To maximize and bring the power of AI into Radio Access Networks (RAN), Samsung has made significant technological progress leveraging its in-house AI and radio expertise since the beginning of 2024. One of the pivotal milestones achieved was the interoperability between Samsung’s O-RAN compliant virtualized RAN (vRAN) and NVIDIA’s accelerated computing, which took place in Samsung Research’s lab in late last year. Samsung has successfully demonstrated a proof-of-concept to verify how NVIDIA’s accelerated computing can be seamlessly integrated into software-based networks to help enhance AI capabilities.

This achievement further solidifies Samsung’s strides in moving ahead with its unique innovation of combining AI and RAN. With the baseline, Samsung can seamlessly deliver AI-RAN by integrating its vRAN (virtualized Distributed Unit, vDU) with NVIDIA’s accelerated computing into a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) server where Samsung’s vRAN software is installed.

▲ At Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025, Samsung showcased its real-world vRAN combined with NVIDIA’s accelerated computing.

In addition, the companies will continue to explore the best-of-breed combinations of AI-RAN options leveraging Samsung vRAN with NVIDIA’s Grace CPU and/or GPU based AI platform using Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) technologies. All of these are optimal for each network deployment environment — from rural, sub-urban to dense urban.

At MWC 2025, Samsung presented its leadership in AI-For-RAN innovations, as exemplified through two AI-RAN demonstrations, endorsed by the AI-RAN Alliance and developed in collaboration with various members including NVIDIA. The demonstrations included AI-based physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) estimation and non-uniform modulation, showing a glimpse in innovative ways to infuse AI into mobile networks.

▲ (From left) NVIDIA Senior Vice President for Telecom Ronnie Vasishta and Samsung Electronics Executive Vice President & Head of R&D June Moon

“While AI is reshaping the telecommunications landscape, Samsung is helping operators to build the right network architecture and environment where AI can thrive, all powered by our proven and AI-powered vRAN,” said June Moon, Executive Vice President, Head of R&D, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “This collaboration with NVIDIA signifies our continued efforts to expand GPU and CPU ecosystem, and we look forward to exploring more possibilities in the future.”

“AI-RAN is a critical technology that delivers transformative gains in network utilization, efficiency and performance, while enabling new AI services,” said Ronnie Vasishta, Senior Vice President for Telecom at NVIDIA. “Samsung is a frontrunner in AI-RAN development. Their vRAN expertise and software integrated with the NVIDIA’s AI accelerated computing will accelerate the path to AI-native wireless networks.”

As one of the founding members of the AI-RAN Alliance forged in 2024, Samsung is actively participating in advancing AI-RAN technologies with academic institutions and industry leaders like NVIDIA. As an elected Vice Chair of Board of Directors as well as the Working Group #3 (AI-on-RAN), Samsung is leading industry towards AI-powered next-generation networks.

Samsung’s end-to-end software-based network architecture is the optimal foundation to easily deploy and adopt AI across every layer of the network. As such, Samsung can empower operators with its flexible networks and sharpen their competitive edge to stay at the front of the AI era. This advancement opens doors for utilizing network infrastructure not only for mobile communications but also for processing general workloads, providing a data center-like network architecture that will present new business opportunities.

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions, including chipsets, radios and cores. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio, from vRAN 3.0, Open RAN, core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools and applications. The company currently provides innovative network solutions to mobile operators and enterprises that deliver boundless connectivity to hundreds of millions of users worldwide.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced that it is participating in the AI-RAN[1] Alliance as a founding member, with the goal of promoting 6G innovation by combining AI technology and wireless communication technology.

Officially launched at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona 2024 today, the AI-RAN Alliance is an organization aimed at revitalizing the convergence of AI and wireless communication and leading technology innovation through cooperation with related companies. A total of eleven organizations — including Samsung, Arm, Ericsson, Microsoft, Nokia, NVIDIA, SoftBank and Northeastern University — are participating as founding members. This new alliance will collaborate on the development of innovative new technologies, as well as the application of these technologies to commercial products in preparation for the upcoming 6G era.

“Emerging services in the 6G era will revolutionize the way people interact with technology, and AI will be an integral part of this trend,” said Charlie Zhang, Senior Vice President at Samsung Research America. “The AI-RAN Alliance will foster collaboration, drive innovation and usher in a new era of transformation around AI and 6G networks. We believe this coalition will create new value for end users and operators through AI-based use cases and innovations.”

The AI-RAN Alliance aims to combine AI and wireless communication technologies for application in various fields, create an ecosystem, and ultimately expand opportunities for new businesses. To this end, it has established three working groups that carry out technical research: AI for RAN, AI and RAN, and AI on RAN. AI for RAN will focus on technology utilizing AI/ML[2] to improve spectrum, cost and energy efficiency of RAN. AI and RAN will focus on AI and radio network convergence technology for both efficient resource management and maximizing infrastructure utilization. AI on RAN will focus on discovering new AI applications and services in wireless networks. The results of these activities — such as technical reports and white papers — are expected to greatly contribute to the standardization and commercialization of 6G in the future. This includes the discovery of new services, technical requirements and specifications.

Samsung is planning to use this alliance activity to lead technological convergence and service innovation that combines AI with wireless communication technology. The company is also committed to leading the 6G ecosystem with its industry-leading position in AI and wireless communication solutions, such as semiconductors, AI hardware and software technologies, wireless communication systems and terminals.

Samsung Research initially spearheaded the development of 6G technologies by establishing the Advanced Communications Research Center (ACRC) in May 2019. Since that time, Samsung Research has established itself as an early leader of 6G research through the publication of the 6G white paper and the 6G spectrum white paper in July 2020 and May 2022, respectively. In May 2022, Samsung hosted the inaugural Samsung 6G Forum, demonstrating its leadership in next-generation communication research and development.

Samsung Research has been continuously evolving its 6G technology strategies to adapt to the changing telecom industry landscape. In particular, as related to the AI-RAN Alliance, Samsung Research envisions AI-Native to be a key attribute of future 6G networks. Samsung Research believe with AI being a natural part of the 6G system functionality, the future network will have significantly improved capacity and coverage, and become fully automated and highly energy-efficient. Going forward, Samsung Research will continue to lead innovations with the goal of the successful launch and commercialization of next-generation communication systems in the future.

For more information about the AI-RAN Alliance, please visit https://ai-ran.org/.

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[1] AI-RAN stands for Artificial Intelligence-Radio Access Network.

[2] AI/ML stands for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.