Telenor Group Announces Collaboration with NVIDIA to Support its AI-First Ambition

Barcelona—Mobile World Congress —February 26, 2024: Telenor announced today it is collaborating with NVIDIA to bring AI across the Nordic region, transform internal operational efficiencies and the communications network, and create new AI opportunities and partnerships with startups, enterprises, and government entities. With this collaboration, Telenor plans to become a sovereign AI cloud partner of NVIDIA, enabling generative AI across Nordic markets at the national level. In addition, Telenor aims to implement innovative AI solutions across its operations, from customer service to network optimisation.

As part of the collaboration, Telenor will leverage NVIDIA’s expertise in AI, cloud, and network technologies to create new opportunities for internal efficiencies and improve customer solutions. With initial operations at the national level in Norway, Telenor will enable generative AI across the region, signifying a leap forward for community and developer initiatives.

Telenor’s AI ambitions are firmly rooted in its AI-first program, which was announced today, that prioritises value-driven use cases across business areas, data modernisation, and responsible AI development in an inclusive, safe, secure, and sustainable way, as well as human capital upskilling. Telenor believes in a human-centric approach to AI development and use, working to raise ethical standards with regards to digital inclusion, sustainability, and security, as well as mitigating risks.

In the initial year of collaboration, Telenor plans to invest approx. NOK 100m in NVIDIA infrastructure to drive AI adoption for its internal consumption and external business customers’ needs. The collaboration will offer Telenor access to the latest NVIDIA hardware and AI enterprise software to help drive Telenor’s AI ambitions and support a number of AI use cases across Telenor’s operations. The intended investment reflects Telenor’s ambition to lead in the AI space as a tech-driven telco. Furthermore, the collaboration will enable Telenor to explore the next generation of software-defined, high-performance network solutions, powered by the NVIDIA Aerial software development kit, so it can simultaneously utilise 5G RAN and AI technologies on a single infrastructure.

“We are thrilled to start collaborating with NVIDIA, a global leader in AI, cloud, and networking technologies, to accelerate our transformation into a cloud and AI-first company. This collaboration with NVIDIA will help Telenor deliver cutting-edge solutions to our customers, drive innovation and efficiency across our operations, and contribute to the development of the AI ecosystem in Nordics. Through this collaboration, we intend to create a highly sustainable and efficient AI centre and pave the way for a more connected and intelligent future,” said Amol Phadke, EVP and GCTO of Telenor Group.

“Generative AI is transforming the way telcos operate globally, enabling efficiencies while improving sustainability. Our collaboration with Telenor will help power the next generation of software-defined, high-performance network solutions to bring sovereign AI to the Nordic region, as well as support the building of a green AI research centre that will foster ethical and responsible AI applications,” said Chris Penrose, global head of business development for telco, NVIDIA.

Building a Green AI Centre of the Future

Telenor’s goal is to work with partners to build some of the most secure and energy-efficient data centres in Europe, differentiating the company’s offering and positioning it as a leader in environmentally conscious AI solutions. Telenor intends to develop a green AI centre for the Nordics, providing AI infrastructure for businesses and researchers while minimising the environmental footprint and targeting zero emissions. Through this, Telenor will have the opportunity to deliver enhanced services and experiences to its customers while reducing costs and complexity. The AI centre, to be built in Norway, would leverage Telenor’s next-generation data centres, as well as NVIDIA AI platforms to create a highly efficient solutions. The centre would foster collaboration and innovation among the AI community to support the development of ethical and responsible AI applications. The centre also intends to work with academia across Norway to enable the latest AI research.