Nokia reports plans to integrate NVIDIA GPUs in radio access network portfolio

Nokia plans to integrate NVIDIA-powered Artificial Intelligence (AI) Radio Access Network (RAN) products into its portfolio starting in 2027, aiming to stabilize and grow its RAN revenue share. This strategic partnership addresses performance, power, and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) factors critical to operators' investment decisions.

Market Overview

The global RAN market exceeds $30 billion, with suppliers shipping 1 to 2 million macro units annually. Nokia’s installed base includes over 1 million AirScale units, providing multiple paths to transition to NVIDIA’s GPU-enabled AI-RAN, primarily through purpose-built Distributed RAN (D-RAN), virtual RAN (vRAN) at cell sites, and cloud-based centralized RAN (C-RAN).

Key Findings

NVIDIA will invest $1 billion in Nokia, contributing GPU-optimized AI-RAN products with trials planned for 2026. The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) price point is expected to be comparable to Nokia's ARC-Compact hardware with double capacity. Nokia aims for gross margins of 48% to 50% in its mobile infrastructure business unit by 2028, targeting improvements over previous forecasts.

Nokia and NVIDIA align on transforming telco networks into distributed computing platforms supporting AI applications such as autonomous vehicles and digital twins. Nokia emphasizes delivering performance and TCO parity with existing solutions to match operator return on investment requirements.

Technology or Trend Analysis

The partnership supports AI-RAN and Cloud-RAN developments but is not expected to significantly alter the split between Centralized RAN and Distributed RAN architectures or change the trajectory of Open RAN (ORAN) adoption and 6G deployment schedules. Near-term focus is on leveraging empty AirScale slots for purpose-built D-RAN deployments.

Forecast or Analyst Outlook

Nokia aims to reverse its declining RAN market share by targeting specific regions such as North America, Europe, India, and select Asia-Pacific markets. The company plans to focus on software differentiation aided by the NVIDIA partnership, seeking to stabilize revenue in the near term and achieve growth over the long term with AI-native networks and 6G.

The RAN market's increasing concentration requires vendors to optimize their competitive positioning. Nokia’s strategy involves disciplined market engagement instead of pursuing volume in broadly open markets.

This Analyst Signals brief reflects a neutral, fact-based summary of the original research note.