Description
The Radio Unit (RU) is the most power-intensive component of the Radio Access Network (RAN), and the one in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) delivers the most mature and best-understood power savings. This report puts a dollar value on those savings. Insight Research forecasts that power savings delivered by AI in the RUs of Fifth Generation (5G) base stations will grow from US$848.3 million in 2026 to US$2,597.6 million in 2030, a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 32.3%.
The report explains how AI is applied to the RU, from the role of Open RAN (O-RAN) in opening the RAN to AI, to a taxonomy of 22 AI-driven RU power-saving scenarios, each illustrated with vendor and operator initiatives. It forecasts the market worldwide, for six regions and 18 country markets, and estimates the share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings and the savings per 5G subscriber in each country.
The report profiles 52 companies spanning RAN Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), AI-native software vendors, Radio Frequency (RF) semiconductor suppliers, compute platform providers and cloud providers, each with an Insight Research analysis.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 Why RAN, and Why RU?
1.2 What is the RU?
1.3 How does the RU Work?
1.4 Scope of the Report
2. Executive Summary
2.1 Key Observations
2.2 Report Organization
3. AI and RU
3.1 O-RAN and AI
3.2 AI Use-Case – Energy Management
3.3 Taxonomy of AI-Driven RU Power Savings
3.4 Traffic-Driven Capacity Reduction
3.5 RF Resource Scaling
3.6 Time-Domain Energy Saving
3.7 Adaptive Power Control
3.8 Hierarchical Network Optimization
3.9 Site Energy Orchestration
3.10 Assurance and Guardrails
4. Overall Market Trends
4.1 Overall Power Savings in the RU
4.2 Power Savings by Region
4.3 Power Savings by Country Market
4.4 Share of the RU in RAN Power Savings
4.5 Power Savings per 5G Subscriber
5. Country Analysis
5.1 China
5.2 United States
5.3 India
5.4 Japan
5.5 South Korea
5.6 Germany
5.7 United Kingdom
5.8 Brazil
5.9 France
5.10 Italy
5.11 Indonesia
5.12 Spain
5.13 Australia
5.14 South Africa
5.15 Egypt
5.16 Saudi Arabia
5.17 Canada
5.18 Mexico
6. Company Analysis
6.1 Ericsson
6.2 Nokia
6.3 Huawei
6.4 ZTE
6.5 Samsung Networks
6.6 Fujitsu
6.7 NEC
6.8 Airspan Networks
6.9 Benetel
6.10 Tejas Networks
6.11 Aira Technologies
6.12 AirHop Communications
6.13 Wipro
6.14 Future Connections
6.15 Rimedo Labs
6.16 Capgemini
6.17 Net AI
6.18 Rakuten Symphony
6.19 Mavenir
6.20 Qorvo
6.21 Sumitomo Electric Device Innovations
6.22 Wolfspeed
6.23 Ampleon
6.24 MACOM
6.25 Analog Devices
6.26 Infineon Technologies
6.27 Mitsubishi Electric
6.28 RFHIC
6.29 Broadcom
6.30 Skyworks Solutions
6.31 STMicroelectronics
6.32 Renesas Electronics
6.33 Murata / pSemi
6.34 WIN Semiconductors
6.35 GlobalFoundries
6.36 NVIDIA
6.37 Qualcomm
6.38 Arm
6.39 Intel
6.40 AMD
6.41 Microsoft Azure
6.42 Amazon Web Services
6.43 Google Cloud
6.44 Red Hat
6.45 DeepSig
6.46 Eridan
6.47 Opanga Networks
6.48 SynaXG
6.49 Cohere Technologies
6.50 NeuroRAN
6.51 ODC Networks
6.52 Pivotal Commware
7. List of Acronyms
Table 2-1: Projected overall power savings by AI in 5G RUs, worldwide, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 2-1: Projected overall power savings by AI in 5G RUs, worldwide, 2026–2030
Figure 3-1: Reinforcement learning model training and actor locations per O-RAN WG2
Figure 3-2: AI/ML Workflow in the O-RAN RIC as proposed O-RAN WG2
Figure 3-3: AI/ML deployment scenarios
Figure 3-4: Taxonomy of AI-driven RAN power savings with RU/O-RU focus
Table 4-1: Projected overall power savings by AI in 5G RUs, worldwide, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 4-2: Projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, by region, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 4-1: Projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, by region, 2026 vs 2030 (US$ million)
Table 4-3: Projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, by country market, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 4-2: Projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, by country market, 2026 vs 2030 (US$ million)
Table 4-4: Projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, by country market, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 4-3: Projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, by country market, 2030 (%)
Table 4-5: Projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, by country market, 2026 (US$)
Figure 4-4: Projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, by country market, 2026 (US$)
Table 5-1: China – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 5-1: China – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 5-2: China – projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 5-2: China – projected share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings, 2026–2030 (%)
Table 5-3: China – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Figure 5-3: China compared with other country markets – power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Table 5-4: United States – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 5-4: United States – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 5-5: United States – projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 5-5: United States – projected share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings, 2026–2030 (%)
