The Finnish telecom equipment maker is putting down roots closer to home. Nokia, together with Nscale DC Holdings Finland Oy, has signed a preliminary agreement to acquire a plot in Oulu’s Toppila district on Tervahovintie, with the city’s development committee slated to vote on the matter next Tuesday. The roughly €5 million land deal would clear the way for an AI data center campus, with local utility Oulun Energia already having filed a building permit application for what it terms an “AI Gigafactory.”
The project gives Nokia’s artificial intelligence ambitions a tangible, physical dimension in its Nordic backyard — a contrast to the flurry of announcements that have defined its recent strategic repositioning. Just weeks ago, the company unveiled plans for a research and development center in Riyadh focused on AI-driven network automation and orchestration software, though it declined to disclose investment figures, staffing plans, or revenue targets for the Saudi operation.
A Stock in the Middle of a Re-Rating
The Oulu initiative arrives at a moment
Finnish commentators now group Nokia with former tech titans like Ericsson, IBM, and BlackBerry that managed to reinvent themselves after prolonged slumps. The market capitalization of roughly €48.5 billion, combined with a price-to-sales ratio that remains markedly below peers such as Cisco or Nvidia, suggests the re-rating may still have room to run. Analyst Maximilian Berger points to the company’s push into AI networking as a central driver of this renewed investor interest.
Index Return Looms as Technical Catalyst
The stock’s momentum is about to get an institutional boost. Index provider STOXX has confirmed that Nokia will rejoin the Euro Stoxx 50 at the start of trading on September 21, replacing Volkswagen in the benchmark. The move typically forces index-tracking funds to adjust their portfolios, generating additional demand for the shares — a dynamic Reuters has flagged as the clearest price-relevant catalyst currently in play for the stock.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Nokia?
That said, the run-up to inclusion has not been entirely smooth. Despite Friday’s advance, the stock is down 1.8 percent over the past seven days, a wobble some market watchers attribute to investor caution ahead of the index event.
Beyond Telecom: Health-Tech Partnership Signals Broader Ambitions
Nokia’s diversification push extends beyond infrastructure and geographic expansion. The company recently announced a collaboration with Finnish digital health firm BeeHealthy Oy, which will integrate Nokia’s Network-as-Code technology to enable network-based verification within its applications. The partnership underscores how Nokia is attempting to carry its networking expertise into industries far removed from traditional telecommunications — a strategy that also encompasses 6G research and digital health initiatives.
The Oulu data center proposal, if approved, would represent the most concrete manifestation yet of this pivot. From Ohio to Louisiana, billion-dollar data center projects are proliferating globally, driven by insatiable demand for AI compute capacity. Nokia’s decision to participate in that build-out on home turf — rather than merely supplying the networking gear for others’ facilities — signals an ambition to capture more of the value chain.
What’s Next
The land purchase remains conditional, pending Tuesday’s vote by the city development committee. Should it proceed, Nokia would gain a physical AI infrastructure presence in its home region, complementing the index inclusion and the Saudi research outpost. For a company that spent years in restructuring mode, the convergence of these developments — a domestic AI campus, a Middle East expansion, a health-tech partnership, and a return to Europe’s premier equity benchmark — paints a picture of a business that believes its turnaround story is now substantial enough to be measured in concrete and steel, not just strategy documents.
Ad
Nokia Stock: Buy or Sell?! New Nokia Analysis from September 6 delivers the answer:
The latest Nokia figures speak for themselves: Urgent action needed for Nokia investors. Is it worth buying or should you sell? Find out what to do now in the current free analysis from September 6.
Nokia: Buy or sell? Read more here...
