In 2014, $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ spent 7.2 billion USD to acquire its mobile business from $Nokia Oyj (NOK.US)$ .

That year, everyone thought the story of this Finnish company, which had been around since 1865, had come to an end. The Nokia 3310, remembered by a generation for its durability — able to crack walnuts, survive being thrown against a wall, and play the game Snake — along with the entire company behind it, was relegated to the 'tears of the times' album.

Eleven years later, Jensen Huang called and said he would give them 1 billion USD.

Nokia's stock has surged approximately 110% from the beginning of the year, reaching its highest level in nearly 20 years.

This is not a 'dead cat bounce' for an old stock; it is an underappreciated thread within the AI narrative expected between 2025 and 2026.

Moreover, hardly any Chinese investors are seriously discussing it.

Who is Justin Hotard?

The story begins with a name.

In February 2025, Nokia's board of directors announced that the current CEO, Pekka Lundmark, will step down, and on April 1st, an American named Justin Hotard will take over.

This is the first American-born CEO in Nokia's history since its founding in 1865.

Hotard is a typical figure in the tech industry who is 'not very famous but always seems to be at the forefront of trends.' He earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois and an MBA from MIT Sloan. He worked at$HP Inc (HPQ.US)$(HPE) for eight and a half years, eventually leading the high-performance computing and AI lab, where he personally delivered the world's first exascale supercomputer for the U.S. Department of Energy. Then, in early 2024, Intel recruited him to head their Data Center and AI division, reporting directly to Pat Gelsinger.

Pay attention to his resume. HPC, data centers, and AI—these three keywords have nothing to do with Nokia’s image over the past decade.

What does Nokia do? It builds base stations, telecom equipment, fiber optics, and sells to operators—a typical, slow-moving, market-forgotten 'Old Europe' hardware company.

But in early 2025, Nokia’s board made a seemingly unconventional decision: they didn’t want someone knowledgeable about telecom; they wanted someone knowledgeable about AI.

In the appointment announcement, Chairperson Sari Baldauf stated: 'The AI and data center markets are key areas for Nokia’s future growth.'

At that moment, almost no one took it seriously. The market reaction was lukewarm, with only a slight increase in stock prices. All analysts were writing balanced analyses titled 'Finnish veteran company changes leadership—can the newcomer reverse the decline?'

No one realized that this company was quietly changing its engine.

An Undervalued Acquisition

Viewed in isolation, Hotard’s appointment appears to be just another routine executive reshuffle. But when considered alongside another event from six months ago, the narrative changes completely.

In June 2024, Nokia announced its acquisition of a U.S. company—Infinera—for USD 2.3 billion.

What does Infinera do? It operates in optical networking—a field that, simply put, involves supplying fiber-optic communication equipment used between data centers and between server racks.

If you’ve spoken with professionals working on AI infrastructure, you’ll know one key fact:

The biggest bottleneck in AI data centers isn’t GPUs—it’s optical communications.

$NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$A single rack can house 72 GPUs, which must exchange data intensively among themselves. A data center may contain tens of thousands of GPUs that also need to communicate. Moreover, training data must be synchronized across multiple data centers. With every additional cluster, demand for optical modules grows exponentially.

That’s why, over the past two years, optical module companies—both in the U.S., $Coherent (COHR.US)$and in China,$Zhongji Innolight (300308.SZ)$、$Eoptolink Technology Inc., (300502.SZ)$have seen their stock prices soar.

Infinera is one of the few companies that simultaneously master two core technologies: photonic integrated circuits (PIC) and data center interconnects. It already has established customer relationships with North American hyperscale cloud vendors such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Google.

When Nokia signed this deal in June 2024, the market interpreted it as a narrative of 'a traditional telecom company acquiring another traditional fiber-optic company, a typical case of two elephants huddling together for warmth.'

However, by February 2025, when the transaction closed and Infinera was consolidated into Nokia's financials, the Finnish veteran firm’s financial figures began to shift:

• For the full year of 2025, optical networking revenue grew by 17% year-over-year.
• In the first quarter of 2026, optical networking sales reached €821 million, growing 20% year-over-year, surpassing IP and core software to become Nokia's second-largest business.
• Revenue contributed by AI and cloud customers surged 49% year-over-year in a single quarter.

The most critical figure is this: in the first quarter of 2026, AI and cloud customers placed orders worth €1 billion with Nokia.

