch materials shared with investors and viewed by Business Insider. As it expands, the MrBeast team is pushing for financial discipline this year as it looks to cut back on media spend and become profitable.
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So, how would MrBeast go about launching a mobile network? The key is setting up a deal with a telecom partner to lease phone and data services. Building cellular tower infrastructure is not a realistic endeavor, even for YouTube’s king of stunts. All the major carriers, including Verizon and AT&T, offer some form of MVNO services. T-Mobile, which Donaldson previously worked with on a marketing campaign, offers a turnkey solution for MVNOs that streamlines the process.
A celebrity that launches an MVNO should stick to their strength — the ability to influence a large (or niche) audience — while outsourcing tasks like billing and customer service to an intermediary, said Alex Besen, an MVNO consultant and founder and CEO of The Besen Group. Having a clear rollout plan and bringing in talent with industry knowledge is also key to winning over carriers, he said.
“The ultimate objective is to focus on the marketing and sales and outsource everything to a third party,” Besen said.
Peter Kafka contributed reporting.
