If Ciena's primarily optical/AI networking business alone can command roughly a $60B valuation, what could Nokia eventually be worth if Nokia's optical/IP operation keeps growing rapidly, Infinera succeeds, AI-RAN develops with NVIDIA, while Nokia still retains its telecom market
Nokia's 2025 Network Infrastructure business generated about 8B Euro in sales, and Nokia says Infinera significantly strengthened its North American and AI/cloud position.
Yet the entire Nokia corporation is worth slightly less than Ciena.
Nokia expects roughly half those orders to convert to revenue within 12 months.
This is why comparing $NOK to $ANET gets interesting. Arista is already valued like an AI networking leader. Nokia is still valued partly like an old telecom equipment company.
$NOK
Q3 2025: AI & Cloud reached 6% of total Nokia sales and 14% of Network Infrastructure sales. Optical grew 19%.
Q4 2025: Nokia finished the year with €2.4B of AI & Cloud orders and reorganized the company around capturing the AI supercycle.
Q1 2026: AI & Cloud sales grew 49% YoY, reached 8% of total sales, and Nokia booked €1B of new AI & Cloud orders. Optical grew 20%.
Q2 2026: AI & Cloud sales exploded 105% YoY. Orders jumped to €2.8B IN ONE QUARTER. Optical grew 20% and IP Networks grew 16%.
If Nokia proves it can become a major AI infrastructure networking player while retaining its RAN, 6G and patent businesses, a $100B+ valuation becomes much easier to argue and Jensen clearly believes that
The path isn’t Nokia becoming “another Arista.” It’s AI/cloud networking becoming a much larger piece of Nokia while Optical + IP growth, Infinera synergy and margin expansion transform the earnings mix and increase their net margins
If Nokia proves it can become a major AI infrastructure networking player while retaining its RAN, 6G and patent businesses, a $100B+ valuation becomes much easier to argue, which it has been proving the last 4 earnings reports
If AI RAN becomes a major part of 6G, $NOK is no longer just an old telecom equipment company.
It becomes part of the infrastructure connecting phones, cars, robots and AI to the network.
That is the $NOK bull case.
NOK could be one of the most overlooked AI plays.
AI RAN uses AI to make cell networks smarter. It can manage traffic, reduce congestion and get more capacity from the same spectrum.
That could save carriers billions.
This is where $NVDA comes in.
Nokia provides the telecom technology. NVIDIA provides the AI computing power.
Together, they are working toward networks where the same infrastructure can run 5G/6G AND AI applications.