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NVIDIA Nokia Look to Lead 6G AI Platform for U.S. Telecom Leadership
NVIDIA will invest $1 billion in Nokia to accelerate AI-RAN innovation in an effort to spearhead the transition from 5G to 6G wireless technology.
Key Highlights:
The Nokia-NVIDIA alliance is designed to pioneer the AI-RAN market by integrating NVIDIA's accelerated computing platforms and AI software, enabling telcos to deploy AI-native 5G-Advanced and 6G networks.
NVIDIA is solidifying the partnership with a $1 billion equity investment in Nokia and contributing its Aerial RAN Computer Pro (ARC-Pro), a 6G-ready platform, to create a software-defined path to the next generation of wireless.
The collaboration, which includes Dell Technologies servers and T-Mobile U.S. as the initial trial partner starting in 2026, focuses on leveraging AI at the network edge to improve efficiency, reduce operational costs, and handle the explosive growth in AI traffic (e.g., from ChatGPT).
The AI-RAN model addresses the 5G monetization challenge by transforming network sites from cost centers into AI revenue-generating assets (e.g., offering distributed edge AI inferencing), a compelling proposition for telecom operators.
By quickly validating performance gains in real-world trials, Nokia plans to use this technological lead and its increased financial flexibility to aggressively differentiate and compete with more agility against rivals.
The News
NVIDIA and Nokia announced a strategic partnership to add NVIDIA-powered, commercial-grade AI-RAN products to Nokia’s RAN portfolio, enabling communication service providers to launch AI-native 5G-Advanced and 6G networks on NVIDIA platforms. NVIDIA will also invest $1 billion in Nokia at a subscription price of $6.01 per share. The investment is subject to customary closing conditions. For more information, read the Nokia press release.
Analyst Take
NVIDIA and Nokia have announced a partnership to integrate NVIDIA-powered, commercial-grade AI-RAN products into Nokia's leading Radio Access Network (RAN) portfolio. This integration will empower communication service providers to deploy advanced AI-native 5G-Advanced and 6G networks using NVIDIA platforms. To solidify this commitment, NVIDIA will invest $1 billion in Nokia at a subscription price of $6.01 per share, pending customary closing conditions.
I anticipate this partnership to provide the groundwork for supporting next-generation AI-powered consumer experiences and enterprise services at the network edge. By combining their strengths, Nokia and NVIDIA can deliver distributed edge AI inferencing at scale, potentially creating a new, high-growth frontier for telecom providers and strategically enhancing the infrastructure.
A key player, T-Mobile U.S., will collaborate with both Nokia and NVIDIA to test and advance these AI-RAN technologies as part of the 6G innovation and development process, leveraging its portfolio expertise in wireless innovation. Trials are slated to begin in 2026, focusing on validating the performance and efficiency gains for customers in real-world environments.
In accord, Nokia's Board of Directors has approved a directed share issuance of 166,389,351 new shares to enable a $1.0 billion equity investment by NVIDIA Corporation, subject to customary closing conditions, making NVIDIA a 2.90% shareholder of Nokia at a price of $6.01 per share. This strategic partnership aims to create significant value for both companies, with Nokia planning to use the proceeds to accelerate its strategic plans for the AI supercycle, specifically advancing its 5G & 6G RAN software to run on NVIDIA's architecture and investing in data center networking solutions to grow its presence in the AI and Cloud market.
Furthermore, Nokia and NVIDIA have agreed to collaborate on AI networking solutions and explore incorporating Nokia's data center switching and optical technologies into NVIDIA's future AI infrastructure, with new shares expected to be registered and admitted to trading in November, bringing the total number of Nokia shares to approximately 5,742,239,696.
As such, I find that this collaboration is positioned to deliver massive improvements in performance and efficiency, ensuring network experiences for consumers as well as business users using generative, agentic, and physical AI applications on their devices. It also prepares the network for future AI-native devices, such as AR/VR glasses and drones, and for advanced 6G applications such as integrated sensing and communications.
