NVIDIA and Nokia have announced a strategic partnership aimed at advancing the development and deployment of AI-native mobile networks and networking infrastructure for 5G-Advanced and 6G technologies. As part of this collaboration, NVIDIA will invest $1 billion in Nokia, purchasing shares at $6.01 each, pending customary closing conditions.
The companies plan to integrate NVIDIA’s new Aerial RAN Computer (ARC-Pro), a 6G-ready telecommunications computing platform, into Nokia’s global radio access network (RAN) portfolio. This move is intended to help communication service providers launch AI-powered networks using NVIDIA technology.
T-Mobile U.S. will work with both companies to incorporate AI-RAN technologies into its ongoing 6G development process. Field trials are scheduled to begin in 2026, focusing on evaluating performance and efficiency improvements for customers.
Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, said: “Telecommunications is a critical national infrastructure — the digital nervous system of our economy and security. 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. Together with Nokia and America’s telecom ecosystem, we’re igniting this revolution, equipping operators to build intelligent, adaptive networks that will define the next generation of global connectivity.”
Justin Hotard, President and CEO of Nokia, 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. We’re proud to drive this industry transformation with NVIDIA, Dell Technologies, and T-Mobile U.S., our first AI-RAN deployments in T-Mobile’s network will ensure America leads in the advanced connectivity that AI needs.”
Dell Technologies is contributing its PowerEdge servers as part of the new solution developed by Nokia and NVIDIA. These servers are designed for scalability and allow for seamless software upgrades as operators transition from 5G to more advanced networks.
Nokia’s approach involves embedding ARC-Pro within its modular AirScale baseband architecture. This design allows new hardware components to operate alongside existing ones while supporting both Cloud RAN and purpose-built RAN configurations.
John Saw, president of technology and chief technology officer at T-Mobile stated: “With America’s best network, T-Mobile remains committed to advancing next-generation technologies that redefine the customer experience. Our collaboration with industry leaders Nokia and NVIDIA marks an important step toward shaping the future of connectivity as we develop the innovations that will power the 6G era. Building on the foundation established by the AI-RAN Innovation Center in 2024, this strategic initiative reinforces T-Mobile’s leadership in driving the U.S. wireless industry forward. Beginning in 2026, T-Mobile will conduct field evaluations and testing of advanced AI-RAN technologies to ensure they meet the evolving needs of our customers as we move toward 6G.”
Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive officer of Dell Technologies commented: “The telecommunications industry owns the most valuable real estate for AI — the edge, where data is created. This AI-RAN collaboration with Nokia and NVIDIA makes that potential real. We’ve built some of the world’s largest AI clusters with 100,000+ GPUs. Now we’re applying that expertise to distribute intelligence across millions of edge nodes. The operators who modernize their infrastructure today won’t just carry AI traffic — they’ll be the distributed AI grid factories that process it at the source, where latency matters and data sovereignty is critical.”
The partnership also includes plans for additional cooperation on networking solutions such as integrating Nokia's SR Linux software with NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet platforms for data center switching as well as exploring optical technologies for future architectures.
According to analyst firm Omdia1 cited by both companies, growth within this market segment is significant; cumulative revenues from RAN markets are projected to exceed $200 billion by 2030.
Mobile traffic driven by artificial intelligence applications continues to rise rapidly; nearly half of ChatGPT's weekly active users reportedly access services via mobile devices while monthly downloads surpass forty million.
Nokia intends for its customers’ investments in these new systems—designed around unified software-defined infrastructures—to be protected through regular software updates enabling ongoing support for future generations like 6G.