At MWC 2026, the telecom industry pivoted from 5G to AI-powered 6G

Heading to Barcelona for this year's Mobile World Congress, I had a feeling there might be some early discussions on the potential for 6G. Boy, was I wrong. Instead of 6G being a sideline topic, it was the center of attention for many of the vendors there.

In particular, the theme of how 6G could become a critical enabler for hybrid AI applications that span hyperscalers, data centers, devices, and cellular networks received a surprising amount of attention at this year's show.

Chip companies like Qualcomm and Nvidia, network infrastructure vendors such as Nokia and Ericsson, and even telcos like T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom all offered strategic plans and even some early demonstrations for how they were going to tackle the next generation of cellular networks.

From a pure technology enablement perspective, it is probably not surprising that semiconductor vendors like Qualcomm and Nvidia had some of the ...