Nokia reported Q3 2026 net sales of EUR 5.154 billion, up 10% year-on-year. AI and cloud customer revenue rose 123% to EUR 631 million, with orders up 118%. Comparable operating profit increased 35% to EUR 605 million, beating expectations. The company maintained its full-year comparable operating profit guidance of EUR 2.1-2.6 billion and expects 25%-30% growth in Optical Networks plus IP Networks in 2027.
Nokia announced an agreement with SoftBank to conduct a commercial AI-RAN field trial in Japan in 2027, validating key AI-RAN capabilities under real network and traffic conditions. The trial will integrate Nokia's AI-native anyRAN Cloud RAN software, SoftBank's AITRAS platform and orchestrator, and NVIDIA ARC-Pro reference designs with Grace CPUs, moving AI-RAN from lab research toward real-world deployment.
On September 16, Nokia announced that AI-RAN is accelerating globally, with operators in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East moving from early evaluation to lab testing and field trials, including A1 Group, Chunghwa Telecom, du, e&, Mobily, stc, TPG Telecom, and Saudi Zain, while the NTT DOCOMO test project also progresses.