Nokia is expanding its parlay on custom system-on-a-chip (SoC) processors, inking a joint venture with Tampere University in its home country of Finland to develop proprietary 5G chips.

The vendor’s early bet on Intel chips for its initial series of 5G equipment carried high costs that continue to impact its profit margin and contribute to nagging challenges for the company. Nokia introduced a new generation of 5G radio access network (RAN) equipment, featuring a new SoC, that began shipping in late 2019.

The company previously said it expects the new 5G hardware to comprise 35% of 5G shipments by the end of 2020, 70% by the end of 2021, and all 5G products it delivers by the end of 2022. 

“Nokia had admitted to roadmap misses in its custom silicon efforts. This as well as other efforts under new leadership should help close the gap,” said Will Townsend, senior analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

The new facility at Tampere University, which is expected to open next month, will aid in the “development of proprietary SoC chipsets, including their design and manufacture, to improve time to market and build a long term SoC development competence,” Nokia said in a statement.

The vendor is also targeting annual chip releases through the joint venture to improve future products, and said it plans to explore opportunities in machine learning, artificial intelligence, security via hardware, and open source hardware-based SoCs. Nokia has been working with researchers and engineers at Tampere University since the 2000s.

The university is recruiting professors to assist in its effort to develop custom silicon-based SoCs for 5G, according to Jyrki Vuorinen, the school’s dean of the faculty of IT and communications sciences.

“This important collaboration highlights our continued commitment to developing our ReefShark chipset portfolio,” Ari Kynaslahti, head of product management at Nokia, said in a statement. 

Nokia earlier this week said it has 100 commercial 5G deals with individual customers and 160 commercial 5G engagements underway, including trials. Enterprises, including Deutsche Bahn, Toyota Production Engineering, and Sandvik comprise 12% of Nokia’s 5G deals to date, according to the vendor.