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    Nokia Net Worth, Marketcap, Revenue, Competitors 2026

    DariusBy Updated:No Comments12 Mins Read
    Nokia Oyj logo
    Nokia Oyj logo

    Key Stats

    €19.2B Revenue 2024
    ~$45B Market Cap (early 2026)
    1865 Year Founded
    ~78,000 Employees (2024)
    130+ Countries of Operation

    Nokia Oyj is a global telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics company. It engages in the design and manufacture of mobile communications products and has operated through several business segments: Devices & Services, which includes Smart Devices (such as Lumia smartphones) and Mobile Phones (including Asha full-touch smartphones); HERE, which develops location-based products and services; and Nokia Siemens Networks (later Nokia Networks), a provider of telecommunications infrastructure with a focus on mobile broadband technology, professional services, managed services, and systems integration for operators worldwide.

    Nokia was founded in 1865 and took its current corporate form in 1967. It is headquartered in Espoo, Finland. Nokia has a long history of successful change and innovation, adapting to shifts in markets and technologies. From humble beginnings with one paper mill, the company has participated in many sectors over time — cables, paper products, tires, rubber boots, consumer and industrial electronics, plastics, chemicals, telecommunications infrastructure, and more. Most recently, Nokia has been best known for its wireless communication technologies, which have connected billions of people through networks and mobile phones.

    Following the sale of its Devices & Services business to Microsoft in 2014, Nokia refocused entirely on telecommunications networks infrastructure. Today it is one of the world’s three largest providers of mobile network equipment, alongside Ericsson and Huawei. Nokia is listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki and the New York Stock Exchange.

    Nokia History

    1865 Mining engineer Fredrik Idestam sets up his first wood pulp mill at the Tammerkoski Rapids in southwestern Finland. A few years later he opens a second mill on the banks of the Nokianvirta river, and names his company Nokia Ab in 1871 after the river. Nokia’s commercial existence begins in paper, not electronics.
    1898 & 1912 Finnish Rubber Works, a manufacturer of rubber boots, tires, and other rubber products, is founded in 1898. Finnish Cable Works Ltd, a manufacturer of telephone and power cables, is founded in 1912. Both companies will eventually merge with Nokia Ab to form the modern Nokia Corporation.
    1960 Nokia enters the telecommunications equipment market for the first time when an electronics department is established at Finnish Cable Works to focus on radio-transmission equipment. The move is modest but establishes the technical foundation for everything that follows.
    1967 Nokia Corporation is formed through the merger of Idestam’s Nokia Ab, Finnish Rubber Works, and Finnish Cable Works. The new company has five businesses: rubber, cable, forestry, electronics, and power generation. Its current corporate identity — Nokia Corporation — dates from this year.
    1982 Nokia introduces the first fully digital local telephone exchange in Europe. In the same year, Nokia produces the world’s first car phone for the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) analog standard — an early indicator of where the company’s future lay.
    1987–1991 Europe adopts GSM as its digital mobile standard in 1987. The first GSM call is made with a Nokia phone over a Nokia-built network for Finnish operator Radiolinja in 1991. Nokia wins contracts that same year to supply GSM networks in other European countries, establishing it as a leading infrastructure provider from the start of the GSM era.
    1989–1996 Nokia makes a strategic decision to concentrate on telecommunications as its core business. Paper, personal computers, rubber, footwear, chemicals, power plants, cables, aluminum, and television operations are progressively divested. By 1998, Nokia is the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer, a position it holds for more than a decade.
    2006–2008 Nokia acquires Gate5, a mapping software specialist, in 2006, and in 2008 acquires NAVTEQ, the U.S.-based maker of digital mapping and navigation software, for approximately $8.1 billion. These investments form the basis of the HERE mapping and location services business, which Nokia launches as a standalone brand in 2012.
    2007 Nokia combines its telecommunications infrastructure operations with those of Siemens to form Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), a 50/50 joint venture. NSN becomes a leading global provider of telecommunications infrastructure, with an emphasis on mobile broadband technology and services for carriers worldwide.
    2011 Nokia joins forces with Microsoft in a strategic partnership to strengthen its position in the smartphone market. Nokia adopts the Windows Phone operating system for its Lumia smart devices and together the two companies aim to establish an alternative ecosystem to iOS and Android. The partnership does not achieve its ambitions in the market.
    2013–2014 Two transformative transactions reshape Nokia. In July 2013 Nokia purchases Siemens’ 50% stake in Nokia Siemens Networks for €1.7 billion, gaining full control of the infrastructure business and renaming it Nokia Networks. In September 2013 Nokia announces the sale of its Devices & Services business to Microsoft for approximately €5.44 billion. The deal closes on April 25, 2014, ending Nokia’s direct role in making phones.
    2015 Nokia sells its HERE digital maps division to a consortium of German automotive companies — BMW, Daimler, and Volkswagen — for €2.8 billion. The deal closes December 3, 2015, divesting the last major non-networks asset and leaving Nokia focused entirely on telecommunications equipment and services.
    2016 Nokia completes its acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent, announced in April 2015 at €15.6 billion in an all-stock deal. The transaction brings Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent’s legendary research organization, into Nokia, along with extensive fixed, IP, optical, and analytics capabilities. Nokia emerges as a full end-to-end portfolio provider in global telecommunications equipment. The Nokia brand also returns to mobile phones through a licensing arrangement with HMD Global.
    2020–2023 Nokia navigates a difficult 5G transition period. Early integration challenges from the Alcatel-Lucent merger contribute to margin pressure and lost market share in mobile radio. A major strategic restructuring is announced in 2023, reorganizing the company into four autonomous business groups — Mobile Networks, Network Infrastructure, Cloud and Network Services, and Nokia Technologies — and cutting roughly 14,000 jobs to reduce the cost base.
    2025 Nokia completes its acquisition of Infinera Corporation on February 28, 2025, its largest deal since Alcatel-Lucent. The $2.3 billion transaction adds optical networking technology and strengthens Nokia’s position in the data center interconnect market, where AI-driven infrastructure investment is accelerating. Alongside the Infinera close, Nokia sells its Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) business to the French government for €350 million.

