Nokia Pledges $4 Billion U.S. Investment in Trump Administration Partnership — Update

By Elias Schisgall

Nokia is investing an additional $4 billion in U.S.-based manufacturing and research and development in partnership with the Trump administration, as the Finnish telecommunications company looks to optimize its network infrastructure for artificial intelligence.

The company said Friday it plans to commit $3.5 billion to domestic research and development with a focus on AI-ready mobile, fixed access, IP, optical and data-center networking technologies centered at Nokia Bell Labs in New Jersey.

Another $500 million will go toward manufacturing and R&D across New Jersey, Texas and Pennsylvania.

Nokia is the latest company to increase its domestic AI spending under the Trump administration. Anthropic, OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, Meta and Apple have all announced significant commitments, some in the hundreds of billions of dollars, toward building AI infrastructure in the U.S. since January.

"Nokia's $4 billion investment is another Trump administration win for America," Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said. "Their investment in manufacturing, packaging and R&D for optical chips means the most innovative technologies that power AI, data centers and critical national security applications will be developed and built here in the U.S.A."

The move also comes as Nokia looks to reposition itself to take advantage of the AI boom under Chief Executive Officer Justin Hotard, who began his role in April. The company has seen a spike in network infrastructure demand from AI and cloud customers, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The company said Wednesday that it would streamline its operations, reshuffle its leadership team and seek more joint partnerships on innovation as it refocuses on AI and cloud-computing growth, the Journal reported.

Nvidia took a $1 billion stake in Nokia late last month as part of a partnership on AI networking technology, according to the Journal.

Hotard said Friday that the new investment would bolster network infrastructure amid a flurry of investment in AI.

"Our expanded investment will help strengthen the nation's capacity to deliver greater security, productivity and prosperity through AI-optimized connectivity at scale, while advancing the newest research and innovation that will shape the future of networking for the years to come," Hotard said.

Write to Elias Schisgall at elias.schisgall@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 21, 2025 11:27 ET (16:27 GMT)