Nvidia bets big on OpenAI; UK vendor deals; Optus faces fire

The Friday File: Mobile World Live brings you our top three picks of the week as OpenAI landed a $100 billion Nvidia investment, VodafoneThree signed contracts worth £2 billion with Ericsson and Nokia, and Optus was dealt a $66 million penalty.

OpenAI scores $100B investment from Nvidia

What happened: Nvidia unveiled plans to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI, enabling the ChatGPT-maker to build and deploy at least 10 gigawatts of AI data centres using millions of Nvidia GPUs.

Why it matters: The companies will act as preferred strategic partners, optimising hardware, software and infrastructure, while continuing to team on other projects including Stargate AI. OpenAI, one of Nvidia’s largest customers, runs most of its frontier models on the chipmaker’s GPUs, noted analyst Jack Gold. Speaking to Mobile World Live, he also flagged the lack of detail around cost and timelines of the partnership. Indeed, the scale of the deal has sparked scrutiny over market dynamics and regulatory risk. “The action will clearly fuel ‘circular’ concerns,” Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon told Bloomberg, referring to Nvidia’s pattern of investing in AI companies who then buy its GPUs. While she noted that Nvidia insisted the funding won’t be used for direct purchases, the move will “fuel these worries” and “raise concerns over the rationale behind the action”, adding that the OpenAI investment “appears to dwarf all the others”. Antitrust concerns are also being brought to the fore. As Nvidia controls more than half of the GPU market, becoming OpenAI’s preferred partner could lead it to potentially prioritising the ChatGPT-maker over rivals in chip access or pricing, Vanderbilt law professor Rebecca Haw Allensworth told Reuters.

VodafoneThree hands Ericsson, Nokia £2B UK contracts

What happened: VodafoneThree awarded contracts worth more than £2 billion to Ericsson and Nokia to build out the newly merged operator’s UK mobile network.

Why it matters: The eight-year long deals mark one of the UK’s largest privately funded network projects. Ericsson claimed the larger share, winning a £1 billion agreement to supply its core network and radio systems, including standalone 5G hardware. Nokia secured a “significant” slice, modernising parts of VodafoneThree’s voice core and supplying RAN equipment to roughly 7,000 sites, marking its return as a supplier for Vodafone and Three in the UK. Max Taylor, VodafoneThree CEO, said the contracts reflect a commitment to “deliver at pace,” adding that the trio are “laying the foundations for the UK’s digital future”. The deals, which follow VodafoneThree’s blockbuster merger in June, mark a blow to rival Samsung Networks. Despite previous backing from Vodafone Group, the Korean vendor was left out of the latest deal, which forms part of a wider £11 billion infrastructure push. It will instead focus on Vodafone’s upcoming Spring 6 tender covering 15 markets in Europe and Africa. The contracts come at a time when operators have largely held back on costly upgrades, Bloomberg noted. For Ericsson and Nokia, the agreements could offer a critical boost in a sluggish mobile infrastructure market.

Optus fined $66M, endures tough week

What happened: After a critical failure in its emergency call system that led to multiple deaths earlier this week, Optus was hit with a AUD100 million ($66 million) penalty for deceptive sales practices over a four-year period.

Why it matters: Optus CEO Stephen Rue stated a network upgrade caused a failure in its emergency call service after standard procedures were not followed, with no system alerts raised during the outage. Following investigation, an Australian federal court hit Optus with the record penalty over “unconscionable conduct” in selling mobile plans and devices to over 400 vulnerable customers. The case also resulted in a five-year court-enforceable undertaking requiring the operator to compensate customers and overhaul internal systems. “This wasn’t simple incompetence — it was reckless, culpable negligence,” said Phil Watt, CTO of data infrastructure and analytics company DataJPS. This is the third crisis in two years for Australia’s second-largest operator, following a mass outage in November 2023 and a major cyberattack in 2022. Former CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin resigned in the wake of last year’s service collapse, while Rue now faces rising pressure to restore trust.