Nokia Sees AI Swallowing 44% of Global Network Traffic by 2035 as Shares Gain 3.5%

Nokia's research arm has put a number on how deeply artificial intelligence will reshape global networks: by 2035, AI is expected to account for 44% of all worldwide network traffic. The projection, published Wednesday in the company's Global Network Traffic Report, sees total data volumes climbing to almost 3,789 exabytes per month.

That forecast lands squarely on Nokia's home turf — the capacity and infrastructure build-out its equipment business supplies. Investors responded warmly. The stock added 3.5% on Friday to close at EUR 7.00, catching a broader rebound in battered technology names that also lifted the Nasdaq, according to media reports, after two straight sessions of losses in AI-related shares.

Network Infrastructure Outpaces the Group

The traffic report followed quarterly figures published on October 22, which showed Nokia's Network Infrastructure unit growing faster than the group as a whole. Revenue in that division reached EUR 2.16 billion, up 17% year on year.

At group level, Nokia had reported net sales of EUR 5.15 billion for the third quarter of 2026 about three weeks earlier — a 9% increase in constant currency. Comparable operating profit jumped 35% to EUR 605 million. Management pointed to robust demand from artificial intelligence and cloud customers, and left its full-year 2026 guidance untouched: comparable operating profit of between EUR 2.1 billion and EUR 2.6 billion.

Looking further out, Nokia forecast growth of 25% to 30% in 2027 for its combined optical networks and IP networks business.

First AI-RAN Call Carried Over a Live Commercial Network

On the technology side, Nokia, T-Mobile and NVIDIA completed what Nokia describes as the world's first AI-RAN call over an operating commercial network on October 21. The test in Bellevue, Washington, combined Nokia's radio equipment and software with server infrastructure from NVIDIA; T-Mobile confirmed the call ran over its production network.

The partners aren't stopping there. Further field trials will probe additional algorithms for AI in the radio access network, alongside tests of running AI workloads on the same infrastructure that carries RAN traffic. Nokia and NVIDIA also unveiled expanded AI-RAN work aimed at commercial deployment, plus a jointly developed sovereign platform with AI agents for autonomous telecom networks. Nokia cited progress by Elisa in a live network and planned trials with BT, Deutsche Telekom and Orange.

Moody's Upgrade and a Stake Disclosure

Credit rating agency Moody's lifted Nokia to Baa3 with a positive outlook roughly a week ago, according to media reports — a move that returns the vendor to investment-grade territory. Separately, a stake disclosure filed on Thursday by FMR LLC put its economically attributable holding in Nokia at 3.8% as of September 30.