Ericsson and Nokia are shedding thousands of jobs in China, a cutback Light Reading links to the rising cost of developing 6G technology.

The reductions mark one of the sharpest retrenchments by the Swedish and Finnish vendors in a market that once ranked among their largest. Both companies built substantial Chinese workforces during the 5G era, when operators there rolled out networks at a scale unmatched elsewhere. That footprint is now shrinking as research spending shifts toward the next technology generation.

Why are the vendors pulling back now?

The timing points to budget pressure rather than a single dispute. Developing 6G requires heavy investment in research and standardization years before any commercial network appears. For vendors squeezed by slow 5G equipment sales worldwide, cutting operational costs in China frees money for that work.

China also presents a harder commercial environment for the Nordic pair than it did five years ago. Domestic rivals such as Huawei and ZTE have captured the lion's share of their home market, leaving Ericsson and Nokia with a sliver of the business that once justified large local teams.

What does this mean for the vendors' global footprint?

A smaller presence in China carries trade-offs. The country remains central to 6G standardization discussions and hosts some of the world's most advanced mobile research. Scaling back there could weaken the vendors' insight into standards work, even as it protects margins in the near term.

For Ericsson and Nokia, the cuts fit a broader pattern of cost discipline. Both companies have spent the past several years trimming headcount and consolidating sites elsewhere as operator capex stayed weak after the 5G peak.

Light Reading's report suggests the layoffs are best read as 6G economics at work: the vendors must fund the next generation while revenue from the current one plateaus. How they balance cheaper operations against continued influence in a critical standards market will shape their position when 6G commercialization begins later this decade.