What does this number mean? It means that the order volume in a single quarter exceeded Infinera’s total annual sales before its acquisition.

And all this happened with almost no attention outside Western tech media.

Jensen Huang’s call

What truly shocked the market was October 28, 2025.

On that day, NVIDIA announced at the GTC conference in Washington that it would invest 1 billion US dollars in Nokia at a price of 6.01 US dollars per share.

Pay attention to this detail: '6.01 US dollars per share' is a subscription price, not the market price. NVIDIA is not buying stocks on the secondary market; instead, Nokia has issued a new batch of shares specifically for NVIDIA. This represents a strategic investment by NVIDIA, not just a financial one.

Why did Jensen Huang give Nokia 1 billion US dollars?

NVIDIA’s official statement is that the two parties will jointly develop AI-RAN (AI Radio Access Network). Nokia’s 5G and 6G software will be ported to NVIDIA’s CUDA platform, and NVIDIA’s Arc-Pro accelerator, specifically developed for the telecommunications industry, will be integrated into Nokia’s base stations.

T-Mobile USA became the first pilot operator, with Dell providing servers.

At first glance, this appears to be another typical story of 'AI empowering an industry.' However, the real surprise lies in a technical detail that 99% of people would overlook.

First, you need to understand the context: in the AI-RAN space, Nokia is not the only player. Its biggest competitor is$LM Ericsson Telephone (ERIC.US)$(Ericsson).

Ericsson and Nokia seem to be doing the same thing, both providing 5G/6G base station equipment to operators. However, when it comes to 'how to integrate GPUs into base stations,' they have taken two completely different approaches.

Engineers half-jokingly refer to these two paths as the 'religious war.'

The first path is called Lookaside (bypass acceleration). This is the route taken by Ericsson and Intel. Simply put: the CPU in the base station remains the main controller, while the GPU acts as a 'helper placed on the side.' When an acceleration task needs to be computed, the CPU 'hands over' the task to the GPU, which then returns it after completion. Data has to constantly jump back and forth between the CPU and GPU.

The second path is called Inline (in-line acceleration). This is the route followed by Nokia and NVIDIA. In short: network data received by the base station first enters the GPU, which processes it before handing it over to the CPU. The GPU becomes the protagonist, while the CPU takes a supporting role.

Sounds like just an engineering sequence issue?

No, this represents a fundamental divergence about 'who will be the computing center of the future.'

The entire raison d'être of NVIDIA is to prove that the GPU should be the center of data processing, with the CPU taking a backseat. The CUDA ecosystem and all its design philosophy revolve around 'GPU-centricity.' The Lookaside path presupposes from an architectural standpoint that 'the CPU is still the master,' which fundamentally conflicts with NVIDIA's worldview.

Thus, when NVIDIA sought a telecom partner, it could not choose Ericsson. It had to select a partner willing to place the GPU at the center stage.

Nokia is that partner.

This is why this $1 billion investment is not merely a 'strategic investment.' Jensen Huang personally marked a new chapter in his AI narrative; he is purchasing an entry point for NVIDIA’s GPUs to enter five million base stations worldwide.

According to forecasts by the analytics firm Omdia, the cumulative market size of AI-RAN will exceed $200 billion by 2030.

If told correctly, this story could make Jensen Huang's $1 billion investment one of the highest returning investments of his life.

Geopolitics played a role.

Nokia’s resurgence also involves some subtle undertones.

On April 13, 2026, Oliver Wong, an analyst at Bank of America, upgraded Nokia from 'Neutral' to 'Buy,' significantly raising the target price from €6.87 to €10.70. On that day, Nokia's share price surged by 9.67%, with trading volume increasing by 178% compared to the three-month average.

In that report, Oliver Wong listed four reasons why Nokia was undervalued. In the third reason, he wrote in a very tactful manner, but the meaning was crystal clear:

"After European countries gradually restricted Huawei and ZTE, Nokia has effectively become the 'last remaining Western sovereign-level supplier.'"

In plain terms, Europe wants to build sovereign data centers and sovereign 5G/6G networks, but Chinese equipment is not usable, and there are no such companies in the U.S. The only remaining Western suppliers are Nokia and Ericsson. However, Ericsson lacks full-stack capabilities in optical networking, and Infinera, which was acquired by Nokia, is an American company.$Cisco (CSCO.US)$As a result, almost all funding for European sovereign cloud projects flows toward Nokia.

