• Companies aim to help the industry move from 6G research to commercial reality
• AI-native network innovation collaboration to span compute, connectivity, cloud and standards leadership across the core network, RAN and Edge
• The effort is designed to help make the path to 6G more open, efficient and cost-effective for operators and the broader ecosystem

Ericsson and Intel are pooling their next-generation technology leadership to help accelerate ecosystem readiness for seamless transition to AI-native 6G deployments and use cases.

The collaboration – an extension of a decades’ long relationship – was announced at Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2026. It will span mobile connectivity, cloud technologies, and compute capabilities across AI-driven RAN and packet core use cases, and platform level-security and network capabilities to help enhance ecosystem enablement and time-to-market for cloud-native solutions.

Börje Ekholm, President and CEO, Ericsson, says: “6G is not merely an iteration of mobile technology. It is the infrastructure that will distribute AI across devices, the edge and the cloud. Ericsson’s long history of network innovation and large-scale operator deployments positions us to lead practical integration across the value chain and move 6G from research into commercial reality.”

Lip-Bu Tan, CEO, Intel, says: “Intel’s ambition is to be the undisputed technology leader in unifying RAN, Core and edge AI to enable a seamless transition to AI-native 6G environments. Together with Ericsson, we will continue to demonstrate that the future of network connectivity is open, power-efficient, secure and grounded in intelligent AI inference. With future Ericsson Silicon, powered by Intel’s most advanced process nodes, ongoing multi-year research plans, and flexible AI-RAN ready Cloud RAN powered by Intel Xeon, we are well on our way to delivering the future performance, efficiency, and supply security that the world’s leading operators require.”

A shared commitment

As 6G transitions from the research phase to commercial reality, the industry needs a collaborative, well-prepared ecosystem-aligned with global standards bodies and industry organizations to help turn innovation into deployable infrastructure.

The collaboration will advance future high-performance, and energy-efficient compute architectures designed for both AI for networks and Networks for AI.

AI-native 6G will combine intelligent and programmable networks with advanced compute and real-time sensing, creating a stronger foundation for more responsive, efficient and capable services. Over time, that evolution could bring sensing and compute closer together across the network.

Collaboration results on show

Ericsson and Intel have collectively achieved important milestones across cloud RAN, 5G Core and open network infrastructure. That momentum continues at MWC 2026, where multiple demonstrations – across Ericsson (Ericsson Pavilion, Hall 2), Intel (Hall 3, Stand 3E31) and various ecosystem partner event spaces – showcase innovative collaboration.