By Gianluca Lo Nostro and Agnieszka Olenska
April 23 (Reuters) - Nokia raised the growth targets for its artificial intelligence business on Thursday, after the network gear maker beat market expectations for quarterly comparable operating profit, sending its shares to their highest level in 16 years..
Comparable operating profit jumped 54% to 281 million euros ($329 million) in the first quarter of 2026. That was above the average estimate of 250 million euros from analysts polled by Infront.
Nokia's
shares rose nearly 7% in early Helsinki trading, touching their highest price since April 2010, when it was still known as a phone company.
Its sales have jumped in recent quarters thanks to high demand for AI data centres built by so-called hyperscalers—large cloud service providers—that rely on fibre optic cables.
The Finnish company, previously known for its iconic phone business and later for making 5G gear, is now one of the world's top manufacturers of optical transport systems after buying U.S.-based Infinera.
Comparable net sales reached 4.5 billion euros in the quarter, in line with market estimates. The Espoo, Finland-based group said net sales from AI and cloud customers climbed 49%, as it booked 1 billion euros in new orders.
Nokia now expects the addressable market for AI and cloud to grow by 27% annually from 2025 to 2028, up from the 16% it estimated at an investor event in November.
Net sales for the network infrastructure segment are expected to grow between 12% and 14% this year, compared with a January forecast of 6% to 8%. The upgrade was driven by Nokia's optical and IP networks businesses, it said.
"As a result, we are currently tracking somewhat above the mid-point of our full year financial outlook of 2.0 billion to 2.5 billion euros in comparable operating profit," CEO Justin Hotard said in a statement.
($1 = 0.8544 euros)
(Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro, Agnieszka Olenska, Editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)
