Nokia CEO Justin Hotard (pictured) pointed to a boom in sales for its AI and cloud products during Q3, as he asserted the vendor is in a strong position to take advantage of growing demand for related infrastructure.

AI and cloud sales were up 123% year-on-year, with €1.5 billion of new orders placed in the quarter.

Hotard reported there is also an order backlog, positioning it for further growth in the area.

“Nokia’s strengths are uniquely suited to meet growing demands for AI infrastructure that is larger, more distributed and hyperconnected,” he added. “We are investing where we can differentiate and co-innovate with hyperscalers”.

Hotard highlighted progress on AI-RAN, which was the subject of an update yesterday (21 October) made at an event held by the Finnish vendor’s partner and investor Nvidia.

“AI-native networks are moving into the physical world and our AI-RAN platform is being developed to deliver the performance needed for this market,” Hotard said.

Gains
Nokia booked net profit of €156 million in Q3, up 95%.

Net sales were almost €5.2 billion, a 10% increase. The latter figure would have been a 9% rise with exchange rate fluctuations stripped out.

In its Mobile Infrastructure division, revenue was up 5% to €2.9 billion, partly attributed to shifting income from Q4 into Q3. The company noted this part of the business benefitted from “commercial discipline” and continued execution of cost reduction measures.

Hotard highlighted Nokia had continued to “simplify our portfolio” and was on track to complete the integration of optical networks company Infinera by the end of 2026, having acquired it in 2025.

The process is set to be completed a year ahead of its original plan, with the executive noting this created €200 million in net synergies.

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With Nvidia’s GTC Berlin event in full swing, the company’s telecoms boss Ronnie Vasishta and Nokia chief technology and AI officer Pallavi Mahajan sit down with the Mobile World Live Podcast in an exclusive interview to reveal the next stage of the pair’s AI-RAN journey, as they team up with European heavyweights to turn networks into distributed intelligence platforms.

Listen on Spotify
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00:00 — AI-RAN explained
7:20 — Operator trials
11:00 — Beyond edge hype
15:05 — AI-RAN economics
17:45 — Sovereign AI
21:10 — Commercialisation and 6G

The post Podcast: Exclusive – Nokia, Nvidia advance AI-RAN at GTC appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Nokia signed an agreement to sell its Enterprise Campus Edge (ECE) business to investment company Aurelius Group, a move the Finnish vendor stated sharpens its portfolio and directs capital to areas earmarked for long-term value.

Value of the planned transaction was undisclosed and Nokia expects the deal to close in the first half of 2027, subject to customary closing conditions.

Nokia this month also completed a deal to sell its fixed wireless access (FWA) CPE business to US broadband vendor Inseego.

Under Aurelius’ ownership, Nokia said ECE will continue to operate as a standalone business but benefit from greater independence and a dedicated strategic focus. Employees are expected to transfer with the business, in accordance with applicable local laws and processes.

ECE has a big presence in the private wireless market, serving almost 900 customers across industries including manufacturing, mining, logistics, airports, ports and power generation worldwide.

Its portfolio also includes industrial devices, on-premises operational technology, edge and micro-edge solutions and software applications to power industrial AI use cases.

Konstanty Owczarek, chief corporate development officer at Nokia, said the deal provides ECE a strong foundation for growth. “Our priority throughout the transition will be continued growth of the business and continuity for existing customers and employees,” he added.

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US broadband vendor Inseego completed its deal to buy Nokia’s fixed wireless access (FWA) CPE business, in a move it expects will roughly double its revenue.

By adding indoor, outdoor and mmWave FWA technologies to its wireless broadband portfolio, Inseego stated it now has a global presence across consumer and business connectivity.

Its footprint for operators now includes Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Oceania and the Americas, while also expanding its engineering capabilities.

To support its global ambition, Inseego established an international headquarters in Amsterdam, a development centre in Athens, Greece, expanded its presence in Bangalore, India, and added customer-facing sales and technical resources across its new markets.

“We now have the scale, technology, and global reach to support carriers across business, residential, and mobile use cases,” Inseego CEO Juho Sarvikas said.

The deal, announced in April, grants Nokia approximately 1.9 million common shares, representing an 11% ownership stake in Inseego

The Finnish vendor also received warrants to purchase up to 800,000 shares of common stock, at an exercise price of $4.26 per share.

Nokia will also kick in a further $10 million cash payment by 15 October to support engineering work on interoperability between Inseego’s device operating system and cloud platform and certain Nokia technology ecosystems over the coming year.

Nokia will provide transition support and refer new FWA opportunities to Inseego.

About 250 people from the acquired business will support Inseego’s engineering, product management, supply chain, sourcing and customer support operations. They include employees joining Inseego and Nokia personnel providing support under a transition services agreement.

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Nokia and satellite sector specialist ICEYE inked a deal to develop sovereign low Earth orbit (LEO)-based communications systems for government use cases including defence, border security and disaster response.

The Finnish pair aim to launch the first communications satellites for the project in 2028, noting the planned systems would give nations ownership and control of the satellites, ground infrastructure and terminals.

In a joint statement, they explained they intend to deliver “targeted, high-throughput, low-latency connectivity over priority mission areas” to complement existing military and commercial networks rather than replace them.

Their birds are expected to add reach, resilience and capacity for critical connections.

The pact draws on ICEYE’s expertise in delivering sovereign satellite projects in Europe, and Nokia’s experience in networks and defence.

They plan to “integrate satellites, ground infrastructure and ruggedised end-user terminals” to extend ICEYE’s so-called sovereign intelligence from space business model to satellite communications.

The satellite company has customers in defence, environmental monitoring, insurance and emergency management, among others, operating what it describes as the world’s largest and most advanced synthetic aperture radar satellite constellation.

It provides data services and whole sovereign satellite projects.

Complementary
ICEYE CEO and co-founder Rafal Modrzewski said “nations must be able to fully own and control their communications, without dependency on a foreign commercial operator’s terms of service”.

“We delivered Poland its own radar satellite system in under a year. Partnering with Nokia lets us move at a similar speed for satellite communications, on the timelines nations need.”

Nokia president and CEO Justin Hotard added “sovereign operations depend on the ability to sense, decide and act in real time. Physical AI makes that possible, but only with secure, resilient connectivity across land, sea, air and space”.

He added the joint project would complement terrestrial networks “giving nations the situational awareness, connectivity and control they need to operate with confidence in contested environments across all domains”.

The move is the latest from European companies targeting increasing demand for sovereign technology systems from commercial and public sector organisations.

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