The deal includes Nvidia investing $1 billion in Nokia. The goal for both companies is to become the first to drive an AI-driven telecom revolution, as they are betting heavily on the rise of AI-native 5G-Advanced and 6G networks.
Nvidia and Nokia have announced a strategic partnership to integrate NVIDIA’s AI technology into Nokia’s radio access network (RAN), a move set to reshape the wireless communications landscape.
The deal includes Nvidia investing $1 billion in Nokia. The goal for both companies is to become the first to drive an AI-driven telecom revolution, as they are betting heavily on the rise of AI-native 5G-Advanced and 6G networks.
Nokia will use NVIDIA’s advanced AI products (specifically RAN) to power its own mobile network technology. This will help the communication service providers to build next-generation networks using AI. The $1 billion investment will be made at $6.01 per Nokia share.
Both companies describe this partnership as the dawn of the “AI-native wireless era,” where AI will help deliver services to consumers and companies directly at the network’s edge. The company targets the fast-growing AI-RAN market, which, according to Omdia analysts, could be worth more than $200 billion in cumulative value by 2030.
NVIDIA and Nokia plan to build a foundational infrastructure that enables telecom operators to deploy large-scale, distributed edge AI inference. This approach will open new business opportunities by enabling networks to process AI tasks closer to where the data is generated, which is crucial as demand for low-latency, high-performance AI applications continues to increase.
T-Mobile U.S. will work with both Nokia and NVIDIA to test and validate AI-RAN technologies as part of its efforts to lead 6G innovation. The company will start field trials in 2026. It will focus on assessing the network’s performance and efficiency.
Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, spoke about the importance of the deal, calling telecommunications the “digital nervous system of our economy and security.” He asserted that the AI-RAN platform, built on NVIDIA’s CUDA and AI technologies, would be a significant technological advancement that would re-establish the US as a leader in critical network infrastructure.
Nokia CEO Justin Hotard shared a similar perspective. He noted that to make a leap from 5G to 6G would require a fundamental network redesign to enable intelligence “from the data center all the way to the edge.” He stressed that working with NVIDIA will accelerate AI-RAN innovation, ultimately putting “an AI data center into every user’s pocket.”
The partnership is also a direct response to the incredible growth seen in AI traffic. For instance, nearly half of ChatGPT’s 800 million weekly active users access the service on mobile devices. Nokia and NVIDIA’s AI-RAN systems will help manage increased demand, enhance performance and efficiency, and support new AI-driven 6 G services.
When they unify AI and radio access on a single software-defined, accelerated platform, Nokia and NVIDIA aim to boost performance and efficiency, create new revenue opportunities, and offer a cost-effective upgrade path to 6G.
T-Mobile’s technology chief, John Saw, stated that the partnership will reinforce the company’s leadership position as it builds the foundation for 6G through the AI-RAN Innovation Center in 2024.
Meanwhile, Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell talked about the importance of telecom for artificial intelligence, noting that operators who modernise their infrastructure serve as an essential hub that processes AI tasks from source, particularly where data sovereignty matters.
Beyond RAN, Nokia and NVIDIA will also collaborate on AI networking solutions, including data center switching and fabric management. It will take advantage of Nokia’s SR Linux software and optical technologies, which will be integrated into the future NVIDIA infrastructure.
This partnership addresses the industry’s immediate performance challenge and sets the stage for long-term innovation, redefining the competitive landscape as operators race toward 6G.
