Nokia and NVIDIA Deepen AI-RAN Partnership with New Clients
Nokia has announced significant advancements in its strategic partnership with NVIDIA, including new client integrations and the completion of functional tests for GPU-accelerated radio access networks. The project, showcased at the Mobile World Congress 2026, continues the roadmap towards native 6G AI networks.
Collaboration with Major Operators
Nokia and NVIDIA are collaborating with major operators to adopt AI-RAN technologies, including BT, Elisa, NTT DOCOMO, Vodafone Group, T-Mobile U.S., Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, and SoftBank Corp. Announced last year, the partnership aims to transform radio access networks into AI-optimized software platforms, capable of enhancing network performance and supporting the growth of mobile AI traffic.
Functional Testing and Ecosystem Expansion
Nokia has completed functional testing of its AI and RAN workloads on NVIDIA's GPU-accelerated AI-RAN platform, validating the scalability and efficiency of AI-powered RAN solutions. The ecosystem is expanding with the integration of Quanta and SuperMicro servers, in addition to Dell Technologies, relying on Red Hat OpenShift for orchestration. T-Mobile U.S. conducted a live demonstration using commercial spectrum, a commercial C-band radio, and a standard 5G smartphone.
Live Demonstrations at Mobile World Congress 2026
The Nokia booth (3B20 in Hall 3) at the Mobile World Congress 2026 will feature several live demonstrations of AI-RAN technologies, including AI Vision with reasoning capabilities, delivery robots, and using the radio network itself as a sensor. The demonstrations will also showcase how the available GPU capacity in the distributed AI-RAN network can be monetized by offering AI computing power to external clients.