Nokia and NVIDIA Ready to Power AI-RAN for the 6G Era
Growth in AI traffic is rapidly expanding, exemplified by the fact that nearly 50% of ChatGPT's 800 million weekly active users connect through mobile, with its monthly app downloads surpassing 40 million. To meet this soaring demand and enhance network experiences for future AI applications, mobile operators are turning to Nokia and NVIDIA-powered AI-RAN systems.
This collaboration is designed to boost performance and efficiency, paving the way for the introduction of new AI services for 6G using the same infrastructure. This next-generation platform is vital for powering billions of new connections for emerging technologies such as connected cars, robotics, drones, and AR/VR glasses, all of which demand robust connectivity, computing, and sensing at the network edge.
The foundation for this transition to AI-Native Networks is the introduction of the NVIDIA Aerial RAN Computer Pro (ARC-Pro), a 6G-ready accelerated computing platform. This software-defined platform, which integrates connectivity, computing, and sensing, enables telcos to move from 5G-Advanced to 6G through simple software upgrades. Nokia is accelerating the integration of its 5G and 6G RAN software onto the NVIDIA CUDA platform and will embed ARC-Pro at the core of its new AI-RAN solution, enabling a seamless evolution for its mobile network customers.
Furthermore, Dell Technologies supports this solution with its scalable Dell PowerEdge servers, which facilitate no-touch software and low-touch silicon upgrades. By unifying AI and radio access workloads on an accelerated, software-defined infrastructure, the Nokia and NVIDIA AI-RAN platform can boost performance, improve efficiency, and offer a cost-effective, future-ready path to 6G.
From my perspective, the Nokia NVIDIA alliance focus on 6G is definitely forward looking as I expect that 6G services will become commercially available around the year 2030, reinforced by expectations shared by the ITU and 3GPP. This timeline also aligns with the historical pattern of a new generation of wireless technology being introduced approximately every ten years, following the commercial launches of 4G around 2010 and 5G around 2020. However, the path to commercialization is already well underway as current efforts are focused on the crucial phases of standardization, with the ITU's IMT-2030 framework and 3GPP's work on Release 21 specifications expected to finalize in the late 2020s.
While the first widespread commercial launches are expected by the start of the next decade, initial pre-commercial trials and early deployments are anticipated to begin even sooner, likely from 2028 or 2029 in technologically advanced markets like South Korea, Japan, and the United States. This was a notable takeaway that was advocated from the recent 5G Americas Analyst Forum.
It's important to note that the initial rollout will likely be a phased approach, focusing on specific urban and high-density areas, and will involve the gradual introduction of 6G-enabled devices. Consumers are therefore likely to see meaningful, widespread adoption and the full benefits of the technology, such as terabit-per-second speeds and ultra-low latency, throughout the early to mid-2030s.
Nokia and Partners Reshaping the Competitive Dynamics of the Mobile Ecosystem
From my viewpoint, the NVIDIA, Dell, and T-Mobile collaboration bolsters Nokia's competitive prospects over the next 12-24 months by delivering a ready-made, future-ready AI-RAN solution that rivals, such as Ericsson and Huawei, can be hard-pressed to match. Nokia swiftly gains a technological lead by embedding NVIDIA’s ARC-Pro and CUDA platform into its RAN portfolio, creating an AI-Native 5G-Advanced and 6G network. This integration can enable Nokia to differentiate itself on performance and efficiency, as AI algorithms can be applied directly to the network edge for spectral and energy optimization, a critical selling point for operators.
Furthermore, Dell's inclusion provides a scalable, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) server backbone with agile software-defined upgrade paths, which can simplify deployment and lower the long-term total cost of ownership compared to the more proprietary or closed systems typically offered by competitors.
Crucially, the Nokia NVIDIA partnership provides market validation and accelerated commercialization that will be hard for rivals to overcome in the short term. The participation of T-Mobile as the first partner to test and drive these AI-RAN technologies starting in 2026, acts as a powerful reference and proof point for other global operators. This early-adopter leverage can enable Nokia to secure critical mindshare and potentially win new contracts by demonstrating a viable, high-performance path to 6G that directly monetizes the surging demand for generative AI traffic.
