NVIDIA Partners With Nokia to Merge CUDA and Computing Technology Into RAN Infrastructure

At GTC 2025, NVIDIA announced a major collaboration with Nokia, marking a pivotal step toward the AI-driven future of telecommunications. The partnership aims to merge NVIDIA’s CUDA computing technology with Nokia’s Radio Access Network (RAN) infrastructure, creating a new class of AI-native wireless systems that will form the backbone of future 6G connectivity. NVIDIA confirmed its commitment by investing $1 billion in Nokia at a price of $6.01 per share, further solidifying the alliance.

According to the official announcement on NVIDIA Newsroom, the collaboration represents the beginning of what both companies are calling the “AI-native wireless era.” This new generation of telecom infrastructure will combine NVIDIA’s computing hardware with Nokia’s extensive RAN expertise to deliver AI-powered consumer and enterprise services at the edge, enabling large-scale, distributed AI inference directly within mobile networks.

To support this initiative, NVIDIA introduced its latest suite of telecom-focused products under the ARC (Aerial RAN Computer) platform. ARC is designed to accelerate RAN workloads by embedding telecom software directly into the CUDA ecosystem, allowing NVIDIA’s Grace CPUs and Blackwell GPUs to handle complex 5G and future 6G operations with unprecedented efficiency. This integration will provide telecom operators with powerful on-site computing capabilities, dramatically improving latency, bandwidth optimization, and AI-driven network automation.

For Nokia, the partnership represents a significant leap forward in expanding its AI-RAN portfolio. The company plans to embed NVIDIA’s ARC-Pro platform at the core of its next-generation wireless infrastructure, accelerating the deployment of 5G and 6G-ready RAN solutions. With the NVIDIA CUDA platform as a foundation, Nokia’s customers will be able to transition seamlessly from existing RAN setups to AI-RAN systems, ensuring long-term scalability and performance.

“Nokia will accelerate the availability of its 5G and 6G RAN software on the NVIDIA CUDA platform and expand its RAN portfolio by embedding NVIDIA ARC-Pro at the heart of the new AI-RAN solution,” the companies stated jointly.

This partnership aligns with NVIDIA’s broader strategy of extending AI computing to every major industry, from automotive and data centers to telecommunications. By merging AI inference and network computing, both companies are opening the door to smarter, more adaptive infrastructure capable of learning and self-optimizing in real time.

NVIDIA also revealed that T-Mobile will be the first major carrier to begin field testing AI-RAN technologies in 2026, marking the start of real-world deployment and experimentation in the United States. These trials will serve as the foundation for broader 6G development, helping operators refine their AI-driven edge computing capabilities before full-scale rollout.

The NVIDIA–Nokia partnership not only strengthens the U.S. and European presence in the global telecommunications race but also underscores how AI is becoming an essential part of next-generation connectivity. By embedding massive computing power directly into network nodes, the path toward intelligent, self-managing 6G networks is rapidly taking shape.

Do you think NVIDIA and Nokia’s AI-RAN collaboration will redefine the future of global connectivity as we move toward the 6G era?