NVIDIA and Nokia partner to develop AI platform for future 6G innovations

In a significant move toward shaping the future of telecommunications, NVIDIA and Nokia have announced a strategic partnership aimed at accelerating the development of AI-enabled mobile networks and infrastructure as the industry transitions from 5G to 6G. As part of the collaboration, NVIDIA will invest $1 billion in Nokia, marking the beginning of the AI-native wireless era.

Laying the groundwork for AI-powered 6G

The partnership seeks to integrate NVIDIA’s advanced computing technology with Nokia’s expertise in radio access networks (RAN). NVIDIA introduced its NVIDIA Arc Aerial RAN Computer (ARC-Pro), a 6G-ready computing platform designed to combine connectivity, computing, and sensing capabilities. Nokia plans to expand its RAN product portfolio by embedding the ARC-Pro platform into its networks.

This collaboration aims to provide communication service providers with the tools they need to build AI-native 5G-Advanced and 6G networks, with a focus on seamless transitions via software upgrades. According to Nokia President and CEO Justin Hotard, "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."

U.S. leadership in telecommunications innovation

The collaboration also has broader implications for the telecommunications landscape in the United States. Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, stated, "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."

T-Mobile U.S. will play a key role in testing and integrating AI-RAN technologies into its 6G development process. Field trials are slated to begin in 2026, enabling the company to evaluate the performance and efficiency of these advanced technologies. John Saw, president of technology and chief technology officer of T-Mobile, commented, "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."

Meeting the demands of explosive AI traffic growth

The partnership comes at a time when mobile AI traffic is surging. Nearly 50% of ChatGPT’s 800 million weekly active users access the site via mobile devices, with monthly app downloads exceeding 40 million. Nokia and NVIDIA’s AI-RAN solutions aim to address this growing demand by enabling operators to enhance network performance, energy efficiency, and user experiences.

The collaboration will support future AI-native devices such as drones, augmented- and virtual-reality glasses, and autonomous vehicles. The platform is also designed to handle emerging 6G applications, including integrated sensing and communications.

Seamless evolution and future-proofed technology

By unifying AI and RAN workloads on a software-defined infrastructure, Nokia and NVIDIA are enabling an efficient transition for operators from current networks to future AI-native 6G systems. Nokia’s modular AirScale baseband architecture will play a central role in this evolution. Dell Technologies will further support this initiative with its Dell PowerEdge servers, which provide high-performance infrastructure to support the deployment of AI-RAN solutions.

Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies, emphasized the importance of the edge in AI networking, stating, "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."

A shift toward AI at scale

The collaboration also includes efforts to expand AI networking solutions. Nokia and NVIDIA will work together on data center switching, incorporating Nokia’s SR Linux software into NVIDIA’s Spectrum-X Ethernet networking platform. The companies also plan to explore Nokia’s optical technologies for future NVIDIA AI infrastructure architectures.

With AI traffic continuing to grow exponentially, the NVIDIA-Nokia partnership offers a clear path forward for telecommunications providers to modernize their networks. Focused on performance, efficiency, and scalability, this venture marks a major step toward realizing the potential of AI-native 6G connectivity. As T-Mobile’s John Saw put it, the collaboration reinforces leadership in technologies that will "redefine the customer experience" for years to come.

As the telecommunications industry braces for a new era of AI-powered connectivity, NVIDIA and Nokia’s partnership is poised to shape the global infrastructure needed to support the next wave of innovation.

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