Nvidia teams with global telecom leaders for 6G development

Having seen its products become the cornerstone of business in the artificial intelligence (AI) era, Nvidia is turning its attention on 6G infrastructures, announcing a collaboration with leading telcos to build the world’s “next generation” of wireless networks on AI-native, open, secure and trustworthy platforms.

The initiative, announced at Mobile World Congress 2026, is intended to represent a shared commitment to ensure 6G infrastructure is open, intelligent, resilient, accelerates innovation and safeguards global trust. Nvidia’s initial partners include Booz Allen, BT Group, Cisco, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Mitre, Nokia, OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation, ODC, SK Telecom, SoftBank and T-Mobile.

Explaining its participation in the project, Nvidia noted that beyond traditional connectivity, 6G wireless networks will become the fabric for physical AI, enabling billions of autonomous machines, vehicles, sensors and robots and significantly increasing demands for security and trust.

Yet it noted that legacy wireless architectures were not designed to meet these requirements, creating challenges as networks increase in complexity. To address this, Nvidia said that it was bringing the industry together to advance AI-native, software-defined wireless platforms built on open and trusted principles.

Nvidia added that by embedding AI across the radio access network (RAN), edge and core, 6G networks must enable secure integrated sensing and communications, intelligence and decision-making while supporting interoperability, supply chain resilience and faster innovation.

The tech giant predicted that 6G will be AI-native and software-defined, enabling wireless networks to advance at the pace of innovation. Nvidia is a founding member of the AI-RAN Alliance, which now has more than 130 participating companies driving networking innovation.

6G networks built on AI-RAN architecture will continuously evolve through software, enabling real-time intelligence and rapid advancement, according to Nvidia. This transformation opens the door for a diverse ecosystem of participants – from global operators and technology providers to startups, researchers and developers – all contributing through open and programmable platforms.

As part of its vision for 6G, Nvidia is participating in global private and public initiatives to advance 6G innovation, contributing open source software, accessible platforms and joint research and development. Among the global projects it is involved in is the FutureG Office-led Ocudu Initiative in the US, aligning with government and industry partners to accelerate open, software-defined and AI-native 6G architectures.

In Korea, Nvidia is collaborating with an industry consortium to help shape intelligent, secure, programmable 6G networks from the ground up. Meanwhile in the UK, Nvidia is collaborating with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to advance applied research, ecosystem development and trusted AI-native network design.

Together, Nvidia stressed that such collaborations represent a unified commitment – supported by like‑minded governments, operators and technology partners – to shape secure, intelligent and trusted global connectivity for the next generation of wireless technology.

“AI is redefining computing and driving the largest infrastructure buildout in human history – and telecommunications is next,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia. “Together with a global coalition of industry leaders, Nvidia is building AI-RAN to transform the world’s telecom networks into AI infrastructure everywhere.”

Allison Kirkby, chief executive of BT Group, added: “Connectivity is the backbone of economic growth, and with this collaboration, we’re helping lay the foundations for a future ecosystem that is intelligent, sustainable and secure. By building on open and trustworthy AI-native platforms, we can simplify future technologies like 6G, ensuring they build on the strengths of today’s 5G networks while still unlocking powerful new capabilities at scale.”

Tim Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, stated: “With an open, intelligent and trusted 6G infrastructure, we are laying the foundation for the era of physical AI and unlocking new value for our customers, for industry and for society.”