Nvidia's next idea: how do communication towers become AI brains?
Jensen Huang marked a new goal:
'Robotic AI radio.'
Think of a robot on a production line.
And Huang cannot wait a quarter of a second for his robot's data to fly to a remote cloud to decide which way to move its arm.
That's an eternity in machine terms.
Huang's solution?
To bring the 'brain' close to the field.
Nokia is turning every communication antenna into a distributed AI computing node.
This is not theoretical - Nokia is installing Nvidia's Blackwell RTX PRO 4500 processors directly into the base stations of its AI-RAN networks,
with everything running on Dell PowerEdge servers - T-Mobile was already the first in the United States to take up the gauntlet and run a pilot.
Globally, there are about 100,000 network sites that could potentially house over 100 gigawatts of new computing power.
Nokia is the Western provider building the management software that makes all of this work on Nvidia's hardware.
Nokia's move to acquire Infinera proved ingenious - they gained access to 800G ZR components precisely when cloud giants stopped referring to optical infrastructure as 'telephony' and started treating it as 'AI infrastructure.'
The demand? Insane.
Ciena $CIEN, the direct competitor, has already provided revenue guidance of up to $6.1 billion for fiscal year 2026 - a jump of almost 24%.
Nokia? Not staying behind.
As its optical networks division grew by 17% in Q4 2025, with a backlog of orders from hyperscalers reaching €2.4 billion.
The management's financial targets convey absolute confidence - they are aiming for an operating profit of €3.1 to €3.7 billion by 2028, a significant jump from just over €2 billion in 2025.
With the radio access networks market estimated to reach $200 billion by 2030 - Nokia is strategically positioned to profit from the transformation.
Don't be mistaken into thinking Nvidia bought Nokia because they wanted a stock in their investment portfolio.
The chip giant doesn't need Nokia's portfolio - it needs its infrastructure.
They bought market entry - they bought distribution - and they bought the keys to the next communication tower that will be smarter than most people living near it.
Anyone who thinks the battle for AI is only happening within server farms - is probably still browsing the internet of the last century.