everything RF recently interviewed Kjetil Holstad, the EVP of Corporate Strategy and BU PMIC at Nordic Semiconductor. Nordic Semiconductor is a global leader in low-power wireless connectivity solutions, providing the essential platform and wireless technologies that connect the world’s IoT devices.
Q. To start, can you give our readers an overview of Nordic Semiconductor, its journey so far, and how the company has evolved from a Bluetooth-focused innovator into a broader provider of wireless connectivity and IoT solutions?
Kjetil Holstad: Nordic Semiconductor is a global leader in ultra‑low-power wireless connectivity solutions, delivering the platforms and technologies that power the world’s IoT devices. The company offers a complete chip‑to‑cloud portfolio, including world-class hardware, embedded software, development tools, power management, cloud lifecycle services, and expert support. We help developers build reliable, scalable, secure, and future‑proof connected products faster. Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Norway, Nordic employs around 1,450 people worldwide and is the global market leader in Bluetooth® Low Energy (LE), having pioneered ultra‑low power wireless solutions that remove RF complexity and accelerate innovation.
Nordic supports a wide range of wireless technologies, including Bluetooth LE, cellular IoT, NTN satellite communication, DECT NR+, Wi‑Fi, Matter, Thread, and Zigbee. We ensure optimized performance, ultra‑low power consumption, advanced security, and global coverage. Trusted by leading brands across consumer, industrial, and healthcare sectors, Nordic’s solutions enable applications from wearables and smart homes to asset tracking and industrial automation. Products are sourced, assembled, and packaged by world-class subcontractors in Asia and Europe, and distributed globally via an extensive network of regional and international partners.
Ultra-low power is the design philosophy that drives everything we do.
Q. Bluetooth has evolved into a broad ecosystem encompassing technologies such as Bluetooth LE, Channel Sounding, LE Audio, Mesh, and Direction Finding. Can you explain the role each of these technologies plays within the Bluetooth ecosystem, the applications they enable, and how Nordic is helping developers bring these capabilities to market?
Kjetil Holstad: Like you said, Bluetooth today is a broad ecosystem. It’s a family of capabilities, each serving different application needs. Nordic supports the full Bluetooth ecosystem across silicon, software, and developer tools.
Bluetooth LE is the foundation for battery-powered IoT, spanning wearables, medical devices, smart home products, asset tracking, and peripherals. Nordic holds more than 30% of the Bluetooth LE market and ships over 1 million SoCs (System-on-Chips) per day. The fourth‑generation Bluetooth LE radio in the nRF54L Series delivers triple the processing efficiency with a smaller die and supports Bluetooth 6.0 features such as Channel Sounding. The nRF54LV10A extends this further as the first low‑voltage Bluetooth LE SoC with Channel Sounding, optimized for compact, next‑generation medical wearables. Developers can get started through the Nordic Developer Academy’s Bluetooth LE Fundamentals course.
Channel Sounding, introduced in Bluetooth 6.0, enables secure, accurate distance measurement (≈±1 m up to 20 m) using phase‑based ranging and round‑trip timing. It is far more robust than RSSI‑based proximity and includes built‑in protection against spoofing and relay attacks, making it suitable for access control, keyless entry, and asset protection. Nordic supports Channel Sounding across the nRF54L Series and provides open‑source Android and nRF Toolbox implementations for immediate developer access.
LE Audio represents a major leap for Bluetooth audio, using the LC3 codec to deliver better quality at half the data rate of the codec used in classic Bluetooth. It enables multi‑stream true wireless earbuds via Connected Isochronous Streams and large‑scale audio sharing via Broadcast Isochronous Streams, the foundation of Auracast. Nordic’s nRF5340 is the primary development platform for LE Audio and already powers commercial Auracast products. The nRF5340 Audio DK (Development Kit) and DevZone technical guides support rapid development.
Bluetooth Mesh enables large, self-healing, many-to-many networks with thousands of nodes, primarily for smart lighting and building automation. Mesh 1.1 added Remote Provisioning and mesh‑wide DFU (Device Firmware Updates), significantly simplifying deployment and maintenance. Nordic‑based mesh systems are deployed globally, with documented real‑world testing and adoption of Networked Lighting Control profiles, positioning Bluetooth Mesh as a standard for commercial lighting.
