NEW YORK, May 1, 2026, 10:39 EDT
Nokia shares moved up on Friday in U.S. markets, catching a boost after Jim Cramer tagged the stock a “winner.” Investors also took notice of fresh momentum in the Finnish tech group’s AI data-center business. American depositary receipts—those are Nokia’s U.S.-traded shares—last changed hands at $13.62 in New York, a gain of $0.71 from Thursday’s finish.
Timing is key here: Nokia isn’t just carrying the label of sluggish telecom-equipment vendor anymore. The company reported a 49% jump in first-quarter sales to AI and cloud customers, which made up 8% of total sales. Orders from these clients—hyperscalers and big cloud-service outfits running sprawling AI data centers—totaled €1 billion.
Nokia is pivoting away from its traditional reliance on telecom operators. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company has reshaped itself into two units: one focused on mobile infrastructure, the other on network infrastructure, which is aimed at servicing AI and data-center customers. The full-year profit forecast remains unchanged.
On April 28, during the lightning round of CNBC’s “Mad Money,” Cramer declared, “I think it’s a winner. It’s back. I can’t believe it. It finally did come back.” He pointed to Nokia’s “a lot of good technology,” as cited by Insider Monkey and TheStreet. Insider Monkey
The earnings report put figures behind that outlook. Comparable operating profit jumped 54% to €281 million, outpacing the €250 million mean forecast from analysts surveyed by Infront. Comparable net sales came in at €4.5 billion, according to Reuters. Nokia shares climbed to their highest mark since April 2010 following the release.
Chief Executive Justin Hotard zeroed in on optical and IP networks—the fiber-optic and routing equipment essential for shuttling data within and across sprawling computing hubs. “We are increasing our growth assumption for Optical and IP Networks and we are investing to capture accelerating demand from AI & Cloud customers,” Hotard stated in Nokia’s interim report. Nokia Corporation | Nokia
Nokia bumped up its 2026 growth outlook for Network Infrastructure net sales, now expecting 12% to 14%, well above its January projection of 6% to 8%. The company raised its forecast for the AI and cloud addressable market too—anticipating a 27% compound annual growth rate between 2025 and 2028. That’s a jump from its earlier 16% estimate.
This week brought another sign of shifting priorities: Nokia and Inseego announced that Inseego will take over Nokia’s fixed wireless access customer-premises equipment business—those are the devices linking homes or offices to broadband via wireless. Nokia is picking up roughly a 7% equity stake in Inseego and plans to put in another $10 million, bumping its holding to about 11%. The transaction isn’t expected to move the needle financially for Nokia and should close in the fourth quarter.
“Inseego is the right strategic partner for this business and for Nokia’s customers,” said Konstanty Owczarek, Nokia’s chief corporate development officer. Juho Sarvikas, who leads Inseego, described the deal as “a transformative step,” pointing to how AI-driven workloads, cloud connectivity, and next-gen networks are “increasingly coming together.” Nokia Corporation | Nokia
The landscape is shifting. Nokia continues to contend with Ericsson in mobile network equipment, but after picking up Infinera, it’s now far more exposed to optical networking. Reuters said the merged business would land in the number two spot globally, trailing only Huawei. Cisco has rolled out new AI-centric networking chips and routers for data centers, squeezing rivals fighting for slices of the same infrastructure spend.
AI growth isn’t guaranteed to follow a predictable path. Nokia points to risks like fierce competition, shifting customer network budgets, product development expenses, issues with sourcing semiconductors, and supply-chain snags. Hotard, speaking to Reuters, flagged Europe’s sluggish pace in rolling out AI data-center infrastructure, cautioning that developers might decamp to China or the U.S. if capacity fails to keep up.
Nokia still has to prove it can maintain that first-quarter order momentum. The company held onto its full-year comparable operating profit guidance of €2.0 billion to €2.5 billion, noting it’s trending a bit above the midpoint—hardly a bold claim, but after hitting a 16-year peak, even a low-key comment carries more weight than it did back when the stock was drifting around like an old handset relic.
