(April 23): Nokia Oyj reported first-quarter adjusted profit that beat analyst forecasts, as the Finnish mobile network equipment maker’s push into artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure begins to pay off.
Adjusted operating income was €281 million (US$329 million) in the period, the Espoo, Finland-based company said in a statement on Thursday. That compares with an average analyst estimate of about €244 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Net sales were €4.5 billion for the quarter, compared with an analyst estimate of €4.6 billion.
The company “delivered a solid start to the year,” Nokia’s chief executive officer Justin Hotard said in the statement. The company is tracking “above the mid-point” of its full-year guidance for adjusted operating profit of €2 billion to €2.5 billion, he said.
While Nokia’s legacy mobile infrastructure business accounted for the bulk of sales, much of the growth came from AI and cloud customers, said Hotard.
The company streamlined its business late last year to focus on connecting data centres, banking on a global spending boom on AI to fuel sales. It had focused on supplying the backbone kit for mobile phone networks, an area that has stagnated in recent years as anticipated carrier spend on upgrades failed to materialize.
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Chipmaker Nvidia Corp took a US$1 billion equity stake in Nokia last year and will supply the company with AI-powered computers for wireless networks. Customer trials will launch later in 2026, with 10 clients committed to working with Nokia, said Hotard.
The quarter’s earnings are the first under Nokia’s new structure, and reflect the reorganisation of its business into two units. Network Infrastructure comprises the AI data centre connectivity arm, while Mobile Infrastructure encompasses its legacy mobile equipment business. It hived off most of its remaining, non-core arms into a portfolio businesses segment, while its defence business became a standalone incubation unit.
Sales for the Network Infrastructure division were US$1.83 billion, slightly below analyst forecasts of US$1.9 billion. Mobile Infrastructure sales were US$2.5 billion, beating estimates.
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Nokia’s shares have almost doubled over the last year, driven by investor optimism around its AI pivot.
While the company hopes to profit from the increasing demand for AI enabling compute, its biggest European rival Ericsson AB warned of rising costs for chips due to an increase in demand when it reported earnings below analysts’ expectations last week.
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