Dell’Oro: AI RAN Cumulative Revenue will Reach $35 Billion in the Next Five Years

According to the latest AI RAN Advanced Research Report released by Dell’Oro Group, the cumulative revenue of AI RAN is projected to reach $35 billion over the next five years. However, AI RAN is expected not to expand the overall RAN market’s scale.

Stefan Pongratz, Vice President of Dell’Oro Group, stated: “Our assessment of the market and long-term AI RAN positioning remains unchanged. AI RAN is already underway and will achieve large-scale deployment before 6G. Meanwhile, these tools will enhance RAN performance but are unlikely to expand the overall RAN market. Even if vendors introduce new software-based subscription models, we anticipate that the incremental RAN revenue from AI RAN will be limited by the end of the forecast period, or potentially zero.”

This advanced AI RAN research report, released in June 2026, also includes the following key points:

The baseline forecast assumes that AI RAN will not expand the RAN market. Nevertheless, as operators incorporate more advanced virtualization, intelligence, automation, and O-RAN capabilities into their RAN roadmaps, AI RAN is expected to become a significant technological driver.

The report forecasts the AI RAN market by deployment location, leasing model, technical type, computing hardware, and region.

The forecast for GPU RAN has been revised upward—currently, it is projected that by the end of the forecast period, GPU RAN will become a market exceeding $1 billion.

In the short term, the AI RAN market will primarily focus on AI-for-RAN (AI for Radio Access Networks), single-purpose deployment, non-GPU architectures, D-RAN, and the 5G sector.

Existing RAN radio and baseband suppliers hold a favorable position in the initial stage of AI RAN, primarily due to AI-for-RAN upgrades utilizing existing hardware. According to Dell’Oro Group’s regular RAN market tracking, the top five RAN suppliers will account for approximately 96% of RAN revenue by 2025.