NVIDIA and Nokia on Tuesday announced a strategic partnership to accelerate the development of AI-powered Radio Access Networks (AI-RAN) and advance 6G evolution. As part of the agreement, NVIDIA will invest $1 billion in Nokia at a subscription price of $6.01 per share, subject to customary closing conditions.
The collaboration integrates NVIDIA’s advanced GPU and AI computing platforms with Nokia’s anyRAN and AirScale radio technologies to deliver scalable, energy-efficient, and software-upgradable network solutions.
AI-RAN Collaboration Overview
The AI-RAN initiative aims to embed artificial intelligence directly within the RAN, improving network performance and resource allocation. By integrating NVIDIA’s Grace Hopper Superchip and Aerial SDK with Nokia’s AirScale systems, operators can dynamically optimize traffic management, power efficiency, and user experience.
This approach supports both traditional baseband and AI-driven workloads, allowing networks to adapt intelligently to changing conditions and user demands.
Integration of Nokia anyRAN and NVIDIA Aerial Platforms
The partnership builds on Nokia’s anyRAN framework, which promotes flexible deployment of virtualized and cloud RAN solutions across diverse infrastructure environments.
NVIDIA’s Aerial platform will enhance this framework with high-performance parallel processing, enabling advanced AI algorithms to analyze real-time network data at the edge.
This integration is designed to support future RAN architectures that rely on machine learning to automate spectrum management, interference control, and network slicing.
AI-RAN Collaboration with T-Mobile and Dell
Nokia and NVIDIA are working with industry partners including T-Mobile and Dell Technologies to test and deploy AI-RAN solutions in live network environments.
- T-Mobile will begin AI-RAN field trials in 2026, focusing on validating performance improvements and energy efficiency in large-scale deployments.
- Dell Technologies is collaborating on infrastructure optimization to align AI processing and edge computing with telecom workloads.
ARC-Pro and Future Network Intelligence
As part of this effort, Nokia has introduced ARC-Pro, a network intelligence layer that leverages AI for predictive and real-time network management. ARC-Pro is designed to identify traffic trends, automate operational tasks, and enhance network reliability.
Together with NVIDIA’s processing platforms, ARC-Pro enables continuous learning models that refine network efficiency and accelerate performance across distributed systems.
Future-Proofed for 6G Evolution
The Nokia–NVIDIA alliance is also focused on building an open, AI-native foundation for 6G networks. The partners aim to deliver architectures capable of autonomous operation, data-driven optimization, and sustainable power use across massive-scale networks.
Industry collaborators, including T-Mobile and Dell Technologies, have emphasized that AI-RAN development is a critical step toward realizing the 6G era.
AI Networking Solutions Cooperation
Nokia and NVIDIA plan to expand joint research on AI-driven RAN applications, exploring how neural network-based control systems can enhance spectrum utilization and latency reduction. Both companies will contribute expertise in cloud infrastructure, chip design, and software-defined networking to ensure multi-vendor compatibility and long-term scalability.
Outlook
The partnership positions Nokia and NVIDIA at the center of the telecom industry’s transition toward AI-native and cloud-integrated RAN systems. By aligning software intelligence with high-performance computing, the collaboration lays the groundwork for next-generation 6G networks designed to be adaptive, autonomous, and energy-efficient.
Commenting on the collaboration, Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, said:
Telecommunications form a critical national infrastructure — the digital nervous system of our economy and security. Powered by NVIDIA CUDA and AI, AI-RAN will transform telecommunications, marking a generational platform shift that enables the United States to reclaim global leadership in this essential technology. Together with Nokia and the broader telecom ecosystem, we’re driving this transformation, empowering operators to build intelligent, adaptive networks that will shape the next generation of global connectivity.
Speaking on the collaboration, Justin Hotard, President and CEO of Nokia, said:
The next leap in telecom isn’t merely from 5G to 6G — it’s a complete redesign of the network to deliver AI-powered connectivity that processes intelligence from the data center to the edge. Our partnership with NVIDIA, along with their investment in Nokia, will accelerate AI-RAN innovation to bring an AI data center into everyone’s pocket. We’re proud to lead this industry transformation with NVIDIA, Dell Technologies, and T-Mobile U.S., as our initial AI-RAN deployments in T-Mobile’s network will help ensure America leads in the advanced connectivity that AI requires.