What’s up with… Nvidia, the RAN market, NGMN

• Nvidia strikes $500bn of AI infrastructure financing pacts 
• Omdia sizes up the RAN market
• NGMN offers autonomous networking guidance

In today’s industry news roundup: Nvidia has secured $500bn of backing from major investment firms as part of its AI infrastructure plans; Omdia has valued the RAN network equipment sector at $17bn for the first half of 2026; NGMN’s latest report outlines to-do list to prep for automated networks; and much more!

In an effort to further accelerate the pace of AI infrastructure deployments, Nvidia has struck AI infrastructure financing agreements worth $500bn with six major investment firms – Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR. Collectively, the agreements will “mobilise over $500bn of third-party capital for the buildout of AI infrastructure over time,” noted Nvidia, which added that the “compute financing platforms” will unlock “dedicated pools of capital at significant scale at attractive rates for Nvidia customers,” including leading frontier AI labs, enterprises and AI clouds. Nvidia’s founder and CEO Jensen Huang noted that his company “has reached an important milestone. We began by building chips; today, we are helping create a new class of productive, investable infrastructure: AI factories. In AI, compute is revenue. Nvidia compute is uniquely suited for this role. It is broadly adopted, flexible across models and workloads, fungible and transferable across customers and operators, and continuously improved through CUDA software – extending its useful life and improving its economics over time. It is supported by a deep global ecosystem of developers, customers and offtakers. That is why we are bringing the world’s leading long-term capital providers together to independently underwrite AI infrastructure. These financing platforms will help customers access scarce compute at scale and build the DSX AI factories that will power every industry and country in the age of AI.” And, of course, add even bigger numbers to Nvidia’s top line… 

The global RAN network equipment sector (hardware and software, excluding associated professional services) was worth $17bn during the first half of 2026, according to industry research firm Omdia. Year on year growth was recorded in the Asia Pacific (excluding China), Europe, Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Latin American regions, resulting in “single digit” percentage growth for the global market. Huawei remains the market leader, followed by Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Samsung: Those five major players collectively accounted for 95% of RAN equipment revenues during the first half of this year, according to the Omdia team, which is in the process of publishing its 1H26 RAN market update. The research firm expects single digit growth for the global RAN market this year (excluding China, where RAN investments have tailed off following years of intensive 5G rollouts).   

The Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance has warned the telco industry that significant transformation across architecture, standards, security, operations and governance will be required in order to leverage agentic AI as part of the push towards Level 4 autonomous networks. In its latest report, the NGMN found that operators are at a “decisive inflection point” as they enter a new phase of network automation, in which they will need to take controlled risks when adopting AI technologies. The Network Automation and Autonomy Phase III: Agentic AI for Autonomous Mobile Networks report lists potential shortfalls, gaps and blind spots and offers three key insights: A pragmatic reference framework identifying the core components required for agentic AI-driven network automation; a look at ecosystem maturity and standards; and a set of considerations to accelerate safe, interoperable and scalable deployment. The full NGMN Alliance report can be found here.

Ethio Telecom has shared an in-depth update on its network upgrade which is being carried out in partnership with ZTE after the two inked a deal at MWC26 earlier this year. The Ethiopian operator revealed that ZTE has modernised its RAN at 462 sites, including LTE layering at 180, LTE upgrades at 248 and a full replacement of hardware at 102 locations. ZTE has also completed 237 microwave link upgrades and 103 IP RAN site expansions, all of which has helped push Ethio’s 4G population coverage to over 92% within the ZTE footprint. The operator is also working with Ericsson to upgrade its infrastructure, and also has a long running partnership with Huawei. Ethio Telecom shared the figures as its CEO Frehiwot Tamru met a ZTE delegation led by executive VP and COO Xie Junshi to review implementation of its network expansion. A further phase remains, including 124 new sites, U2100 spectrum refarming at 272 sites and the deployment of 115 rural connectivity sites.

UK telco Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) is touting its green credentials again after revealing its partnership with network tech recycling specialist TXO has saved 5,262 tonnes of CO2 during the past decade – the equivalent of taking more than 1,100 cars off the road for a year. The UK-based operator said the largest share (4,575 tonnes) of CO2 saving was achieved by refurbishing network assets such as switches, routers and line cards, which have been returned to the telecom market by TXO: The remainder came from VMO2 sourcing replacement equipment through the secondary market. TXO measured the CO2 reduction through its own carbon calculator, which it built in partnership with Carbon Trust. It also recycled more than 690 tonnes of VMO2’s end-of-life equipment during the same 10-year period, which is the equivalent weight of around 50 double decker buses.

– The staff, TelecomTV