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The Semiconductor Future Trends Forum in December 2025 gathered global experts to explore how technological, industrial, and geopolitical shifts are reshaping the semiconductor landscape, with a special focus on telecommunications. In a discussion between Fredrik Jejdling, former head of Ericsson Networks, and Jesús Folgueira of Telefónica, they highlighted how 5G evolution and AI integration are driving new demands, forging a deeper connection between networks and semiconductors. Mobile networks have transformed from simple communication tools into inclusive, programmable infrastructures supporting diverse applications beyond speed, including precise user location and fraud prevention. However, monetizing these advancements remains challenging, with the future hinging on exposing network capabilities through standardized global APIs to enable seamless digital services.
Hardware-wise, sustaining these advanced networks requires cutting-edge semiconductors balancing cost, performance, and energy efficiency, with a shrinking pool of suppliers influencing innovation and supply chains. AI is central, optimizing network operations and enabling complex tasks like antenna management, while operators like Telefónica emphasize AI’s dual role in improving internal processes and preparing networks to host AI applications. Both experts underscore a shift from general-purpose hardware to specialized chips, enhancing efficiency and enabling networks to act as distributed data centers. This synergy positions telecommunications as a key driver of semiconductor innovation, highlighting the critical, inseparable link between network technologies and semiconductor development in the AI and 5G era.
5G networks and artificial intelligence are driving new demands for semiconductors. Telecommunications, edge computing and specialized chips, under debate at the FTF.
The Semiconductor Future Trends Forum, held in December 2025, brought together top-tier international experts to discuss the technological, industrial, and geopolitical transformations that are redefining the global chip ecosystem.
After analysing the structural growth of the semiconductor industry and the European industrial strategy , we now enter a sectoral perspective: in this third article in the series, the focus is on the role of telecommunications. The conversation between Fredrik Jejdling, former Executive Vice President and Head of Ericsson’s Networks business area, and Jesús Folgueira, Senior Manager of Transport and IP Networks – Global Systems and Networks (gCTIO) at Telefónica, shows how the evolution of 5G networks and the deployment of artificial intelligence are driving new technological demands and strengthening the structural link between networks and semiconductors.
The mobile network as a universal infrastructure
Fredrik Jejdling opens the dialogue with a resounding statement: mobile communication has become the most inclusive technology ever developed. The networks built by the industry today connect billions of people around the world and have accompanied a clear evolution of use cases: from voice and text messages to video, and from there to the deployment of 5G in recent years.
This evolution is not only quantitative. Jejdling stresses that networks are moving from a model focused on communication between people to one oriented towards differentiated and programmable connectivity, capable of adapting to multiple types of use. A relevant change in a sector where, despite the growth of traffic and digital services, the capture of economic value has been limited for years.
5G Beyond Speed
The deployment of 5G is usually associated with more speed and lower latency. However, Jejdling recalls that many of the key capabilities of these networks were developed with other goals in mind. Today’s mobile networks can, for example, locate a user with metric accuracy, authenticate them robustly, and combine these functions with connectivity.
These kinds of capabilities open the door to new use cases. Jejdling mentions applications such as fraud prevention in financial services or advanced manufacturing, where edge computing and low latency allow production processes that were previously unfeasible. These are scenarios where network, computing and artificial intelligence converge.
Programmable networks and APIs: a new layer of value
One of the sector’s historical challenges has been to turn these technical capabilities into sustainable business models. Jejdling acknowledges that the capitalization of 5G has not yet reached initial expectations, but points to a clear path of evolution: the exposure of network capabilities through global APIs.
The idea is simple: to offer developers and large platforms a standardized way to access advanced network functionalities, in a consistent way on a global scale. In an environment where digital applications operate without borders, fragmenting these capabilities by operators or countries limits their adoption. Standardization thus appears as a key element for networks to be an active part of the digital ecosystem.
