Samsung and SoftBank Forge Alliance to Accelerate AI-RAN and 6G Development

Samsung Electronics and SoftBank Corp. have officially announced a significant collaboration, signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to jointly advance next-generation telecommunications. This partnership, revealed on October 24, 2025, focuses on pioneering research into 6G and AI-based radio access network (AI-RAN) innovations, as reported by The Tech Buzz.

The strategic alliance aims to identify novel use cases, develop critical core technologies, and demonstrate their practical effectiveness. According to samsung.com, a major objective is to push forward the standardization of 6G technologies within the current year, marking a pivotal moment for future connectivity.

This collaboration targets four key areas: 6G technology itself, the application of AI for Radio Access Networks (AI for RAN), the seamless integration of AI and RAN (AI and RAN), and the development of Large Telecom Models (LTM). Businesskorea highlighted these areas as priority candidates for future technological acquisition.

JinGuk Jeong, Executive Vice President and Head of the Advanced Communications Research Center at Samsung Research, emphasized the partnership's goal. He stated that the collaboration with SoftBank seeks to define meaningful use cases for both operators and end-users, while securing key technologies for future commercialization.

Hideyuki Tsukuda, Executive Vice President and CTO of SoftBank Corp., expressed enthusiasm for the joint effort. He noted that combining their advanced expertise will accelerate the realization of more efficient and reliable next-generation networks through AI-RAN, as reported by samsung.com.

The timing of this agreement is particularly strategic, coinciding with intensified industry discussions around 6G standardization, including emerging frequency bands like the 7GHz spectrum. The Tech Buzz indicated that this partnership positions both companies at the forefront of defining post-5G connectivity standards.

Further demonstrating its commitment, Samsung plans to host the Silicon Valley Future Wireless Summit in November. This event aims to foster dialogue among industry leaders, academia, and government organizations on crucial AI-RAN research, according to samsung.com.

• The foundation of this partnership builds on both companies' extensive individual efforts in next-generation communication. Samsung has been conducting 6G research since 2019, establishing its Advanced Communications Research Center (ACRC) and publishing comprehensive white papers on its vision for 6G, as noted by Fierce Network.

• SoftBank has also been a significant proponent of AI-native RAN, with its Research Institute of Advanced Technology leading contributions to the AI-RAN Alliance. Mobile World Live reported that SoftBank shifted its focus to integrating AI into networks to boost performance and spectrum efficiency, with demonstrations showing approximately a 20 percent improvement in throughput.

• AI-RAN, or Artificial Intelligence-Radio Access Network, represents a transformative approach to telecommunications by embedding AI directly into the network's hardware and software. According to nvidia Glossary, this integration aims to achieve significant gains in operational performance, deliver new AI-based services, and unlock monetization opportunities for network operators.

• The collaboration's focus on "AI for RAN" involves using artificial intelligence to optimize wireless networks in real-time, enhancing spectral efficiency and dynamic traffic handling. The "AI and RAN" concept goes further, aiming to seamlessly integrate AI workloads with base station workloads for efficient operation, as detailed by Samsung.com.

• Industry-wide 6G standardization efforts are gaining momentum, with technical studies expected to begin in August 2025, followed by a normative phase in 2027. Ericsson projects that the full 6G system design, encompassing both radio access network and system architecture, will be completed by the end of 2028, paving the way for commercial 6G systems around 2030.

• SoftBank's commitment to AI-RAN is further evidenced by its development of AITRAS, a convergence solution that hosts both AI and RAN workloads on the same NVIDIA-accelerated computing platform. SoftBank aims to offer this AITRAS reference kit to telecom operators from 2025, enabling them to verify the practicality and effectiveness of AI-RAN, as reported by SoftBank.

• The economic implications are substantial, as AI-RAN offers a pathway to repurpose traditional base stations into multi-tenant, revenue-generating compute hubs. Dell'Oro Group suggests that while AI-RAN can improve user experience and reduce power consumption, there is also a strong consensus that it can help lower operational expenditure for network operators.

• Beyond this partnership, Samsung is also actively engaged in other 6G initiatives, including a collaboration with Princeton University's NextG Initiative. Fierce Network reported in February 2024 that Samsung Research America joined as a founding member to accelerate the development of 6G wireless and networking systems, highlighting a broader strategy for leadership in future connectivity.