    Nokia Founder

    Fredrik Idestam (1838–1916) A Finnish mining engineer born in Tammela, Idestam had studied metallurgy in Germany before returning to Finland to establish a wood pulp mill at the Tammerkoski Rapids in 1865. He recognized that industrial paper production, still new to Finland, represented a commercial opportunity in a country with abundant forests. A few years later he opened a second mill on the banks of the Nokianvirta river and named the company Nokia Ab in 1871, after the river. He could not have imagined that the papermaking business he started would eventually become, a century later, the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer — though the industrial resourcefulness and geographic identity he embedded in the original company endured across every reinvention that followed.

    Nokia Business Segments

    Mobile Networks Provides radio access network (RAN) products and solutions for mobile operators worldwide, covering 4G LTE, 5G NR, and emerging 6G research. Competing directly with Ericsson and Huawei.
    Network Infrastructure Covers optical networks, fixed networks, IP routing, and submarine cable operations. The 2025 acquisition of Infinera strengthens Nokia’s position in optical networking, particularly for data center interconnect and AI-driven network demands.
    Cloud and Network Services Provides core network software, private wireless networks, and managed services to carriers and enterprises. Includes cloud-native 5G Standalone core solutions with over 125 communication service provider customers as of 2024.
    Nokia Technologies Manages Nokia’s extensive intellectual property portfolio of around 20,000 patent families, including over 7,000 recognized as essential for 5G. Licenses patents to smartphone manufacturers globally and drives a meaningful share of Nokia’s operating profit through licensing revenues.

    Nokia Acquisitions

    Nokia’s acquisition history tracks the company’s successive reinventions as closely as any other measure. The early deals — Gate5 in 2006 and NAVTEQ in 2008 for $8.1 billion — were bets on digital mapping at a time when smartphones were just beginning to change how people navigated. That bet paid off commercially but was ultimately divested: the HERE mapping business was sold to a BMW-Daimler-Volkswagen consortium in 2015 for €2.8 billion, as Nokia chose to concentrate entirely on networks.

    The Nokia Siemens Networks joint venture, formed in 2007 with Siemens contributing its telecom infrastructure assets, gave Nokia significant scale in the global carrier equipment market. In 2013 Nokia bought out Siemens’ 50% stake for €1.7 billion, gaining full ownership of what was then renamed Nokia Networks — a decisive move that came just months before announcing the sale of its phone business to Microsoft.

    The Alcatel-Lucent acquisition, completed November 3, 2016, was the largest in Nokia’s history until Infinera. The €15.6 billion all-stock deal brought Bell Labs — one of the most storied industrial research organizations in the world, responsible for the transistor, the laser, the Unix operating system, and multiple foundational telecommunications technologies — under Nokia’s roof. It also added Alcatel-Lucent’s deep IP routing, optical, and fixed-access capabilities, which filled gaps in Nokia’s portfolio and made it a genuine end-to-end competitor to Ericsson and Huawei. The integration was difficult; Nokia later acknowledged that 5G execution stumbles in the early 2020s were partly rooted in the complexity of merging Alcatel-Lucent’s mobile radio assets.

    Alongside Alcatel-Lucent in 2016, Nokia acquired Withings, a French connected health device maker, for $191 million. The health unit was integrated into Nokia Technologies and then sold back to Withings co-founder Éric Carreel in 2018 after Nokia wrote off the acquisition cost. The Infinera deal, announced June 2024 and closed February 28, 2025, for $2.3 billion, adds optical networking technology specifically suited to data center connectivity — a segment Nokia views as one of the fastest-growing opportunities in its market, driven by AI infrastructure investment. Simultaneously, Nokia sold its Alcatel Submarine Networks business to the French government for €350 million, focusing the Network Infrastructure group on its higher-growth optical, IP, and fixed-access lines.

