NVIDIA and Nokia have joined forces in a groundbreaking strategic partnership to bring NVIDIA-powered, commercial-grade AI-RAN products into Nokia’s renowned radio access network (RAN) portfolio. This collaboration will empower communication service providers (CSPs) to deploy AI-native 5G-Advanced and 6G networks using NVIDIA’s advanced platforms. As part of this alliance, NVIDIA will invest $1 billion in Nokia at a subscription price of $6.01 per share, pending standard closing conditions.
This partnership ushers in the AI-native wireless era, laying the groundwork for future networks that support AI-driven consumer experiences and enterprise services at the edge. Moreover, it addresses the rapidly expanding AI-RAN market, which research firm Omdia predicts will exceed $200 billion by 2030. By combining their strengths, NVIDIA and Nokia aim to build the strategic infrastructure needed to deliver distributed edge AI inferencing at scale, creating a new frontier of growth for telecom operators.
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To accelerate innovation, T-Mobile U.S. will work closely with Nokia and NVIDIA to test and advance AI-RAN technologies as part of the ongoing 6G development process. Trials will begin in 2026, focusing on validating performance and efficiency gains in real-world conditions. This initiative is expected to dramatically enhance network performance and ensure seamless experiences for users of generative, agentic, and physical AI applications, including drones and AR/VR devices.
“Telecommunications is a critical national infrastructure the digital nervous system of our economy and security,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Built on NVIDIA CUDA and AI, AI-RAN will revolutionize telecommunications, a generational platform shift that empowers the United States to regain global leadership in this vital infrastructure technology.”
Nokia’s President and CEO Justin Hotard added, “The next leap in telecom isn’t just from 5G to 6G, it’s a fundamental redesign of the network to deliver AI-powered connectivity, capable of processing intelligence from the data center all the way to the edge. Our partnership with NVIDIA, and their investment in Nokia, will accelerate AI-RAN innovation to put an AI data center into everyone’s pocket.”
As AI traffic surges, with nearly half of ChatGPT’s 800 million weekly users accessing it via mobile devices, Nokia and NVIDIA’s AI-RAN systems will help operators enhance efficiency and performance. These networks will power billions of future AI-native connections from autonomous vehicles and drones to immersive virtual-reality devices by combining connectivity, computing, and sensing at the edge.
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To ensure a smooth transition to 6G, NVIDIA introduced its Aerial RAN Computer Pro (ARC-Pro), a 6G-ready computing platform designed to unify AI and RAN workloads. Nokia will integrate ARC-Pro into its RAN software and hardware, expanding its anyRAN approach to simplify evolution from Cloud RAN to purpose-built RAN solutions.
Additionally, Dell Technologies is contributing to the initiative through its powerful Dell PowerEdge servers, engineered for scalable AI-RAN deployments with no-touch software and silicon upgrades. Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies, emphasized, “The telecommunications industry owns the most valuable real estate for AI the edge, where data is created.”
The partnership also extends to AI networking solutions. Nokia and NVIDIA plan to collaborate on data center switching with Nokia’s SR Linux software for the NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet platform and explore optical technologies to enhance NVIDIA’s AI infrastructure.
Ultimately, this collaboration future-proofs Nokia’s and NVIDIA’s investments while advancing the telecom industry toward the AI-driven 6G era, where networks will be intelligent, adaptive, and ready to power the next generation of global connectivity.
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