Espoo, Nokia recorded a sharp increase in business from artificial intelligence and cloud customers during the second quarter of 2026, as demand for high-capacity networking infrastructure used in AI data centres continued to expand.
Net sales generated from AI and cloud customers more than doubled to €446 million during the quarter. The Finnish telecommunications-equipment company also secured €2.8 billion in new orders, indicating continued demand for its optical and networking technologies.
Nokia has been expanding beyond its traditional telecommunications-operator business by supplying fibre-optic and optical-transport equipment to major technology companies developing AI and cloud data centres. These systems connect servers and computing clusters and support the movement of large volumes of data required for training and operating artificial-intelligence models.
“Demand remains strong, while supply continues to be the main industry constraint,” Nokia Chief Executive Officer Justin Hotard said. He added that the supply situation was encouraging customers to place longer-term orders.
Hotard, who previously led Intel’s Data Center and AI Group, has focused on strengthening Nokia’s presence in the global data-centre market since joining the company. Nokia’s strategy also includes its agreement with Nvidia and its acquisition of US-based optical-networking company Infinera.
The company’s comparable net sales reached €4.82 billion in the second quarter. Comparable operating profit increased 18% year-on-year to €434 million, exceeding the €382-million average estimate of analysts surveyed by LSEG. The financial performance provides supporting evidence of the growth generated by Nokia’s AI and cloud-infrastructure operations.
Nokia raised its full-year comparable operating-profit guidance to between €2.1 billion and €2.6 billion, compared with its earlier range of €2 billion to €2.5 billion. However, it also identified supply limitations and rising memory-chip prices as continuing challenges for the wider telecom-equipment industry.
Headquartered in Espoo, Finland, Nokia provides fixed, mobile, IP and optical-network infrastructure to telecommunications operators, cloud providers, enterprises and public-sector organisations worldwide. Its technologies support 5G networks, broadband connectivity, data centres, network automation and industrial digitalisation.