The critical role of semiconductor in networks
This transformation of networks has a direct impact on hardware. Jejdling is explicit: to sustain these capabilities, advanced semiconductors are required, although the telecommunications sector derives value not only in the most extreme nodes, but in a balance between cost, performance and energy efficiency.
In his experience at the helm of the network business, Jejdling explains how he has even worked with three- and two-nanometer nodes, both in radios and in computing, to achieve the necessary levels of efficiency. The objective is clear: to offer advanced capabilities without skyrocketing costs, in a context of strong economic pressure on operators.
The number of suppliers able to supply these chips has been drastically reduced. From an ecosystem with multiple options, it has gone on to work with two or three main players, a concentration that conditions both innovation and the supply chain.
Networks and AI: a symbiotic relationship
Artificial intelligence runs through the entire conversation. For Jejdling, mobile networks and AI have a close relationship: one drives the other. The growth of AI depends on networks capable of supporting new use cases, and networks, in turn, use AI to optimize their operation.
In the software space, Jejdling describes how AI is already being applied to the development and operation of complex networks. Cases such as advanced antenna management, interference reduction or the real-time calculation of millions of operations per second require approaches based on machine learning, beyond traditional predictive models.
The Operator’s Vision: From AI for Operations to the Network for AI
From Telefónica’s perspective, Jesús Folgueira agrees with the diagnosis, but adds nuances typical of the operator. For telecommunications, AI acts on two levels. The first is common to other sectors: improving internal processes, automation and operational efficiency.
The second plane is industry-specific: preparing the network to support AI applications. Artificial intelligence is deployed in data centers, at the edge, and at customer sites. This forces us to rethink architectures, topologies and, directly, network nodes, which are closely linked to the evolution of the semiconductor.
Folgueira recalls that telecommunications have been connected to the semiconductor since its origins. The first chips were developed for network nodes, and the industry continues to rely on the performance, functionalities, and reliability offered by this industry to be able to provide advanced services.
From generic hardware to extreme specialization
One of the most relevant changes described by both speakers is the transition from general-purpose hardware to increasing specialization. In the past, it was enough to add CPUs or DSPs to increase capacity. Today, compute density, energy consumption, and the physical size of equipment are critical factors.
Jejdling illustrates this point with a tangible example: the evolution of network antennas. Thanks to more specialized semiconductors, it has been possible to drastically reduce the weight and size of the equipment, making it easier to integrate it into urban environments. The specialization of the chip translates directly into operational efficiency and more agile deployment.
The incorporation of AI reinforces this trend. Applying artificial intelligence on basic computing further increases the need for hardware designed specifically for these workloads, both in radios and in distributed computing.
The mobile network as a distributed data center
In the final part of the dialogue, a key idea emerges: the mobile network is becoming a distributed data center. Strategic moves by big tech players are pointing in that direction, integrating parallel computing and AI capabilities into chips that already handle data and voice traffic.
This approach opens up new possibilities for productive applications at the edge and reinforces the role of telecommunications as a platform for AI. At the same time, it poses challenges of scale and positioning, especially for Europe, which must decide how to integrate into this new phase of the technological value chain.
A structural link between networks and semiconductors
The conversation between Jejdling and Folgueira leaves a clear conclusion: telecommunications and semiconductors evolve inseparably. Although in the day-to-day work of operators the focus is on customers, services or costs, the chip is still a structural component of the network. Supply chain tensions have reinforced this awareness.
In the new era of 5G and artificial intelligence, networks don’t just carry data. They become intelligent platforms that require advanced, specialized and efficient hardware. A change that places telecommunications as one of the great drivers of the next stage of semiconductors.
See the full presentation
To delve into this dialogue between networks, artificial intelligence and semiconductors, you can watch the full presentation of the Future Trends Forum with Fredrik Jejdling and Jesús Folgueira:
In future articles in the series, we will continue to explore how different key industries are redefining the future of semiconductors from the perspectives of the experts at the Future Trends Forum.
Ex vicepresidente ejecutivo y director del área de negocio de redes de Ericsson.