Direction Finding uses angle-of-arrival and angle-of-departure techniques to locate or guide devices with high accuracy in line-of-sight conditions. It supports RTLS (Real-Time Location System), asset tracking, and indoor wayfinding, and is available across multiple Nordic SoC families, alongside detailed documentation and SDK (Software Development Kit) samples.
Across all Bluetooth technologies, Nordic delivers complete developer enablement: production‑ready stacks in the nRF Connect SDK, structured learning in Nordic Developer Academy, and direct engineering support through DevZone.
For Nordic, developer experience is an integral part of the product.
Q. How has Nordic expanded its focus to address emerging low-power cellular IoT requirements, and can you tell us more about the cellular IoT products and solutions you offer today, along with the applications and end markets driving the strongest adoption?
Kjetil Holstad: Our future‑ready cellular IoT portfolio is designed to serve markets that demand global reach, long battery life, carrier‑grade reliability, and ease of use.
At its core is the nRF91 Series, the industry benchmark for ultra‑low‑power cellular IoT. The nRF9151 SiP (System-in-Package) – the lowest-power cellular IoT and NR+ solution with industry-leading battery lifetime – integrates an LTE-M/NB-IoT modem, an application processor, and an RF front end into a single package, significantly reducing the bill of materials (BOM) cost and time-to-market. Importantly, it also adds support for satellite Non‑Terrestrial Networks (NTN), extending connectivity beyond the reach of terrestrial cellular networks. Deployed in millions of devices worldwide, the nRF91 Series underpins large‑scale deployments in asset tracking, smart metering, personal safety, industrial monitoring, and healthcare.
The strongest demand today comes from logistics and smart energy. In logistics, global geolocation and always-on connectivity are business-critical, making LTE-M the technology of choice for tracking goods across borders. It is now complemented by satellite NTN for remote and coverage-challenged routes. In smart energy, utilities are rolling out NB‑IoT metering at a national scale, requiring ultra‑low‑power operation and deep coverage. Building on this foundation, Nordic is expanding the portfolio with the nRF93 Series for Cat-1 bis applications targeting higher throughput, and the forthcoming nRF92 Series, which adds edge AI capabilities alongside satellite NTN to support remote, off-grid, and infrastructure-light deployments. Together, these platforms extend Nordic’s cellular roadmap into the next generation of IoT use cases as networks continue to evolve.
Q. Nordic Semiconductor recently introduced the nRF93M1 low-power LTE Cat 1 bis module. Can you tell us about this new product, explain the role of LTE Cat 1 bis within the cellular IoT landscape, and discuss the types of applications and use cases where this technology is seeing the strongest adoption?
Kjetil Holstad: To understand why Cat 1 bis matters right now, you need to understand what is happening to 2G. Thousands of companies have deployed millions of IoT devices using LTE-M and NB-IoT modules that include 2G fallback as a connectivity safety net in areas with thin LTE-M coverage. When 2G disappears, so does that safety net. Those companies need a new connectivity strategy, and in many cases, a new module supplier.
LTE Cat 1 bis is the answer. It is the lowest-tier global LTE Radio Access Technology, which runs on any LTE network worldwide, with no dependency on LTE-M or NB-IoT band plans, and no 2G fallback needed. Where 2G was once the universal safety net for global IoT deployments, Cat 1 bis takes that role on the 4G network. It uses a single antenna, unlike the original Cat 1 standard, which requires two, and delivers up to 10 Mbps downlink and 5 Mbps uplink, more than sufficient for frequent telemetry, image transfers, OTA (Over-the-Air) updates, and richer cloud interactions. Any LTE signal, anywhere in the world, is enough. That is a powerful guarantee for device makers who need to support global deployments without managing regional connectivity exceptions.
nRF93M1 module from Nordic Semiconductor
The nRF93M1 is Nordic's Cat 1 bis module, and it is the right product at the right time. It is compact, pre-certified, and ships with nRF Cloud integration built in. This includes Wi-Fi location, cellular eCID positioning, OTA firmware updates, and device observability. The strongest use cases are asset tracking with high-frequency data uploads, fleet management, security devices that require images or video, advanced metering, and consumer IoT products that demand reliable global coverage. We aim for general availability in the second half of 2026.
For companies evaluating Nordic for the first time, whether migrating from a 2G-dependent module or entering cellular IoT fresh, the barrier is lower than it might seem. Nordic's ease-of-use philosophy, mature globally certified modem stack, and the nRF Connect SDK mean developers can go from evaluation to production without starting from scratch. The platform is designed to be approachable, and the DevAcademy and DevZone resources mean support is available at every step.
