Nokia Unveils Industry’s First Commercial AI-RAN Platform

Nokia  announced the industry’s first commercial AI-RAN platform, marking one of the most significant shifts in radio network architecture in decades. As AI becomes the dominant workload in mobile networks, telecommunication providers need more capacity, stronger economics and faster innovation without relying on traditional hardware upgrade cycles. Nokia’s AI-RAN platform helps telecommunication providers unlock significantly more uplink and downlink capacity from the spectrum and radio infrastructure they already own, providing a practical path to AI-native networks while improving network economics and accelerating innovation at software speed.

AI-RAN is the biggest innovation in radio in decades. AI-RAN makes the network intelligent, extends AI into the physical world, and allows telcos to get more from their existing infrastructure, including a software upgrade path to 6G. Nokia’s anyRAN software, powered by NVIDIA’s Aerial AI-RAN platform, unlocks greater performance from the spectrum operators already have and can be deployed with existing Nokia or ORAN-compliant radio units. For operators, that means more performance, better returns and faster delivery of new services.

“Built on Nokia’s AI-native network architecture and NVIDIA’s accelerated computing, Nokia’s AI-RAN platform delivers a step change in network performance and economics. The AI-RAN platform has already shown more than 20% spectral efficiency gains through AI-driven radio innovations. The company is on track to deliver 50% spectral gains by 2027 and more than 100% by 2028, helping telecommunication providers carry significantly more traffic in dense cells while reducing cost per bit and improving customer experience.”

– Justin Hotard, President and CEO, Nokia

Telecommunications is entering the AI era — the radio access network is the next AI infrastructure. Together with Nokia, we are bringing NVIDIA CUDA and AI into the baseband, transforming RAN into a planet-scale AI computer. This is a generational shift for operators — unlocking more capacity and efficiency from today’s spectrum while creating the foundation for new AI services and the 6G era.

“Through a new software subscription model, telecommunication providers can benefit from AI innovation, new features and performance enhancements without relying on hardware refresh cycles. Nokia’s AI-RAN solutions will enter pilot deployments at the end of this year and be commercially available in 2027, with a roadmap that leverages NVIDIA’s programmable merchant silicon platforms.”

– Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO, NVIDIA

Nokia’s AI-RAN launch represents an important step in bringing AI-RAN from industry vision to commercial reality. The addition of the new AI-RAN node alongside the AirScale capacity plug-in unit and cloud-native deployment options gives operators practical choices for adopting AI-native networks based on their existing infrastructure and transformation goals. By combining AI-accelerated computing with a software-defined architecture and a clear product roadmap, Nokia is helping operators unlock greater capacity, improve network economics and accelerate the transition toward AI-native RAN.
Rémy Pascal, Practice Leader, Mobile Infrastructure at Omdia

One AI-native platform. Three paths to adoption

Recognizing the diversity of telecommunication providers’ network strategies and installed RAN bases, Nokia’s AI-RAN platform is built on a common software-defined architecture powered by Nokia’s anyRAN software and NVIDIA’s accelerated computing. Supporting 4G, 5G and future network evolution, it provides three hardware platform options, including an expansion card for existing AirScale deployments and a Cloud RAN alternative. Fully compliant with Open RAN standards, the platform supports open, interoperable multi-vendor deployments while giving operators the flexibility to choose the hardware and cloud environments that best meet their needs. These hardware platform options allow telecommunication providers to modernize at their own pace while preserving existing infrastructure investments, benefiting from a common software roadmap and accelerating innovation at software speed. Telecommunication providers can adopt AI-RAN in stages using the approach that best matches their deployment strategy, capacity requirements and installed base.

Build on existing investments

For existing Nokia customers, Nokia is introducing the new GPU-powered AirScale capacity plug-in unit as the most efficient path forward. Designed for Nokia’s installed AirScale base, the solution integrates NVIDIA’s accelerated computing into existing network infrastructure, enabling a significant capacity step-change through a simple upgrade path while preserving existing network investments. This approach is also supported by AI-accelerated merchant silicon from Marvell as part of Nokia’s broader ecosystem approach to software-defined AI-RAN architectures. Telecommunication providers can introduce advanced AI capabilities, continuously improve performance through software and extend the value of deployed infrastructure.

Scale AI-native capacity anywhere

For telecommunication providers seeking maximum deployment flexibility and performance, Nokia is introducing the industry’s first GPU-powered standalone AI-RAN node. It brings AI-accelerated RAN performance to any network environment and supports 4G, 5G and future 6G workloads on a common platform. The solution can be deployed as a standalone node, in clustered configurations or alongside AirScale as a single logical base station, providing operators with a highly flexible path to scale AI-native networks while preserving deployment choice.

Enabling cloud-native AI-RAN

For telecommunication providers embracing cloud-native architectures, Nokia is introducing GPU-powered AI-RAN COTS server solutions delivered through ecosystem partners. The platforms enable an open and secure supply chain while supporting deployment on industry-standard accelerated computing infrastructure, combining cloud-native flexibility with the performance requirements of AI-native radio networks. This approach is also supported by AI-accelerated merchant silicon from Marvell as part of Nokia’s broader ecosystem approach to software-defined AI-RAN architectures.

Innovation at software speed

Nokia’s AI-RAN marks a fundamental shift from hardware-defined radio networks to software-defined platforms that continuously improve through software and AI innovation. Through Nokia’s new subscription-based commercial model, telecommunication providers gain ongoing access to advanced AI algorithms, spectral efficiency enhancements, network optimization capabilities and future AI-native features that can be activated through software. This approach allows them to benefit from continuous innovation while maximizing long-term returns on infrastructure investments, enabling improved TCO and performance at no hardware premium. Rather than waiting for the next hardware cycle, networks can continuously enhance performance, efficiency, security and resilience as new capabilities become available.

By combining AI-accelerated computing, advanced AI algorithms and an open ecosystem approach, Nokia is helping telecommunication providers unlock greater capacity, stronger economics and continuous innovation while building the foundation for future network evolution.