    Nokia Revenue

    Reported in euros (€ billion). The sharp increase from 2015 to 2016 reflects the first full year including Alcatel-Lucent. The 2024 decline reflects reduced carrier capital spending, especially in Asia-Pacific, and continued post-5G investment cycle normalization. Calendar year, ending December 31.

    Nokia Market Cap

    Approximate year-end market capitalizations (USD billion). Nokia’s 2021 peak partly reflects retail investor momentum and renewed 5G optimism. The 2026 figure reflects the enlarged footprint following Infinera’s close.

    Nokia Competitors

    In telecom network infrastructure — Nokia’s primary business since 2014 — the competitive set is defined by Ericsson and Huawei above all others. The three companies together hold roughly 70% of global core network revenue and dominate RAN markets. ZTE holds meaningful share in Asia. Cisco Systems competes on IP routing, switching, and core network software — segments where Nokia has also grown its presence through Alcatel-Lucent’s intellectual property and its own cloud-native network portfolio. The Infinera acquisition brings Nokia into more direct competition with Ciena and Huawei in the optical transport and data center interconnect segments.

    Company Headquarters Primary Segment Revenue (approx.)
    Ericsson Stockholm, Sweden RAN, 5G core, managed services ~SEK 263B / ~$24B (2024)
    Huawei Technologies Shenzhen, China Full telecom portfolio, consumer devices ~$118B (2024)
    Cisco Systems San Jose, CA, USA Networking, security, collaboration ~$56.7B (FY2025)
    ZTE Corporation Shenzhen, China RAN, fixed, terminals ~CNY 124B / ~$17B (2024)
    Samsung Networks Suwon, South Korea 5G RAN, private networks, core ~$5B (Networks est., 2024)
    Ciena Corporation Hanover, MD, USA Optical networking, WaveServer ~$4.0B (FY2024)
    Juniper Networks Sunnyvale, CA, USA Routing, switching, security ~$5.5B (2024)
    Motorola Solutions Chicago, IL, USA Private LTE/5G, public safety networks ~$10.8B (2024)
    NEC Corporation Tokyo, Japan Open RAN, 5G core, enterprise networks ~¥3.5T / ~$22B (FY2024)
    HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) Houston, TX, USA Telecom cloud infrastructure, Aruba wireless ~$31.8B (FY2024)

    FAQs

    When was Nokia founded?

    Nokia’s origins go back to 1865, when mining engineer Fredrik Idestam established a wood pulp mill at the Tammerkoski Rapids in southwestern Finland and later named the business Nokia Ab after the nearby Nokianvirta river. The modern Nokia Corporation was formed in 1967 through the merger of Nokia Ab, Finnish Rubber Works (founded 1898), and Finnish Cable Works (founded 1912). The 1967 date is when the company took its current corporate form, but the company traces its history to 1865.

    Why did Nokia sell its phone business?

    Nokia’s mobile phone division lost ground rapidly after the arrival of Apple’s iPhone in 2007 and the subsequent rise of Android. Despite the 2011 partnership with Microsoft and the Lumia Windows Phone lineup, Nokia failed to regain meaningful smartphone market share. In September 2013, Nokia announced the sale of its Devices & Services business to Microsoft for approximately €5.44 billion. The transaction closed April 25, 2014. Nokia subsequently refocused on Nokia Networks, HERE mapping, and Nokia Technologies, completing its transformation into a telecommunications infrastructure company.

    What was the Alcatel-Lucent acquisition?

    In April 2015, Nokia announced an all-stock agreement to acquire Alcatel-Lucent, the Franco-American telecommunications equipment company, for €15.6 billion. The deal closed November 3, 2016. It brought Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent’s research arm, into Nokia, along with deep capabilities in IP routing, optical networking, fixed access, and analytics. The acquisition made Nokia one of only three global vendors — alongside Ericsson and Huawei — with a true end-to-end portfolio across mobile, fixed, and transport networks.

    What does Nokia sell today?

    Nokia operates through four business groups: Mobile Networks (radio access equipment for 4G and 5G), Network Infrastructure (optical networking, IP routing, fixed access — expanded by the 2025 Infinera acquisition), Cloud and Network Services (5G core software, private wireless, managed services), and Nokia Technologies (patent licensing and intellectual property management). Nokia’s patent portfolio of approximately 20,000 families includes over 7,000 patents recognized as essential to 5G standards, making the Technologies division a significant profit contributor independent of equipment sales.

    Who are Nokia’s main competitors?

    Ericsson is Nokia’s closest rival across mobile networks and managed services. Huawei competes across the full telecom portfolio, though regulatory restrictions have limited its presence in Western markets. Cisco competes on IP routing and core networking, ZTE on RAN and fixed-access markets primarily in Asia, and Ciena specifically in optical transport — the segment Nokia is strengthening through the Infinera acquisition.

    *Information from Forbes.com and Nokia.com

    **Video published on YouTube by “uae6066”

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    I've spent over a decade researching and documenting the stories behind the world's most influential companies. What started as a personal fascination with how businesses evolve from small startups to global giants turned into CompaniesHistory.com—a platform dedicated to making corporate history accessible to everyone.