Palo Alto Networks unveils new partnerships with Nokia, U Mobile, Aeris and Celerway to secure AI factories, 5G networks and the autonomous edge.
As global networks evolve to support high-performance “AI factories,” Palo Alto Networks unveiled an expanded security ecosystem designed to protect the infrastructure powering the AI economy.
At Mobile World Congress 2026, the AI cybersecurity firm announced four new collaborations with Nokia, U Mobile, Aeris and Celerway, aimed at helping enterprises scale sovereign AI infrastructure and secure the rapidly expanding autonomous edge.
“We are establishing the secure foundation for the AI economy through extensive ecosystem collaboration,” said Anand Oswal, executive vice president at Palo Alto Networks. “By integrating our AI-powered security services from the data center into critical 5G and IoT networks worldwide, we are ensuring the AI factory is secure by design.”
Securing the Infrastructure Behind AI
The company’s partnership with Nokia focuses on supporting Europe’s emerging AI “gigafactories.” By combining Nokia’s AI data center infrastructure with Palo Alto Networks’ AI-driven security platforms, the collaboration aims to help organizations run large-scale AI workloads while meeting strict data sovereignty requirements.
“In the race to build the world’s AI factories, you cannot leave the door open at the infrastructure layer,” said Greg Dorai, senior vice president and general manager for IP Networks at Nokia. “Together we are expanding security from the network layer to workloads to help customers build future-proof, sovereign data centers.”
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Extending Security Across 5G and IoT Networks
Palo Alto Networks also announced three additional partnerships at MWC Barcelona designed to extend cybersecurity protections across telecommunications and edge computing environments.
The company signed a memorandum of understanding with U Mobile, Malaysia’s newest 5G provider, to develop a network-embedded Security-as-a-Service offering. The initiative will integrate next-generation firewalls and AI-driven security directly into U Mobile’s 4G and 5G infrastructure, enabling real-time protection for consumers and businesses.
In a separate collaboration, Aeris will integrate its IoT Watchtower platform with Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma SASE 5G to provide enterprises with unified visibility and control over large fleets of connected devices. The partnership targets industries including healthcare, manufacturing, retail and utilities, where billions of devices are expected to connect through AI-enabled networks.
Meanwhile, Celerway Communication is working with Palo Alto Networks to bring enterprise-grade security to highly distributed and mobile environments. By combining Celerway’s edge connectivity technology with Palo Alto Networks’ VM-Series next-generation firewalls, the companies aim to ensure secure communications for remote teams and first responders operating far from centralized data centers.
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Building the Backbone of the AI Economy
The partnerships reflect a broader shift as telecommunications networks, cloud infrastructure and edge computing environments converge to support AI workloads at scale.
As organizations build the digital infrastructure for AI training and inference, cybersecurity is becoming a foundational requirement—not an afterthought.
Palo Alto Networks said its ecosystem strategy is designed to ensure that the networks powering the AI economy can deliver both the performance and security required for a new generation of data-intensive applications.