This represents a classic 'geopolitical arbitrage' opportunity, with changes in the international order handing Nokia a significant gift. As long as it remains in the race, it will benefit from this dividend.

Coupled with the demand for optical networking from U.S. hyperscale cloud providers and T-Mobile's bet on AI-RAN, three sources of capital simultaneously flow into Nokia from different directions.

It took the market 18 months to realize this.

When you piece all the clues together, a very dramatic timeline emerges:

• In June 2024, Nokia announced the acquisition of Infinera.
• In February 2025, Hotard was appointed as the new CEO.
• In October 2025, NVIDIA invested $1 billion.
• On April 13, 2026, Bank of America upgraded its rating, and the stock price surged by 9.67% in a single day.
• On April 22, 2026, Q1 earnings disclosed €1 billion in AI/cloud orders, with optical networking business growing by 20%.
• On April 27, 2026, CFRA doubled its target price from the original $8 to $16, and Nokia’s stock price hit a new high since 2015.

Have you noticed?

The fundamentals began to shift 18 months ago. However, it took the market 18 months to connect the dots.

This is the classic 'value discovery' process. When a story hasn't been clearly told, everyone regards it as 'old wine in an old bottle'; by the time the story becomes clear, a large portion of the valuation has already been restored.

Nokia currently has a forward P/E ratio of 26 times, which is not expensive for an optical networking business growing at 17%. However, compared to its low point earlier this year, it is no longer the 'forgotten stock' lying on the ground.

Over the past two years, Chinese investors have kept their eyes on NVIDIA,$Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM.US)$、$Broadcom (AVGO.US)$、 $Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US)$ which is the engine driving this wave of AI.

But beyond the engine, there are also the gearbox, drive shaft, tires, and highways.

The AI narrative is spreading from 'chips' to 'pipelines'.

The story of optical module manufacturers has been told for over a year. The next item likely to be repriced by the market may be base stations, fiber optics, data center power systems, or cooling systems.

History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

When a new technological paradigm truly arrives, the greatest alpha may not lie in the most obvious places.

It resides in those corners you might think have 'already been forgotten'.

https://news.futunn.com/en/post/73080828/weekend-reading-up-110-year-to-date-the-once-forgotten?level=1&data_ticket=1775509264844214

Nokia’s incredible revolution: From Snake to the most advanced G6 era

Nokia acquires Infinera and advances optical chip tech, strengthening its role in internet infrastructure, 6G, and AI, with long-term royalty revenues expected through 2040.

MAY 9, 2026 08:25

Many of us still hold a warm place in our hearts for the old Nokia phones - the ones with interchangeable panels and addictive games. Back then, Nokia was the undisputed queen of the tech world. But the revolution it is leading today is far removed from the world of small pocket devices; it is now focused on building the backbone of human civilization itself.

The Finnish telecommunications giant, once dominant in the mobile phone market, has gone through a complex journey of collapse and reinvention. Today, it is positioning itself as a powerful force behind global internet infrastructure, securing a role that could extend well into the middle of this century.

Nokia’s story is one of the most fascinating in modern business - a company that reached the highest peak and then fell from it at breathtaking speed. Until 2007, Nokia was synonymous with innovation and reliability. But that year, Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone and changed the rules of the game forever.

Nokia’s executives at the time dismissed the new device, claiming it was an expensive toy that would break easily and fail in a competitive market. That mistake came at a heavy cost: Within less than five years, Nokia lost its entire market share to Apple and to devices based on Google’s operating system. When the company realized it could not beat the iPhone on its own turf, it made a painful but brilliant strategic decision to reinvent itself as an infrastructure and patent company.

Today, the situation is completely different, and Nokia’s bet appears to have paid off significantly. The company has developed and registered thousands of patents without which no phone manufacturer in the world - including the largest - can sell devices using 5G or 6G technology. Nokia has become a central global authority in defining next-generation communication standards, granting it the right to collect licensing fees and royalties from virtually every device sold worldwide.

Nokia headquarters in Kfar Saba. The old logo. (credit: SHUTTERSTOCK)

These agreements were signed for the long term, securing stable and substantial revenue streams for the company through at least 2040. This business model transforms Nokia from a company competing for consumer attention into one that effectively “owns the roads” over which global data travels.

