Nokia Charts AI's Network Future From Japan to North Carolina as Shares Rebound 3.5%

Nokia shares closed at €7.00 on Friday, up 3.5%, as technology stocks recovered broadly and AI-related equities on Wall Street bounced back from a sharp selloff earlier in the week. The advance came alongside a busy stretch of announcements that sketched out the company's ambitions for artificial intelligence across telecom networks.

A Long-Range Traffic Forecast

At the center of that push is Nokia's own outlook for network traffic. In a report published Wednesday, the company projected that AI will account for 44% of global data traffic by 2035, with total monthly traffic climbing to nearly 3,789 exabytes by then. Both figures are long-term expectations rather than measures already achieved.

That forecast sits alongside a series of concrete projects. On October 20, Nokia and SoftBank agreed to a commercial field trial of AI-driven radio access networks in Japan, scheduled for 2027 — an arrangement that initially covers testing of the technology. A day later, Nokia and NVIDIA announced progress on AI-powered radio access networks toward commercial deployment and unveiled a sovereign AI-agent platform for autonomous telecommunications networks.

Analyst Recognition and a U.S. Network Win

Independent validation arrived Thursday from ABI Research, which ranked Nokia alongside Ciena and Cisco among the leading vendors in its ranking of open optical line systems for connecting data centers. The firm pointed to demand for optical connectivity infrastructure, citing the spread of AI workloads across campuses, cities and regions. The assessment therefore covered systems that link data centers across sites.

On the deployment side, Hotwire Communications has selected Nokia to build a next-generation network in North Carolina, designed to be ready for AI-oriented networking architectures. The project relies on Nokia's 7750 Service Router, and the selection covers both the network build and a specifically named router platform. Commercial launch is expected in early 2027, keeping the network start a future milestone. Nokia did not disclose a contract value.

Beyond the Network Core

Nokia's cooperation efforts extend past AI networking. Roughly two weeks ago, Nokia and ICEYE signed a memorandum of understanding with Ukraine's defense ministry to explore possible collaboration on sovereign satellite communications.

Friday's gains coincided with a recovery in AI stocks following a sharp global selloff, which media reports suggested had brought the selling wave in that segment to a halt, at least for now.