HELSINKI, March 25, 2026, 16:01 (EET).
By 15:32 local in Helsinki, Nokia Oyj was trading up 1.88% at 7.17 euros on Nasdaq Helsinki. A minute before that, the ADR in New York had ticked up 0.97% to $8.33. The move tracked a broader relief rally in European stocks.
This stands out. Nokia’s investor-relations site lists its most recent stock exchange release as March 18, so for now, investors are stuck parsing through the wave of AI, optical networking, and telecom partnership headlines from March—no new filings to chew on. Eyes land next on April 23, the scheduled date for Nokia’s first-quarter report.
That set the stage. The pan-European STOXX 600 climbed 1.4% by 0856 GMT Wednesday, Reuters said, with every major sector in positive territory as hopes rose for a Middle East conflict de-escalation.
This month, Nokia kept investors on their toes. On March 2, Reuters said the Finnish telecom gear giant had inked fresh partnership agreements with TIM Brasil and Deutsche Telekom, coming right after a multi-year data centre contract with Telefonica in Spain. Then, on March 16, Nokia announced it rolled out new optical products aimed at handling AI-era data and trimming network costs.
Chief Executive Justin Hotard called AI “the new workload” that’s changing the shape of networks, according to a March 1 release. Two weeks later, on March 16, Network Infrastructure president David Heard described the industry as hitting a “critical inflection point.” Nokia Corporation | Nokia
Similar words are coming from outside the company. Rémy Pascal at Omdia called Nokia’s push into AI-driven radio access networks, or AI-RAN, “gaining traction.” Cignal AI’s Kyle Hollasch put it this way: AI is “fundamentally changing optical networks” as hyperscalers, telecom operators, and enterprises pile on new capacity. Nokia Corporation | Nokia
The financials look more stable than Nokia’s stock. Net sales hit 6.13 billion euros for the fourth quarter of 2025, with adjusted operating profit—Nokia’s term: comparable operating profit—at 1.06 billion euros. Nokia is aiming higher for 2026, setting a target of 2.0 billion to 2.5 billion euros in comparable operating profit.
The timing looks tricky here. Nokia expects first-quarter 2026 net sales—excluding Nokia Technologies—to slip more than they usually do on a seasonal basis. Operating margin? Only a touch higher than the same period last year. The company also pointed to tariffs, currency volatility, and macro uncertainty as factors clouding the outlook.
Competition is still fierce. Reuters said Tuesday that Vietnam has handed out several 5G contracts to Huawei and ZTE, despite Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson being tapped for the core 5G infrastructure. The move highlights just how divided the market is, even as Nokia and Ericsson position themselves as reliable Western vendors.
April 23 stands as the next date on the schedule for testing. For now, Nokia’s stock action looks driven by the AI news from March, a steadier market backdrop, and hopes pinned on the company’s upcoming results—those figures will tell if the network infrastructure gains have real staying power.
