NVIDIA and Nokia have announced a $1 billion partnership to accelerate development of artificial intelligence–powered mobile networks and drive the global transition from 5G to 6G.
The agreement will integrate NVIDIA technology into Nokia’s radio access network (RAN) portfolio, allowing service providers to deploy AI-native 5G-Advanced and future 6G systems. NVIDIA’s $1 billion investment will be made at a subscription price of $6.01 per share.
“Telecommunications is a critical national infrastructure — the digital nervous system of our economy and security,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “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.”
Nokia President and CEO Justin Hotard said the collaboration will reshape how networks operate. “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,” Hotard said. “Our partnership with NVIDIA will accelerate AI-RAN innovation to put an AI data center into everyone’s pocket.”
The partnership will advance NVIDIA’s Aerial RAN Computer Pro (ARC-Pro), a 6G-ready platform that merges connectivity, computing, and sensing capabilities. Nokia will integrate the system into its AirScale baseband, which will evolve to support AI-RAN technologies across both cloud-based and purpose-built networks.
T-Mobile U.S. will work with both companies to test AI-RAN technologies beginning in 2026. “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,” said John Saw, T-Mobile’s president of technology.
Dell Technologies will provide its PowerEdge servers to support Nokia’s AI-RAN system, enabling scalable upgrades for the move from 5G to 6G. Dell CEO Michael Dell called telecom infrastructure “the most valuable real estate for AI — the edge, where data is created.”
The companies said the collaboration marks the beginning of the AI-native wireless era, enabling networks to process surging AI data traffic efficiently across industries from manufacturing to healthcare.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, in September NVIDIA announced that it will invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as part of a new partnership to build the world’s largest AI infrastructure project, thrusting the chipmaker into the center of a new era in artificial intelligence.