Looking beyond Cat 1 bis, Nordic's cellular roadmap covers the full spectrum of what comes next. The nRF9151 – our LTE-M/NB-IoT/NTN SiP – is already future-proofed for satellite connectivity and the 5G NB-IoT evolution. The nRF92 Series, available from 2027, takes integration further with a higher-performance application MCU, the Axon NPU for edge AI, multi-constellation GNSS, and Wi-Fi locationing in a single package. These are available both as open MCUs and as smart modem options, delivering greater capability with less power and less board space. And the nRF93 Series is on a roadmap to 5G eRedCap, bringing size- and power-optimized 5G IoT connectivity from 2028 onward.
Nordic is not a niche cellular player. We are building a platform that spans LTE-M, NB-IoT, Cat 1 bis, NTN satellite, and 5G. The 2G sunset is accelerating the very market transition that plays to our strengths.
Q. Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) are emerging as a key technology for extending IoT connectivity beyond terrestrial infrastructure. Can you explain how NTN works within the broader cellular IoT ecosystem, and how Nordic is positioning its technologies to support satellite-enabled IoT connectivity?
Kjetil Holstad: Let us talk numbers. Terrestrial mobile networks cover less than 25% of the Earth's surface. That figure surprises people, but it should not. Cell towers are built where people live, and people are concentrated in cities and towns. Move to rural outskirts, remote farmland, open ocean, mountain ranges, or polar regions, and coverage drops right away. For consumer devices, this is an inconvenience. For IoT, where devices are deployed precisely in the places that are hardest to reach, it has been a fundamental blocker.
Nordic has been driving innovation in cellular IoT since 2014, and NTN is the technology that finally closes this gap. By extending the same 3GPP standards – LTE-M and NB-IoT – to both LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites at around 1,000 km altitude and GEO (Geostationary) satellites at around 36,000 km, NTN allows a single modem to switch dynamically between terrestrial cellular networks and satellite networks without changing the application layer. The device selects the available network. Together, these two network types provide true global coverage, not just coverage that works in most places.
The nRF9151 is already making this real. It connects to both LEO and GEO satellites natively, alongside its LTE-M and NB-IoT capabilities, all in a compact module with an antenna measuring only a few centimeters. The complete solution is designed to support a ten-year battery life. Ultra-low-power radio communication at this quality, in this form factor, is not straightforward engineering. It is the result of more than a decade of investment in cellular IoT silicon. We are currently piloting combined cellular and satellite solutions with multiple customers, and the results confirm what we built.
nRF9151 for NTN Applications
The use cases where NTN is a game-changer are broad and growing. Industrial IoT is the clearest starting point. Tracking, positioning, industrial appliances, water, gas, and energy metering are already deployed on Nordic cellular silicon at scale. NTN extends those same applications into the areas where terrestrial networks do not reach. Consider infrastructure monitoring: some of the largest providers of industrial pumps need to connect assets spread across the globe, such as remote pipelines, offshore installations, and agricultural land. Building private infrastructure is not feasible. NTN solves this by enabling devices to send data from those locations to a centralized monitoring system without requiring a local network connection.
Asset tracking is equally compelling, and the scale is larger than most people realize. There are 1.6 billion cattle on Earth, with the majority in regions with limited or no cellular coverage. Tracking livestock health and location at that scale requires truly global connectivity. The pharmaceutical supply chain presents a similar opportunity, as up to 20% of all pharmaceutical supplies are estimated to enter the gray market due to a lack of end-to-end visibility. With NTN, a shipment can be continuously tracked from manufacturer to patient, regardless of its route. Global supply chains are among the least visible and least digitized systems in the modern economy. NTN is the connectivity layer that enables that, opening the door to deeper investment in personalized medicine and end-user supply chain transparency.
NTN is complementary to, and fully interoperable with, 4G and 5G IoT technologies. It functions as both a primary connectivity layer in infrastructure-light environments and as a dynamic fallback when terrestrial networks are unavailable. The nRF9151 gives developers a single platform to address both today and tomorrow. The forthcoming nRF92 Series goes further, combining cellular, NTN satellite, edge AI, and multi-constellation GNSS in one highly integrated solution, designed with NTN as a first-class capability from the outset. Nordic is not waiting for the NTN market to develop. We are building it alongside our customers.
