What is the estimated growth potential of the Ericsson Silicon segment in the next few years
pportunity and the fixed value success versus one network, etc., that might prolong the 5G cycle, but all these are still quick with some uncertainty on the large volumes that will be.
And given the inflationary times we see, my question is, if you will need to address your underlying opex base, i.e., and very pleased to secure your long-term margins before we see these segments really taking off? And also a question on the R&D hike you see on silicon, for example, and Cloud RAN, should we think of some of these investments being more of a temporary nature? Or will it more be a new base? Thank you.
Borje Ekholm -- Chief Executive Officer
I mean I do believe that we see actually -- first of all, on the 5G market, I suspect many of the outside analyst firms are going to raise the size of the market. The -- I think we've seen a journey here where many of the outside analysts and industry analysts have been a bit behind the takeoff in 5G. I think that is likely to continue. And I think we actually underestimate the new type of applications we're going to see.
They may not come 2022 or 2023, but they're going to come 2024 or 2025, that will require a densification of the 5G network to launch these new type of use cases. So I'm actually believing, yes, there can be always a bit fluctuations, but we see that 5G will be such a central piece of society going forward to drive digitalization that it will have to be built out longer and more dense than we've seen in the past. And that's why we're very -- we're believing in that future. We're also going to invest correspondingly.
That means that as we look today, we're going to continue to invest in technology for technology leadership, and we're going to make sure that we are a technology leader. If we are -- can retain that position, we have a value proposition to our customers. So in reality, that's going to be front and center. Of course, if the world would come into a situation where the outlook changes, i.e., that we have to adjust, we would, of course, adjust.
But what we believe is, for example, take Cloud RAN, we think that's going to be deployed going forward also in enterprise segment. So we invest today fairly significant amount of money. And of course, we believe that the market here is going to come. It may take two years before it comes.
But we think therefore by investing now, we'll be very well positioned when that market takes off. So we are continuing to invest for the long run.  At the same time, you've seen us in the past, we've been committed to achieving our targets overall. We remain committed to achieving the target. So we will adjust and run the company in that way.
But rest assured that technology leadership that will feature as a prominent part. So maybe investments in Cloud RAN will taper off, but then we're going to see investments in some other areas that's going to drive revenue growth. But the reason why we talk about Cloud RAN and, to some extent, Ericsson Silicon, as well is that it has cost today but we're not going to see revenues until one to two to possibly three years out. But that's what we invest for, and that's what we are going to continue to invest for.
Daniel Djurberg -- Handelsbanken Capital Markets -- Analyst
OK. Thank you.
Peter Nyquist
Thanks, Daniel. We'll move to the next question.
Borje Ekholm -- Chief Executive Officer
Maybe we should add there. You made the point before, Carl, it's important to remember the growth potential in enterprises. And sometimes we focus only on the infrastructure market. That's going to be the core of our company.
It's the bulk of our company. We're going to make sure that we perform there. That's for sure. But we also see the applicability of our technology in enterprises.
And that's a segment that is going to be very large, can possibly be even larger than the infrastructure business in a few years' time. So the investments we make now should be financed, of course, by our infrastructure business, and that's what you see we try to do. But the applicability will allow us also to capture the enterprise s
pportunity and the fixed value success versus one network, etc., that might prolong the 5G cycle, but all these are still quick with some uncertainty on the large volumes that will be.
And given the inflationary times we see, my question is, if you will need to address your underlying opex base, i.e., and very pleased to secure your long-term margins before we see these segments really taking off? And also a question on the R&D hike you see on silicon, for example, and Cloud RAN, should we think of some of these investments being more of a temporary nature? Or will it more be a new base? Thank you.
Borje Ekholm -- Chief Executive Officer
I mean I do believe that we see actually -- first of all, on the 5G market, I suspect many of the outside analyst firms are going to raise the size of the market. The -- I think we've seen a journey here where many of the outside analysts and industry analysts have been a bit behind the takeoff in 5G. I think that is likely to continue. And I think we actually underestimate the new type of applications we're going to see.
They may not come 2022 or 2023, but they're going to come 2024 or 2025, that will require a densification of the 5G network to launch these new type of use cases. So I'm actually believing, yes, there can be always a bit fluctuations, but we see that 5G will be such a central piece of society going forward to drive digitalization that it will have to be built out longer and more dense than we've seen in the past. And that's why we're very -- we're believing in that future. We're also going to invest correspondingly.
That means that as we look today, we're going to continue to invest in technology for technology leadership, and we're going to make sure that we are a technology leader. If we are -- can retain that position, we have a value proposition to our customers. So in reality, that's going to be front and center. Of course, if the world would come into a situation where the outlook changes, i.e., that we have to adjust, we would, of course, adjust.
 But what we believe is, for example, take Cloud RAN, we think that's going to be deployed going forward also in enterprise segment. So we invest today fairly significant amount of money. And of course, we believe that the market here is going to come. It may take two years before it comes.
But we think therefore by investing now, we'll be very well positioned when that market takes off. So we are continuing to invest for the long run.  At the same time, you've seen us in the past, we've been committed to achieving our targets overall. We remain committed to achieving the target. So we will adjust and run the company in that way.
But rest assured that technology leadership that will feature as a prominent part. So maybe investments in Cloud RAN will taper off, but then we're going to see investments in some other areas that's going to drive revenue growth. But the reason why we talk about Cloud RAN and, to some extent, Ericsson Silicon, as well is that it has cost today but we're not going to see revenues until one to two to possibly three years out. But that's what we invest for, and that's what we are going to continue to invest for.
Daniel Djurberg -- Handelsbanken Capital Markets -- Analyst
OK. Thank you.
Peter Nyquist
Thanks, Daniel. We'll move to the next question.
Borje Ekholm -- Chief Executive Officer
Maybe we should add there. You made the point before, Carl, it's important to remember the growth potential in enterprises. And sometimes we focus only on the infrastructure market. That's going to be the core of our company.
It's the bulk of our company. We're going to make sure that we perform there. That's for sure. But we also see the applicability of our technology in enterprises.
And that's a segment that is going to be very large, can possibly be even larger than the infrastructure business in a few years' time. So the investments we make now should be financed, of course, by our infrastructure business, and that's what you see we try to do. But the applicability will allow us also to capture the enterprise s