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Webinar

Monetizing AI-RAN: Turning Next-Generation Networks into AI-Powered Revenue

ET
60 Minutes

AI-RAN is no longer a concept: it is entering real networks. SoftBank is at the forefront of this transition, actively exploring how GPU-accelerated RAN architectures can unlock both operational efficiencies and entirely new monetization models. In this video, leaders from Nokia, SoftBank, and NVIDIA what AI-RAN means for the future of mobile networks and AI-native 6G.

Topics include:

  • The strategic importance of AI-RAN for operators like SoftBank and its role as a stepping stone toward AI-native 6G
  • Key drivers: efficiency gains and new revenue opportunities
  • The impact of surging cellular traffic driven by generative, agentic, and physical AI
  • The shift toward merchant silicon GPUs and why this is a paradigm change for RAN
  • Insights from the ongoing SoftBank–Nokia–NVIDIA AI-RAN collaboration, including the joint MWC demo
  • Evolutionary deployment strategies and how cell sites are evolving into "AI Grid" locations delivering both connectivity and accelerated compute for AI inference

Speakers

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Ryuji Wakikawa

Senior VP and CTO
SoftBank Corp.

Ryuji Wakikawa is Senior Vice President and CTO at SoftBank Corp., leading the company’s technology strategy for the AI-native network era. 

His work spans 5G Advanced, 6G, AI-RAN, Open RAN, NTN, HAPS, quantum technologies, autonomous mobility, and Physical AI, with a focus on transforming telecom infrastructure into intelligent, distributed social infrastructure. 

He also contributes to global open innovation through the O-RAN ALLIANCE and LF Networking, while continuing academic engagement as a Project Professor at Keio University.

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Aji Ed

VP, Head of AI-RAN and Cloud RAN
Nokia

Aji Ed is the Vice President, Head of AI‑RAN and Cloud RAN at Nokia, responsible for driving the company’s transition to AI‑native RAN. He leads end‑to‑end strategy, product management, and ecosystem partnerships to accelerate scalable, software‑driven RAN innovation for global operators. Aji works closely with customers and partners to translate AI and cloud technologies into measurable performance, efficiency, and competitiveness gains.

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Soma Velayutham

VP, AI and Telecoms
NVIDIA

Soma evangelizes AI adoption into telecoms and 5G wireless communications. He's a successful serial intrapreneur and original thinker with more than 20 years in the software and high-tech industry. He's a product leader with full product life cycle experience, from product strategy to R&D. Soma has incubated and launched multiple software products globally for large corporations, and owns 11 patents.

Steve Saunders FNTV Dec. 2025

Stephen M. Saunders MBE

Chief Satirist
FNTV

Steve is a British-born communications analyst, and the anchor of FNTV. His career began as a technology journalist with McGraw-Hill in the 1980s, and he later founded Light Reading in 2000, an online media network focusing on telecommunications news, research and security. He sold Light Reading to UBM in 2005 for $33 million, bought it back in 2014 for significantly less, and resold it to Informa PLC two years later for $67 million. Awarded an MBE in 2018, he has authored three technology books and three works of fiction. He also serves as Vice Chairman of Laser Light Communications. This year, Steve won the 2026 Jessie H. Neal Award for Best Commentary: Op-Eds — presented by the American business press industry — his seventh Neal Award, but his first in 28 years, which is either a testament to the industry’s declining standards or proof that Steve is now extremely old. Steve splits his time between the U.S. and the U.K. with his three sons.

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