Lab to Ledger: How Nokia's AI Bet and a €1 Billion Quarter Pushed Shares to €13.30

Nokia's stock closes at €13.30 after a 9.24% rally, driven by its AI Networking Lab opening, 54% Q1 profit jump, FCC approval, and analyst upgrades that reposition the firm as an AI infrastructure play.

Nokia’s stock closed at €13.30 on Friday, its highest mark in more than 16 years, after a 9.24% surge that capped a week of transformative news flow. The shares are now up 138.86% year to date, rewriting a narrative that once pegged the Finnish company as a legacy telecom equipment provider.

The catalyst was tangible: on May 21, Nokia threw open the doors of its AI Networking Innovation Lab in Sunnyvale, California. The research hub is designed to accelerate collaboration with partners including AMD, Lenovo, Supermicro and Keysight, focusing squarely on data-centre networking — the backbone of high-performance AI workloads. For investors, the lab signals that Nokia is no longer merely a 5G gear supplier but an infrastructure play for the AI era.

That strategic shift is backed by numbers. Comparable operating profit for the first quarter jumped 54% to €281 million, comfortably ahead of the €250 million analysts had pencilled in. Earnings per share came in at €0.05, up from €0.03 a year ago. Revenue from AI and cloud clients surged 49% and now accounts for 8% of total sales. During the quarter alone, Nokia booked €1 billion in fresh orders from that customer base.

The optics-and-IP networking division, widely viewed as the prime beneficiary of the AI infrastructure buildout, had its growth outlook lifted from 10–12% to 18–20%. That upward revision gave the stock an additional leg, as it confirmed that the lab’s promise is translating into commercial momentum.

Regulatory tailwinds added to the case. In mid-May, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission granted conditional approval for Nokia’s in-home broadband devices — beacons and optical network terminals — exempting them from “Covered List” restrictions. The decision removes uncertainty around U.S. shipments and paves the way for deeper market penetration. Nokia also announced it will manufacture its next generation of Wi-Fi 8 gateways in the United States, a move that aligns with Washington’s push for domestic supply chains.

On the leadership front, Emma Falck will take the helm of Nokia’s Mobile Infrastructure business starting in September. Her appointment is widely seen as a vote of confidence in the company’s AI-native approach to 5G and future 6G networks, further embedding the new strategy at an operational level.

Analyst houses have quickly repriced the stock to reflect this metamorphosis. Morgan Stanley, CFRA, Argus, JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, Arete and Nordea have all raised their ratings or price targets. The re-evaluation now benchmarks Nokia against optical-networking and AI-infrastructure peers rather than traditional telecom equipment makers — a structural shift that underpins the recent rally.

The next milestone is the second-quarter earnings report on July 23, followed by the ex-dividend date on July 27 for a payout of €0.04 per share. By then, the market will be watching closely to see whether the AI-and-cloud narrative continues to convert into contract wins and revenue growth. Friday’s close at a 16-year high suggests investors are buying the story — but the real test is whether Nokia can keep delivering the numbers to match.