Q. Nordic’s multiprotocol SoCs (System-on-Chips) support both standardized wireless stacks and 2.4 GHz proprietary protocol development. In what scenarios do proprietary 2.4 GHz implementations offer meaningful advantages over technologies such as Bluetooth LE or Thread, and how does Nordic support developers building these custom wireless links?
Kjetil Holstad: Proprietary 2.4 GHz has a well-defined role alongside standardized protocols. The advantage is the freedom to optimize a protocol precisely for the application. This is regardless of whether that means deterministic latency, a specific throughput profile, or lower power consumption than a full Bluetooth LE stack provides.
In industrial sensor networks, gaming peripherals, and high-density RF environments, a custom protocol can outperform Bluetooth LE or Thread for specific link requirements. However, this comes at the cost of interoperability, as proprietary protocols are not compatible with other devices unless they agree to use the same protocol. For simple point-to-point links with minimal data exchange, the overhead of a full stack may be unnecessary. Our nRF52, nRF53 and nRF54 Series SoCs support both standardized Bluetooth and fully custom 2.4 GHz protocol development.
Q. Thread and Matter are playing an increasingly important role in the evolution of smart home and building automation ecosystems. How do you see these technologies reshaping the connected device landscape, and how is Nordic Semiconductor supporting developers building next-generation Matter- and Thread-enabled products?
Kjetil Holstad: Thread and Matter are restructuring how connected devices are built and sold. Thread provides the low-power, self-healing IPv6 mesh networking layer. Matter sits above it as an application-layer standard that ensures devices from different manufacturers interoperate seamlessly across Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Samsung SmartThings. The fragmentation that defined the smart home for a decade is being resolved.
Nordic's nRF54 and nRF52 Series SoCs support Thread and Matter natively through the nRF Connect SDK, including the full OpenThread stack, the Matter SDK, Border Router reference designs, and Thread 1.3 with Matter-over-Thread. For commercial building automation, where reliability, scalability, and deterministic latency requirements are higher, Thread's mesh architecture scales more predictably than alternatives. Nordic is well placed to serve both markets as they converge.
Q. Beyond connectivity silicon, Nordic now offers PMICs, RF front-end modules, cloud services, and development tools. How does this broader platform approach help simplify IoT product development, and why is tighter system-level integration becoming increasingly important for device designers?
Kjetil Holstad: Nordic is known for silicon excellence, and that remains our foundation. But building connected products today is no longer just about selecting a chip. It is a system‑level challenge spanning hardware, software, RF, power management, security, certification, cloud integration, and lifecycle management. When those elements come from different vendors, device makers carry the integration risk, leading to longer development cycles, more revisions, and higher compliance costs. That’s why Nordic has evolved from a chip supplier into a complete wireless platform provider, from chip to cloud.
On the hardware side, this means a complete platform around the SoC. The nPM Series PMICs paired with our Fuel Gauge deliver efficient power conversion and accurate battery state‑of‑charge in one validated power solution, while the nRF21540 RF front‑end module extends range and link budget on the wireless side. Each is co‑designed with our SoCs and characterized as a system, so power, RF, and battery behavior are predictable from day one rather than something the customer integrates and re‑validates themselves. On software, the nRF Connect SDK provides a single, unified environment with maintained wireless stacks, security, power management, and cloud integration, thereby reducing software complexity and regulatory burden.
Above the device, nRF Cloud delivers secure provisioning, OTA updates, location, observability, and battery analytics at fleet scale, enabling deployment and lifecycle management without custom cloud development.
As IoT products grow more complex – incorporating edge AI, satellite connectivity, advanced security, and tighter power budgets – the cost of integrating fragmented solutions rises. A validated, end‑to‑end platform from a single vendor reduces risk at every layer. Nordic’s shift from silicon vendor to full wireless solution provider reflects where the market is headed, and what customers increasingly need.
Q. Nordic is known for its extensive software ecosystem and developer support infrastructure. How important are software tools, SDKs, and developer enablement in driving adoption of your platforms, and how has this become a strategic differentiator for the company?
Kjetil Holstad: Software and developer enablement are decisive, where ease of use wins. Developers choose platforms that let them go from idea to prototype fast, with minimal friction and maximum confidence. That’s why Nordic invests as heavily in software as we do in silicon, so that we can empower developers and dramatically reduce complexity.
