Nokia wagers future on Nvidia as it goes all-in on AI infrastructure market

Nokia once owned the loudest sound in tech. The ringtone sat in pockets, buses, offices, and streets. By 2009, that tune played about 1.8 billion times a day, or 20,000 times every second.

The sound came from Francisco Tárrega’s guitar piece Gran Vals. It matched a company that ruled phones from the mid-1990s to its 2008 high point. That run ended fast when the iPhone arrived, and cheap Android phones followed.

By 2025, Nokia stood far from the days of the 3310 and the Snake game. The phone era collapse pushed it to sell its devices unit and walk away from hardware people once trusted with their lives. The company now sells network gear, cloud links, and optical systems.

In October, Nvidia agreed to invest $1 billion and form a partnership focused on AI inside telecom networks. The market reacted fast. Shares jumped 25%. The valuation sits near €32 billion, far below its old peak.

The mobile phone collapse rewrote the business

The fall came after years of dominance. In 2000, Nokia held 26.4% of the global handset market, based on data from CCS Insight. At the dot-com peak, it was worth about €286 billion and made up close to 4% of Finland’s GDP.

The company sold 126 million units of the 3310. People called it the brick. The phone shipped with Snake, which kept users glued to tiny screens.

Jorma Ollila, chief executive from 1992 to 2006, said the phones won because marketers ran the business while rivals chased raw tech. He said belief inside the company ran deep and mobile ended up far bigger than expected.

That belief did not save it later. When Apple released the iPhone in 2007, the shift hit hard. Ben Harwood of New Street Research said the company resisted the change, moved too slowly, and failed to rebuild its software to fight iOS and Android.

A late gamble followed. In 2011, the firm adopted Microsoft’s Windows Phone system and launched Lumia devices. The phones failed. Ben Wood of CCS Insight called the move a nail in the coffin.

In 2014, Nokia sold its devices and services unit to Microsoft for €5.4 billion. Revenue had dropped from €37.7 billion in 2007 to €10.7 billion. In 2008, Wood said it stood near 40% global share and never expected the collapse that followed.

Network deals replaced handset dreams

After leaving phones, Nokia leaned into telecom infrastructure. Governments raised security concerns about Chinese vendors, yet European operators still handed out major contracts. BT, Telefónica, and Deutsche Telekom signed deals.

Even so, market share in radio access networks kept sliding. Charts tracking spending showed a steady decline, adding pressure on the core business.

A second pivot arrived under Pekka Lundmark. The company pushed deeper into cloud services, data centers, and optical networks. In February, it bought Infinera for $2.3 billion to expand optical reach.

Shaz Ansari, a professor at Cambridge University, said the ability to reinvent comes from how a firm handles failure and shifts resources. He said the company cuts businesses when they fail and can jump across industries, not just products.

Lundmark stepped aside in April. Justin Hotard took over and targeted the AI supercycle. The strategy centers on optical gear that moves data between centers and routers that support cloud services. Nvidia’s interest brought attention fast. Investors saw the partnership as a gateway into AI spending that runs into hundreds of billions of dollars each year.

The new focus does not come without pushback. Analysts flagged risk tied to the unstable pace of AI investment.

Rivals like Ciena and Cisco chase the same budgets. Paolo Pescatore of PP Foresight said concerns remain about future returns, citing customer reluctance to depend on one supplier.

Hotard rejected the idea of a straight path. He said survival rarely follows a clean line and requires constant shifts.

Today, Nokia faces a crowded field, volatile spending cycles, and expectations driven by Nvidia’s backing. The strategy places the company inside the hottest corner of tech, but heat does not guarantee safety.

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