HELSINKI, May 21, 2026, 12:02 EEST
- Nokia shares traded lower in Helsinki even after the company launched a new AI Networking Innovation Lab in Sunnyvale.
- The stock was around 11.650 euros, down about 0.7% from the previous close, while the OMX Helsinki 25 was slightly higher.
- The move comes after Nokia’s April earnings rally, when AI and cloud orders helped lift its shares to a 16-year high.
Nokia Oyj shares edged lower in Helsinki on Thursday, giving back part of their recent AI-driven rally even as the Finnish telecom equipment maker launched a new U.S. lab aimed at winning more data-centre networking business. The stock traded at 11.650 euros, down from a previous close of 11.735 euros, with the day’s range at 11.550 to 11.715 euros, according to Investing.com data.
That lagged a firmer local market. The OMX Helsinki 25 index, a benchmark of the 25 most actively traded shares in Helsinki, was up 0.06% at 6,389.30, Nasdaq index data showed.
The timing matters because Nokia is trying to convince investors that demand from artificial intelligence infrastructure is no longer a side story. The company said on Thursday its AI Networking Innovation Lab in Sunnyvale, California, would help partners test and validate new data-centre network designs for large-scale AI training and real-time inference, or systems that let AI models make live decisions after they have been trained.
Nokia said early technology partners in the lab include AMD, Keysight, Lenovo, Nscale, Supermicro and Weka. Rudy Hoebeke, Nokia’s vice president of software product management, called the launch a “major milestone,” while AMD executive Travis Karr said an “open, standards-driven approach” could help customers avoid lock-in. GlobeNewswire
The shares have had a sharp run already. Reuters reported last month that Nokia’s stock touched its highest level since 2010 after first-quarter comparable operating profit rose 54% to 281 million euros, above analysts’ average estimate of 250 million euros in an Infront poll.
Nokia’s first-quarter report showed why the market has been paying attention. Net sales from AI and cloud customers grew 49%, and the company booked 1 billion euros of orders from those customers in the quarter. It also kept its full-year comparable operating profit outlook at 2.0 billion to 2.5 billion euros.
The company also raised its 2026 growth assumption for Network Infrastructure to 12% to 14%, with Optical Networks and IP Networks combined expected to grow 18% to 20%. Chief Executive Justin Hotard said Nokia was investing to capture “accelerating demand” from AI and cloud customers. Nokia Corporation | Nokia
A separate filing late Wednesday showed Nokia transferred 975,289 treasury shares to participants in equity-based incentive plans. After the transfer, Nokia held 132,353,333 of its own shares, the company said.
Competition is stiff. Cisco shares hit a record last week after the U.S. networking company raised its annual revenue forecast and said AI-related orders from hyperscalers — large cloud and data-centre operators — had reached $5.3 billion so far this fiscal year, with an expected $9 billion total.
Arista Networks is another benchmark for investors tracking AI network spending. Reuters reported in February that demand for Arista’s Ethernet switches and routers had risen as companies increased AI infrastructure investment.
The risk is that the AI trade asks more of Nokia than it can prove quarter by quarter. Nokia itself has flagged competitive intensity, customer investment swings, product-roadmap pressure, semiconductor procurement and supply-chain disruption as risks. A slowdown in cloud capital spending, or delays in turning lab work into commercial deployments, could make the recent share-price gains look stretched.
