Nokia beats profit estimates as AI data center demand surges

Nokia's third-quarter profit came in ahead of analyst expectations, and the driver was data center networking rather than phones or the cell towers the company is still associated with. The Finnish company benefited from a wave of spending on the equipment that connects the servers behind the AI boom.

The most concrete figure is that Nokia's sales to AI and cloud customers jumped 123%. The company is leaning further into spending by hyperscalers, the large cloud operators building out AI infrastructure, and that shift is what lifted its results this quarter.

The material available here does not include the detailed numbers behind the beat. There is no profit figure, no revenue total, no analyst consensus to compare against, and no guidance for coming quarters. The 123% growth in AI and cloud sales is the only specific measure given, and it is not broken down further, so the size of that business relative to Nokia's overall sales is not clear.

The story matters because it shows a legacy telecom equipment maker finding growth in AI infrastructure. Demand for the networking gear that links AI servers is now strong enough to move the earnings of a Nordic company best known for mobile networks, and Nokia is positioning itself more firmly toward that market.