TLDR: NVIDIA has made a significant $1 billion equity investment in Nokia, acquiring a 2.9% stake in the Finnish telecom giant. This strategic move, coupled with a new partnership, aims to combine their strengths for AI-driven networking and accelerate Nokia’s development in 5G and 6G software. The announcement led to a substantial surge in both Nokia’s and NVIDIA’s stock prices.
In a major development poised to reshape the landscape of AI-driven networking, U.S. chipmaking titan NVIDIA has announced a $1 billion equity investment in Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia. The news, which broke on October 28, 2025, sent shares of both companies soaring, with Nokia experiencing a surge of 20-25% and NVIDIA reaching new record highs, up over 4%.
NVIDIA’s investment involves the purchase of approximately 166.4 million new Nokia shares at a price of $6.01 each, granting NVIDIA a 2.9% ownership stake in the company. This makes NVIDIA the fourth-largest owner of Nokia, according to shareholder service Holdings. The investment is not merely financial; it underpins a new strategic partnership designed to merge the companies’ expertise in artificial intelligence and networking.
Nokia plans to allocate the proceeds from this investment to ‘accelerate its strategic plans to advance trusted connectivity for the AI supercycle and other general corporate purposes.’ This includes the crucial development of its 5G and 6G software to run on NVIDIA’s advanced architecture, as well as expanding its footprint in cloud and AI infrastructure. The collaboration will also focus on co-developing AI networking solutions and exploring the integration of Nokia’s optical and data center switching technologies into NVIDIA’s future AI systems.
‘The investment complements the strategic partnership to shape and lead the AI-RAN market and support the development of data center networks,’ a company statement highlighted. This move underscores NVIDIA’s continued expansion into AI infrastructure, building on previous investments in companies like AI cloud computing provider CoreWeave and AI chip designer Arm. These earlier investments have also seen significant stock appreciation, with Arm shares up over 40% and CoreWeave tripling from its IPO price in 2025.
Nokia, traditionally known for its mobile network products, has been strategically repositioning itself to cater to the burgeoning AI data center market. New CEO Justin Hotard, who previously led Intel’s data centers and AI group, has been instrumental in this shift. The company recently reported strong third-quarter profits, partly attributed to sales to AI-driven data centers following its acquisition of Infinera, an optical networking firm.
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The market’s enthusiastic response, with Nokia’s stock hitting a near 10-year high, reflects Wall Street’s confidence in the synergy between NVIDIA’s AI prowess and Nokia’s networking capabilities. This partnership is seen as a significant step towards blending telecom and AI innovation, a sector anticipated to experience explosive growth in the coming years.
