Chip giant Nvidia will make a US$ 1 billion equity investment in Finland’s telecom equipment maker Nokia, buying 166.4 million newly issued shares at US$ 6.01 apiece, which corresponds to a 2.9% stake.
The deal is not purely financial: the two companies will pursue a strategic partnership to embed Nvidia’s architecture into Nokia’s systems, co-develop AI networking tools, and explore integrating Nokia’s optical and switching products into Nvidia’s AI infrastructure.
Nokia will use the funds to accelerate its 5G and 6G RAN software development and expand its presence in data centre networking. The timing is advantageous: in Q3, Nokia delivered optical and cloud business growth, beating earnings expectations as demand from AI-driven data centres picked up.
On the market, reaction was swift. Nokia’s share price spiked 21%, reaching a 10-year high, and adding roughly 6.7 billion euros to its market capitalization. Nvidia too saw gains, around 5%, through the continuing narrative of AI infrastructure expansion.
This move fits into a broader pattern: Nvidia has in recent months pushed into strategic equity investments to lock in its position across the AI value chain. For example, its large planned investment in OpenAI aims to back new data centre deployment. More broadly in Europe, Nvidia has also paired with telecom operators such as Deutsche Telekom to build AI cloud offerings for industrial users.
