Nokia has reported a comparable operating profit of €434 million in the second quarter of 2026, an 18% increase from the previous year. The Finnish company thus exceeds analysts' forecasts, which expected €382 million.
Nokia closed the second quarter of 2026 with a comparable operating profit of €434 million, an 18% increase compared to the same period in 2025. This figure surpasses analysts' expectations, which placed the result at €382 million, according to the Finnish company.
Net sales reached €4.82 billion, with an 8% growth (9% at constant currency). The main driver of this growth has been the demand for infrastructure for artificial intelligence data centres, a segment in which Nokia has positioned itself as a key supplier for hyperscalers and cloud operators.
The AI & Cloud segment has consolidated itself as the most dynamic. In the first quarter of 2026, this division already recorded a year-on-year increase of 49% in net sales, with €1 billion in orders. In the second quarter, the trend has continued thanks to the demand for network capacity for AI data centres, which drives sales in fibre, optical, long-haul, and backhaul.
The Network Infrastructure division, directly linked to the rise of data centres, has led Nokia to revise its expectations for 2026 upwards. The company now projects a growth of 12-14% for this segment, compared to the 6-8% estimated at the beginning of the year. This revision reflects a structurally higher demand than previously anticipated.
The Cloud and Network Services segment also benefits from the transition to more software-defined networks, although the largest quantified pull comes from fixed and optical infrastructure. Meanwhile, Mobile Infrastructure remains relevant, but the most dynamic growth is concentrated in fixed network infrastructure.
In the ecosystem of infrastructure providers for data centres, Nokia competes with Ericsson, Huawei, Cisco, Ciena, and Arista Networks. The results for the first half of 2026 show that Nokia is capturing a significant share of the hyperscaler demand. While Ericsson has not reported comparable growth figures in AI & Cloud, Huawei faces geopolitical constraints in Western markets. Nokia differentiates itself by offering high-performance, low-latency, and scalable solutions, critical features for networks supporting AI data centres.
The company maintains its guidance for comparable operating profit between €2 billion and €2.5 billion for the 2026 fiscal year. With the second quarter result already above expectations, the second half should continue to show growth above the group average, especially if the Network Infrastructure revision to 12-14% and the sustained acceleration of AI & Cloud materialise.
Nokia has also raised its outlook for the total addressable market: it now expects the AI & Cloud market to grow at a CAGR of 27% between 2025 and 2028, well above the previously estimated 16%. The total addressable market has increased from €101 billion in 2025 to a projected €126 billion for 2028, with an annual compound growth of 8%.
The main risk to these projections is integration costs, especially following acquisitions like that of Infinera, which has already been mentioned as a pressure on operating profit in 2025-2026. However, the current trajectory suggests that Nokia is well positioned to capitalise on the structural demand for AI infrastructure.
For startups in the tech ecosystem, Nokia's resurgence as a key player in AI infrastructure offers a lesson: identify adjacent markets before they become mainstream. Nokia did not invent AI data centres, but it early detected that network infrastructure would be a critical bottleneck and has successfully positioned its optical transport and software-defined networking solutions as essential enablers.
The second quarter results will be published in full in the coming weeks, and investors will be keenly watching the evolution of orders in AI & Cloud, as well as the impact of the integration of Infinera on margins.
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