Nvidia pushing beyond chips
Reports say Nvidia is investing in Nokia as part of a strategy to treat network infrastructure itself as AI infrastructure rather than just selling accelerators. The coverage frames the move as expanding Nvidia’s play beyond servers and GPUs into the communications plumbing that connects data centres. (cloudnews.tech)
Nvidia moved past selling graphics processors alone on October 28, 2025, when it agreed to invest $1 billion in Nokia and tie that cash to a telecom and data-center networking partnership. (nokia.com) Nokia said its board approved issuing 166,389,351 new shares to Nvidia at $6.01 each, a deal that would make Nvidia a 2.90% shareholder after customary closing conditions are met. Nokia said it would use the proceeds for its “AI supercycle” plans and general corporate purposes. (nokia.com) The companies said the partnership covers two pieces of infrastructure at once: radio access networks, which connect phones to cell towers, and the switching and optical gear that moves data between large computing sites. Nokia said it plans to speed up 5G and 6G radio software on Nvidia architecture and explore using Nokia switching and optical products in Nvidia’s future artificial-intelligence infrastructure. (nokia.com) That puts Nvidia deeper into the cables-and-switches layer that links servers together inside what it calls “AI factories,” its term for giant data centers built to train and run artificial-intelligence models. In March 2025, Nvidia said its Spectrum-X and Quantum-X photonics switches were designed to connect millions of graphics processors across sites. (investor.nvidia.com) Nvidia and Nokia are also pushing into mobile networks, where carriers want one pool of hardware to handle both wireless traffic and artificial-intelligence workloads. The companies said Nokia will add Nvidia-powered artificial-intelligence radio products to its portfolio, and T-Mobile U.S. is working with them on 6G development. (nokia.com) Nokia said trials are expected to begin in 2026, with Dell Technologies supplying PowerEdge servers for the new artificial-intelligence radio access network system. The companies cited Omdia’s estimate that the artificial-intelligence radio access network market could top a cumulative $200 billion by 2030. (nokia.com) The pitch from Nvidia is that the network now shapes how fast artificial-intelligence systems run, not just the chips inside each server. Nvidia said in March 2025 that its Spectrum-X Ethernet platform delivers 1.6 times the bandwidth density of traditional Ethernet in large multi-tenant artificial-intelligence deployments. (investor.nvidia.com) Nokia’s side of the deal is about finding growth beyond a slower telecom equipment cycle and tying its network hardware to the current build-out in cloud and artificial intelligence. The company said it wants a bigger presence in the artificial-intelligence and cloud market through data-center-aligned networking inside its Network Infrastructure business. (nokia.com) Neither company framed the move as a simple financial bet. In their filings and releases, both tied the equity investment directly to a plan to make communications networks part of the artificial-intelligence stack itself. (nokia.com)
