Nokia Stock Has More Than Doubled. Here’s What’s Fueling The Rally

Nokia stock (NYSE:NOK) was founded in 1865 as a paper mill. In 2026, it has somehow become one of the market’s hottest AI infrastructure stocks.

NOK is up roughly 140% year-to-date, climbing from around $6.50 at the start of the year to a 52-week high of $15.78 in May. The big turning point came in October 2025 when Nvidia invested $1 billion in Nokia at $6.01 per share, taking about a 3% stake.

The partnership is focused on AI-RAN, a system that combines AI workloads with wireless network infrastructure. Nokia and Nvidia are building it together, with T-Mobile already signed on as the first deployment partner. Investors immediately saw Nokia differently after that deal.

Then Q1 2026 earnings added even more fuel.

Revenue came in at 4.5 billion euros, up 4% year over year, while comparable operating profit jumped 54% to 281 million euros. EPS rose to 0.05 euros from 0.03 euros a year ago, beating estimates by roughly 31%.

The biggest growth came from AI infrastructure demand. Sales to AI and cloud customers surged 49%, and Nokia booked 1 billion euros in new cloud orders during the quarter, mostly tied to optical networking equipment used inside massive AI data centers.

That Optical Networks segment grew 20% in Q1 as hyperscalers rushed to build AI capacity. CEO Justin Hotard said cloud giants are expected to spend more than $700 billion collectively on AI infrastructure.

After the strong quarter, Nokia raised guidance. Network Infrastructure growth is now expected at 12% to 14%, while Optical and IP Networks are projected to grow 18% to 20%. Full-year operating profit guidance sits between 2.0 billion and 2.5 billion euros.

See how Nokia’s financials compare to its peers, Apple, Vertiv, Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson, FiEE and  Silynxcom.

The company is also spending heavily to keep up with demand, raising capex guidance to as much as 1 billion euros to expand optical manufacturing capacity.

In May, Nokia opened an AI Networking Innovation Lab in Sunnyvale, California, alongside partners including AMD, Lenovo, Supermicro, and Keysight. Nokia’s AI-RAN platform now has 10 public customers, including Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, SoftBank, and NTT Docomo.

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The next big catalyst is Q2 earnings in late July, plus Nvidia and T-Mobile AI-RAN field trials expected later this year.

There are still risks. AI spending cycles can cool quickly, telecom operators remain cautious about AI-RAN economics, and the stock has already had a massive run.

But the story around Nokia looks completely different now. Instead of being viewed as an old telecom hardware company, it is suddenly sitting in the middle of three of tech’s biggest spending trends: AI, optical networking, and next-generation wireless.

Not bad for a Finnish paper mill founded 161 years ago.

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