Earlier this week at the GTC conference in Washington, D.C., NVIDIA announced a strategic partnership with Nokia to jointly develop and deploy next-generation AI-native mobile networks and AI network infrastructure. To accelerate this collaboration, NVIDIA also announced a $10 billion investment in Nokia (at a subscription price of $6.01 per share).
This move is seen as a key step in ushering in the "AI-native wireless era," aiming to provide communications service providers (CSPs) with the connectivity capabilities to launch AI-native 5G-Advanced and 6G mobile networks on the NVIDIA platform and cope with the explosive growth of mobile AI traffic.
Targeting the massive AI-RAN market and reshaping US telecom leadership
“Telecommunications is critical national infrastructure. AI-RAN (AI Radio Access Network), powered by NVIDIA CUDA and AI computing, will revolutionize the telecom industry,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “This is a generational platform shift that will enable the United States to regain global leadership in this vital infrastructure technology.”
Justin Hotard, President and CEO of Nokia, said: "The next leap in telecommunications is not just from 5G to 6G, but a fundamental redesign of the network to deliver AI-driven connectivity. Our collaboration with NVIDIA and their investment in Nokia will accelerate AI-RAN innovation and put the AI data center in everyone's pocket."
The cooperation between the two parties targets the rapidly growing AI-RAN market. Analyst firm Omdia estimates that by 2030, the cumulative size of the RAN market will exceed US$2000 billion.
NVIDIA launches ARC-Pro platform, Nokia expands anyRAN product line
To achieve this goal, NVIDIA has launched the Aerial RAN Computer Pro (ARC-Pro), a 6G mobile network-ready accelerated computing platform that integrates connectivity, computing, and sensing capabilities, enabling telecom operators to transition from 5G-Advanced to 6G through software upgrades. The ARC-Pro reference design will be provided to manufacturers and network equipment vendors for building commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) or proprietary AI-RAN products.
Nokia will accelerate the availability of its 5G/6G RAN software on the NVIDIA CUDA platform and embed NVIDIA ARC-Pro at the core of its new AI-RAN solution, expanding its RAN portfolio. Nokia emphasizes that its unique anyRAN architecture simplifies the implementation of the ARC-Pro platform, and the modular design of its AirScale baseband will also enable coexistence with the new AI-RAN card.
Dell is also participating in this collaboration, providing its Dell PowerEdge servers as the computing platform for Nokia's AI-RAN solution. Dell PowerEdge servers feature touchless software and low-touch hardware upgrades, ensuring a smooth transition from 5G to 6G. Dell Chairman and CEO Michael Dell said, "Carriers' modernized infrastructure today will not only carry AI traffic but also become distributed AI grid factories that process AI at the source."
T-Mobile joins testing, launching AI-RAN field verification in 2026
US telecom operator T-Mobile also announced that it will collaborate with Nokia and NVIDIA to integrate and test AI-RAN technology into its 6G innovation and development process. Trials are expected to begin in 2026 and will focus on field-verification of customer performance and efficiency improvements.
"This collaboration marks a significant step forward in shaping the future of connectivity and solidifies T-Mobile's leadership in driving America's wireless industry forward," said John Saw, president of technology at T-Mobile.
Simultaneously released the "U.S. AI-RAN Stack" to showcase 6G applications
In addition to its collaboration with Nokia, NVIDIA also partnered with partners such as Booz Allen, Cisco, MITRE, ODC, and T-Mobile to launch the United States' first AI-native 6G wireless stack (All-American AI-RAN Stack).
The stack, based on the NVIDIA AI Aerial platform, integrates ODC’s 5G RAN software, Cisco’s User Plane Function (UPF), and 5G Core software. It also showcases early 6G applications developed by MITRE and Booz Allen Hamilton, including:
• Multimodal Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC): Developed by Booz Allen, it combines camera vision and radio frequency sensing to accurately detect and track objects even in low visibility, making it suitable for public safety, industrial monitoring, and other fields.
• AI-driven spectrum agility:Developed by MITRE, it manages spectrum allocation in real time, blocking only affected frequencies and significantly improving spectrum efficiency.
• AI Spectrum Sensing R.AI.DIO:Booz Allen demonstrates real-time detection of malicious interference or unauthorized users.
NVIDIA emphasized that its Aerial Framework provides a modular, programmable pipeline that can seamlessly integrate third-party applications into the AI-RAN stack and access underlying physical layer data to further enhance AI model training.
Additional collaboration: Nokia SR Linux will be used in Spectrum-X to explore optical technology integration
NVIDIA and Nokia's collaboration extends beyond RAN to AI network solutions, including the integration of Nokia's SR Linux software into the NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet platform and the integration of Nokia's telemetry and fabric management platform into NVIDIA's AI infrastructure.
In addition, the two parties will also explore the possibility of adopting Nokia optical technology in NVIDIA AI architecture in the future.
