Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia Oyj is set to rejoin the bluechip Euro STOXX 50 index a year after being dropped, while Volkswagen will be removed, index provider STOXX said in its annual review on Tuesday (September 1).
Nokia shares hit a near-18-year high in June before declining. However, the telecom major’s stocks are still more than double their price seen at the same time in 2025, helped by the company’s shift in focus to selling fibre-optic equipment to companies building AI data centres.
Shares of Volkswagen, meanwhile, have dropped nearly 27% so far this year, as Europe’s largest automaker struggles against Chinese competition and pushes ahead with a restructuring.
French utility Engie will also join the index, while Dutch information-services group Wolters Kluwer will be removed.
Nokia’s return to the Euro STOXX 50 index will be a significant achievement, as the company reported a larger-than-expected increase in its quarterly comparable operating profit in July, with AI and cloud customers emerging as new growth avenues for the Finnish telecom venture.
While comparable operating profit jumped 18% to 434 million euros (USD 496.11 million) in Q2 2026, Nokia, under its new CEO Justin Hotard, has shifted its focus to selling fibre-optic equipment to big tech companies that are building AI data centres.
The company, however, has not been immune to the sudden increase in memory chip prices due to AI companies cornering the market and impacting telecom equipment makers.
“Demand remains strong, while supply continues to be the main industry constraint, prompting our customers to place longer-term orders,” Hotard said in a statement in July.
Since joining Nokia in 2025, Hotard, who came from leading Intel’s Data Center & AI Group, has focused on expanding the Finnish group’s data centre business. He even made a billion-dollar deal with chipmaker Nvidia.
While Nokia’s Q2 comparable net sales reached 4.82 billion euros, net sales from AI and cloud customers doubled in the quarter to 446 million euros, as the Finnish venture booked 2.8 billion euros in new orders.
Nokia is also expanding its presence in the Gulf region by setting up a new research and development centre in Saudi Arabia to accelerate AI-powered network automation.
The centre will create software that enables communications networks to self-configure, self-heal, optimise performance, reduce energy consumption and operate with greater autonomy.
Apart from that, the centre will also specialise in Service Management and Orchestration (SMO), Self-Organising Networks (SON), Autopilot and rApps for automation and energy efficiency.
Teams at the centre will create AI-powered tools for communication service providers and businesses in the Kingdom, while also looking into new AI-based 6G technologies and creating “Made in Saudi” software for Nokia customers worldwide.
The launch followed an agreement announced earlier in 2026 between His Excellency the Minister of Communications and Information Technology of Saudi Arabia and Hotard.
As per the Saudi administration, aligned with the Kingdom’s digital transformation agenda, the centre will create high-value engineering and research roles while offering advanced training programmes, boot camps, and AI and automation certifications for Saudi talent.