As part of its effort to lead the next technological revolution, Nokia is currently making one of its most significant moves: The acquisition of the American company Infinera. Infinera is not an ordinary tech company; it operates the world’s only development and production center for chips based on a material called indium phosphide.

This is a semiconductor with extraordinary physical properties, the most notable of which is its ability to emit light on its own. In traditional silicon-based chip technology, external light sources are required to transmit data through fiber optics, leading to significant energy loss and heat generation. Infinera’s chips allow a laser to be embedded directly within the chip itself, dramatically reducing power consumption and making data transmission significantly faster and more efficient.

Nokia has already secured patents related to this laser-based manufacturing technology, and as of 2026, it is the only company in the world that owns this capability. This combination allows artificial intelligence systems to operate at near light speed, with data flowing not through slow copper wires but through tiny optical chips.

Nokia now controls the entire value chain: It designs the chip, builds the laser system, and develops the software that manages it all. This move is especially critical in an era where artificial intelligence demands enormous computing power and energy consumption, and Nokia’s ability to provide efficient, high-speed solutions positions it as a uniquely capable player in the market.

The sixth generation of mobile communications, expected to be widely deployed in the coming years, will offer speeds 100 times faster than today’s 5G. This is not merely about faster mobile browsing, but about the ability to transmit massive amounts of data in real time with virtually no delay. Such capabilities will unlock possibilities that are difficult to imagine today.

Video calls will allow people to appear in full 3D and perfect quality, making it feel as though they are in the same room. This revolution will also transform medicine, allowing a surgeon in New York to operate on a patient in a hospital in Tel Aviv, with movements transmitted through the 6G network with perfect precision and no perceptible delay.

Nokia devices. (credit: PR)

At the same time, transportation will undergo dramatic change thanks to Nokia’s infrastructure. Autonomous vehicles will communicate continuously with each other and with road systems, eliminating traffic jams and enabling smooth traffic flow.

Cars will receive immediate alerts about a child running into the road before either the driver or vehicle sensors detect it, thanks to data streaming from smart street cameras connected to the high-speed network. This technology will save lives and make urban spaces significantly safer. All of this requires a stable, fast, and intelligent network - and Nokia is building those foundations in its laboratories and newly acquired facilities.

The economic implications of these moves are enormous for Nokia and for global capital markets. Senior analysts estimate that if Nokia decides in the future to spin off Infinera as an independent public company, its valuation could exceed that of the entire combined Nokia group today.

The reason is the exclusivity of indium phosphide technology and the massive demand expected from tech giants such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, all of which require energy-efficient solutions for their massive data centers. Nokia now holds a strategic asset unmatched by any other company, and it is leveraging this position to secure long-term dominance.

Although the average consumer no longer sees the Nokia logo on their phone every morning, the company is everywhere data flows. It is in the fiber optic cables underground, in antennas on rooftops, and in the servers that process our internet requests. The shift from focusing on end-user devices to focusing on infrastructure is what saved the company and made it more relevant than ever.

The coming years will be the real test of these technologies, but with a vast patent portfolio secured through 2040 and control over laser-chip production, Nokia is in a starting position that any other company could only dream of. The revolution is already here - and it is powered by Nokia’s laser light.

https://www.jpost.com/consumerism/article-895105

“Since VodafoneThree handed out those RAN contracts, the biggest change at the vendors has arguably been Nokia's tie-up with Nvidia. Securing a $1 billion investment from the giant chipmaker last October, Nokia aims to design 5G Advanced and 6G network software that will run on Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs), the chips used to train AI's large language models (LLMs). The move has provoked some telco anxiety about Nokia's commitment to its purpose-built 5G portfolio, with critics saying GPUs are too expensive and power-hungry to be deployed at cell sites. But Iain Milligan (Iain Milligan is VodafoneThree's director of network development and infrastructure) sounds encouraged by his observations so far.

The initial baseband product is a "hardware insert" that will slot into a Nokia AirScale chassis, meaning equipment would not have to be replaced, he approvingly noted. He also shrugged off concerns about energy consumption. "When you're going as far as deploying the full-power 5G site, the energy is there – it's just how to effectively manage it," Milligan said.”

https://www.lightreading.com/5g/vodafonethree-reveals-why-it-chose-ericsson-and-nokia-for-5g