Table 5-6: United States – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Figure 5-6: United States compared with other country markets – power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Table 5-7: India – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 5-7: India – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 5-8: India – projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 5-8: India – projected share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings, 2026–2030 (%)
Table 5-9: India – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Figure 5-9: India compared with other country markets – power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Table 5-10: Japan – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 5-10: Japan – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 5-11: Japan – projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 5-11: Japan – projected share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings, 2026–2030 (%)
Table 5-12: Japan – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Figure 5-12: Japan compared with other country markets – power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Table 5-13: South Korea – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 5-13: South Korea – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 5-14: South Korea – projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 5-14: South Korea – projected share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings, 2026–2030 (%)
Table 5-15: South Korea – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Figure 5-15: South Korea compared with other country markets – power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Table 5-16: Germany – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 5-16: Germany – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 5-17: Germany – projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 5-17: Germany – projected share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings, 2026–2030 (%)
Table 5-18: Germany – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Figure 5-18: Germany compared with other country markets – power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Table 5-19: United Kingdom – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 5-19: United Kingdom – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 5-20: United Kingdom – projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 5-20: United Kingdom – projected share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings, 2026–2030 (%)
Table 5-21: United Kingdom – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Figure 5-21: United Kingdom compared with other country markets – power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Table 5-22: Brazil – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 5-22: Brazil – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 5-23: Brazil – projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 5-23: Brazil – projected share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings, 2026–2030 (%)
Table 5-24: Brazil – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Figure 5-24: Brazil compared with other country markets – power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Table 5-25: France – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 5-25: France – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 5-26: France – projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 5-26: France – projected share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings, 2026–2030 (%)
Table 5-27: France – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Figure 5-27: France compared with other country markets – power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Table 5-28: Italy – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 5-28: Italy – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 5-29: Italy – projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 5-29: Italy – projected share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings, 2026–2030 (%)
Table 5-30: Italy – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Figure 5-30: Italy compared with other country markets – power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Table 5-31: Indonesia – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 5-31: Indonesia – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 5-32: Indonesia – projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 5-32: Indonesia – projected share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings, 2026–2030 (%)
Table 5-33: Indonesia – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Figure 5-33: Indonesia compared with other country markets – power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Table 5-34: Spain – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 5-34: Spain – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 5-35: Spain – projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 5-35: Spain – projected share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings, 2026–2030 (%)