At the core is the nRF Connect SDK, a single, unified SDK built on the Zephyr RTOS, where Nordic is a leading contributor shaping the ecosystem. It provides consistent APIs, wireless stacks, drivers, power management, and cloud integration across our product families. Whether developers move from nRF52 to nRF54 or nRF91, the experience stays the same, meaning no relearning or reintegration required. For developers who want ultimate simplicity or full control, we also offer a bare‑metal option, so the platform adapts to the developer, not the other way around.
We extend this ease of use beyond firmware with resources like our DevZone online developer community, the DevAcademy learning platform, and purpose-built hardware tools that remove complexity early in development. And for edge AI, we have the Nordic Edge AI Lab, which was announced at CES earlier this year. It makes AI accessible to everyone, using a no‑code, browser‑based environment to build and deploy models on Nordic devices.
This is a key differentiator: software, tools, and enablement are not accessories – they are the product.
Q. As AI and edge intelligence become increasingly integrated into connected devices, how do you see artificial intelligence reshaping IoT system design, and what role will Nordic’s platforms play in enabling smarter, more autonomous edge devices?
Kjetil Holstad: Ultra‑low‑power edge AI is redefining what connected devices can do autonomously. The challenge is not adding intelligence, but delivering high AI performance within extreme energy constraints. Nordic’s focus is on enabling ultra-low-power, energy-efficient edge inference that runs continuously on battery-powered devices, without sacrificing responsiveness, privacy, or ease of use. Our platforms combine efficient AI acceleration with simple development flows, supported by the Nordic Edge AI Lab, making advanced edge intelligence accessible to all IoT developers, not just AI specialists.
Axon NPU for Edge AI Applications
The Axon NPU delivers TensorFlow Lite inference up to 15 times faster than the CPU, with up to 8 times better energy efficiency than competing NPU solutions. That enables keyword detection, audio classification, activity recognition, and anomaly detection in continuously running, battery-powered devices. Smart home devices respond to voice commands on-device, with no cloud round-trip, no latency, and no audio streaming. Industrial sensors identify faults locally and only transmit alerts. Wearables classify movement without offloading raw IMU data. In each case, edge inference cuts both power consumption and latency while improving privacy. The nRF54LM20B is the most capable nRF54L Series SoC, delivering up to 7 times higher AI performance than competing solutions. The Nordic Edge AI Lab makes it easier for any IoT developer to deploy these models, not just ML specialists.
Q. Looking ahead, as IoT continues to scale, what opportunities stand out for Nordic Semiconductor in the next phase of growth?
Kjetil Holstad: IoT is moving from devices that transmit data to devices that process it locally, make decisions, and act autonomously. Nordic is positioned for this shift across four clear vectors.
First, the continued worldwide expansion of cellular IoT. As LTE‑M, NB‑IoT, Cat 1 bis, and satellite NTN scale globally, connectivity becomes truly ubiquitous. With the nRF91, nRF93, and forthcoming nRF92 Series, Nordic offers a future-ready, easy-to-use platform that spans terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks – simplifying development while enabling global coverage from a single cellular solution.
Edge AI adoption is the second major driver. As deployments move from experimentation to production, demand is shifting toward ultra‑low‑power, energy‑efficient neural inference that can run continuously at the edge. Nordic’s Axon NPU, available across both our Bluetooth LE and cellular platforms, delivers high AI performance within tight power budgets. Combined with strong ease of use, through common tools and the Nordic Edge AI Lab, it allows developers to adopt edge AI faster, with lower risk and without AI-specific expertise.
Third, Matter and Thread. As the smart home ecosystem converges, demand for reliable, low-power, Matter-compatible silicon scales with it, and Nordic's leadership in Bluetooth LE and Thread makes us a natural foundation.
Fourth, the platform opportunity. Nordic is moving beyond being a chip supplier to providing a complete IoT platform – hardware, software, tools, and cloud services that work together. This deeper integration embeds Nordic into customers’ product architectures, not just their bill of materials, creating stronger, longer‑term partnerships. It’s more than a point solution or a loose ecosystem: it’s a coherent, energy‑efficient platform built to support the next phase of IoT – smarter, more autonomous devices delivered with simplicity and ease of use.
About the Company:
Nordic Semiconductor is a global leader in low-power wireless connectivity solutions, providing the essential platform and wireless technologies that connect the world’s IoT devices. Nordic delivers world-class hardware, embedded software, development tools, power management, cloud lifecycle services, and world-class support - all simplifying development for developers to build reliable, scalable, and future-proof connected products faster and more securely.
