Nokia profit nearly doubles on AI network spending

Nokia said Thursday that its third-quarter profit almost doubled, helped by investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The Finnish telecoms equipment maker said profit rose to 156 million euros, or $175 million, from 80 million euros in the same period a year earlier. Sales rose 10 percent to 5.2 billion euros.

Nokia said sales to artificial intelligence and cloud-networking clients rose 123 percent from a year earlier. Operating profit increased 35 percent to 605 million euros.

Chief executive Justin Hotard said Nokia was investing where it could work with large cloud companies, and cited Google’s 13-billion-euro investment to build a data centre in Finland.