Table 5-36: Spain – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Figure 5-36: Spain compared with other country markets – power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Table 5-37: Australia – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 5-37: Australia – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 5-38: Australia – projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 5-38: Australia – projected share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings, 2026–2030 (%)
Table 5-39: Australia – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Figure 5-39: Australia compared with other country markets – power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Table 5-40: South Africa – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 5-40: South Africa – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 5-41: South Africa – projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 5-41: South Africa – projected share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings, 2026–2030 (%)
Table 5-42: South Africa – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Figure 5-42: South Africa compared with other country markets – power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Table 5-43: Egypt – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 5-43: Egypt – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 5-44: Egypt – projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 5-44: Egypt – projected share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings, 2026–2030 (%)
Table 5-45: Egypt – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Figure 5-45: Egypt compared with other country markets – power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Table 5-46: Saudi Arabia – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 5-46: Saudi Arabia – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 5-47: Saudi Arabia – projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 5-47: Saudi Arabia – projected share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings, 2026–2030 (%)
Table 5-48: Saudi Arabia – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Figure 5-48: Saudi Arabia compared with other country markets – power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Table 5-49: Canada – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 5-49: Canada – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 5-50: Canada – projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 5-50: Canada – projected share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings, 2026–2030 (%)
Table 5-51: Canada – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Figure 5-51: Canada compared with other country markets – power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Table 5-52: Mexico – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Figure 5-52: Mexico – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs, 2026–2030 (US$ million)
Table 5-53: Mexico – projected proportion of power savings by AI in 5G RUs to power savings by AI in the RAN, 2026–2030 (%)
Figure 5-53: Mexico – projected share of the RU in AI-driven RAN power savings, 2026–2030 (%)
Table 5-54: Mexico – projected power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Figure 5-54: Mexico compared with other country markets – power savings by AI in 5G RUs per 5G subscriber, 2026 (US$)
Table 6-1: Summary of companies profiled
Table 6-2: Ericsson – company profile
Table 6-3: Nokia – company profile
Table 6-4: Huawei – company profile
Table 6-5: ZTE – company profile
Table 6-6: Samsung Networks – company profile
Table 6-7: Fujitsu – company profile
Table 6-8: NEC – company profile
Table 6-9: Airspan Networks – company profile
Table 6-10: Benetel – company profile
Table 6-11: Tejas Networks – company profile
Table 6-12: Aira Technologies – company profile
Table 6-13: AirHop Communications – company profile
Table 6-14: Wipro – company profile
Table 6-15: Future Connections – company profile
Table 6-16: Rimedo Labs – company profile
Table 6-17: Capgemini – company profile
Table 6-18: Net AI – company profile
Table 6-19: Rakuten Symphony – company profile
Table 6-20: Mavenir – company profile
Table 6-21: Qorvo – company profile
Table 6-22: Sumitomo Electric Device Innovations – company profile
Table 6-23: Wolfspeed – company profile
Table 6-24: Ampleon – company profile
Table 6-25: MACOM – company profile
Table 6-26: Analog Devices – company profile
Table 6-27: Infineon Technologies – company profile
Table 6-28: Mitsubishi Electric – company profile
Table 6-29: RFHIC – company profile
Table 6-30: Broadcom – company profile
Table 6-31: Skyworks Solutions – company profile
Table 6-32: STMicroelectronics – company profile
Table 6-33: Renesas Electronics – company profile
Table 6-34: Murata / pSemi – company profile
Table 6-35: WIN Semiconductors – company profile
Table 6-36: GlobalFoundries – company profile
Table 6-37: NVIDIA – company profile
Table 6-38: Qualcomm – company profile
Table 6-39: Arm – company profile
Table 6-40: Intel – company profile
Table 6-41: AMD – company profile
Table 6-42: Microsoft Azure – company profile
Table 6-43: Amazon Web Services – company profile
Table 6-44: Google Cloud – company profile
Table 6-45: Red Hat – company profile
Table 6-46: DeepSig – company profile
Table 6-47: Eridan – company profile
Table 6-48: Opanga Networks – company profile
Table 6-49: SynaXG – company profile
Table 6-50: Cohere Technologies – company profile
Table 6-51: NeuroRAN – company profile
Table 6-52: ODC Networks – company profile
Table 6-53: Pivotal Commware – company profile
Table 7-1: Master list of acronyms
