Telco networks that run AI and 5G workloads at the same time are referred to as AI-RAN
NVIDIA and SoftBank Corp. have announced several AI tie-ups at the NVIDIA AI Summit taking place this week in Japan. Most notably, the Japanese company said it has successfully piloted the world’s first combined AI and 5G telecom network using the NVIDIA AI Aerial accelerated computing platform in an outdoor trial conducted in Japan’s Kanagawa prefecture. This combined model, which the industry calls AI-RAN, represents a significant step towards realizing AI revenue streams for telecom operators.
Previously, Alex Jinsung Choi, principal fellow of SoftBank Corp.’s Research Institute of Advanced Technology, told RCR Wireless News that enabling the same infrastructure to run both RAN workloads and AI workloads simultaneously is a key focus for the AI-RAN Alliance, a group in which Choi serves as chair and is a made up of technology and telecom leaders focused on the integration of AI into cellular technology.
“This is about making the most of what we have … to support AI applications while still managing our networks core functions,” said Choi. “The outcome… is to show us how to increase resource utilization and open up new revenue streams by hosting various AI applications on the same platforms that runs our network functions.”
According to SoftBank and NVIDIA, this capability transforms base stations from “cost centers into AI revenue-producing assets,” with the pair estimating that telco operators can earn approximately $5 in AI inference revenue from every $1 of capex it invests in new AI-RAN infrastructure, achieving a return of up to 219% for every AI-RAN server it adds.
Other AI announcements
During his keynote at NVIDIA AI Summit Japan, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang shared that SoftBank’s AI supercomputer, the DGX SuperPOD, is using the company’s Blackwell platform, announced in March. According to the chip maker, the flagship B200 Blackwell can perform certain AI tasks 30-times faster than its predecessor. SoftBank plans to use the SuperPOD to develop its own AI-related business, as well as support the AI advancement for Japan’s universities, research institutions and businesses.
The pair are already looking ahead to SoftBank’s next supercomputer, Huang continued, stating that for this project, the Japanese company will use the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell platform, specifically tapping into the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 multi-node, liquid-cooled, rack-scale systems. The companies said that this supercomputer will be designed to run “extremely compute-intensive workloads.”
In addition, SoftBank is also using NVIDIA AI Enterprise software to create an AI marketplace that can meet the demand for local, secure AI computing.
“With SoftBank’s significant investment in NVIDIA’s full-stack AI, Omniverse and 5G AI-RAN platforms, Japan is leaping into the AI industrial revolution to become a global leader, driving a new era of growth across the telecommunications, transportation, robotics and healthcare industries in ways that will greatly benefit humankind in the age of AI,” said Huang.
