Nokia reports 10% sales growth as AI and cloud demand rises
Comparable operating profit rose 35% to €605 million in the third quarter, while Nokia says demand for its data-routing and optical networks exceeds supply.
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Comparable operating profit rose 35% to €605 million in the third quarter, while Nokia says demand for its data-routing and optical networks exceeds supply.
Nokia’s third-quarter 2026 sales rose 10% from a year earlier to €5.154 billion, while comparable operating profit increased 35% to €605 million, RCR Wireless reported on October 22. Nokia attributed its strongest growth to AI and cloud customers, while sales to telecommunications providers remained flat after currency effects.
Chief executive Justin Hotard said previously announced customer selections of Nokia’s network designs had begun turning into revenue. He attributed 43% year-on-year growth in Internet Protocol, or IP, networks—the systems that route internet traffic—to AI and cloud demand.
Nokia’s AI and cloud customer group grew much faster than its larger telecom-provider business. Constant-currency comparisons remove the effect of exchange-rate changes.
| Customer group | Sales | Reported annual change | Constant-currency annual change |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI and cloud | €631 million | +126% | +123% |
| Telecommunications providers | €3.640 billion | +1% |
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| Unchanged |
Hotard said AI and cloud customers accounted for 12% of group sales, while orders from that customer group rose 118% to €1.5 billion. Optical networks, which transmit data using light, grew 18% at constant currency. Nokia reported strong optical demand from both customer groups, and Hotard said demand for both IP and optical networks continued to exceed supply.
Radio-network sales rose 10% at constant currency. Nokia said part of that increase came from revenue brought forward from the fourth quarter into the third, so the gain was not entirely revenue originally expected in the quarter.
Core-software sales fell 13% at constant currency. Nokia attributed the decline to weakness in applications it is giving less emphasis to, alongside supply-chain constraints affecting server infrastructure.
Hotard also highlighted AI-RAN, which combines artificial intelligence computing with radio access networks—the part of a mobile network that connects devices to the operator’s network. He said T-Mobile had completed its first live voice call over AI-RAN in its production network, while Elisa had run voice, mobile data and AI workloads simultaneously on the same platform in its commercial network. Hotard described those milestones as signs that AI-RAN was nearing commercial deployment.
Nokia also plans to finish integrating Infinera, the optical-networking company it acquired in 2025. Hotard said completion remained on track for the end of 2026, a year ahead of the original plan.
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