The $1 billion equity investment from NVIDIA further solidifies this commitment, providing Nokia with a significant cash injection to accelerate its R&D and strategic focus on the high-growth AI and cloud markets, thus giving it the financial flexibility needed to aggressively compete with the massive scale and investment of Huawei and the established market presence of Ericsson as well as counter moves by rivals such as Samsung, ZTE, and Mavenir.
Looking Ahead
Overall, I believe that through its partnership with NVIDIA, bolstered by the $1 billion investment, Nokia can accelerate AI-RAN innovation, effectively working to put a distributed AI data center into every user’s pocket. With key support from Dell Technologies for the underlying infrastructure and T-Mobile. serving as the initial deployment partner, Nokia is strategically positioned to drive this industry-wide transformation, ensuring that the U.S. can lead in providing the advanced, AI-native connectivity required for future applications and use cases.
Of key importance, I anticipate that telcos are likely to respond positively to the Nokia-NVIDIA AI-RAN alliance because the solution directly addresses the primary disappointments of 5G deployments: poor monetization and high operational costs. Instead of primarily selling raw bandwidth, the AI-RAN model positions the network as a new AI revenue-generating asset by enabling distributed edge AI inferencing at base stations, transforming cost centers into processing hubs that can be sold as a service, GPU-as-a-Service for instance, as long as the energy efficiency and power consumption requirements align.
This fundamental shift, validated by T-Mobile, can offer telcos a clear path to both reduce OpEx through AI-driven spectral and energy efficiency and unlock entirely new revenue streams from the fast-growing generative AI market, making the investment case for this next-generation architecture far more compelling than that of the 5G networks.
Over the next 12 months, I expect that Nokia can improve its competitiveness and mobile ecosystem influence by aggressively pursuing and publicly validating AI-RAN deployments with its partners. The immediate focus must be on leveraging the T-Mobile field trials (expected to begin in 2026) to generate early, quantifiable evidence of the platform's spectral efficiency, energy savings, and AI-driven performance advantages.
By successfully running its 5G and 6G RAN software on the NVIDIA CUDA platform and demonstrating integration of the ARC-Pro through its anyRAN architecture, Nokia can establish a technical lead that positions it as the definitive vendor for the AI-Native network era. This strategy elevates Nokia beyond a traditional RAN provider to a key player in the high-growth AI infrastructure market.
To broaden its ecosystem influence, Nokia should swiftly translate the T-Mobile success into new global contract wins with tier-one operators and rapidly expand the adoption of its combined solution with Dell Technologies as the COTS server choice. The $1 billion NVIDIA equity investment provides Nokia with the capital and credibility to pursue collaborations that integrate its network infrastructure, such as SR Linux and optical technologies, into NVIDIA's broader data center and AI ecosystem.
This dual-pronged approach of gaining more RAN mind share and proof points by offering 5G-Advanced/6G TCO and efficiency gains, while simultaneously building influence within the hyperscaler and enterprise AI community, can enable Nokia to reshape the competitive landscape and capture a leading position in the estimated $200 billion cumulative AI-RAN market by 2030, obliging rivals such as Ericsson, Huawei, ZTE, Samsung, and Mavenir to adjust their portfolio development and marketing strategies.
Ron Westfall | Analyst In Residence
Ron Westfall is a prominent analyst figure in technology and business transformation. Recognized as a Top 20 Analyst by AR Insights and a Tech Target contributor, his insights are featured in major media such as CNBC, Schwab Network, and NMG Media.
His expertise covers transformative fields such as Hybrid Cloud, AI Networking, Security Infrastructure, Edge Cloud Computing, Wireline/Wireless Connectivity, and 5G-IoT. Ron bridges the gap between C-suite strategic goals and the practical needs of end users and partners, driving technology ROI for leading organizations.