Nokia CEO Justin Hotard said AI customers would build data centers twice as fast if supply constraints allowed, pushing back on concerns that the industry is overbuilding and arguing that demand for existing AI models alone is sufficient to sustain infrastructure growth.
Nokia Chief Executive Justin Hotard said the technology industry would build AI data centers at double the current pace if supply constraints were not holding it back, underscoring what he described as persistently strong demand for AI infrastructure.
"I don't think you can say in any manner we're overbuilding today because reality is that if we could build 2x faster, our customers could build 2x faster, they probably would," Hotard told CNBC's "The Tech Download" podcast. "So that gives me confidence that we're still in the early days" of the AI buildout.
Hotard's comments come amid a broader industry debate over whether the current pace of data center construction is sustainable and whether long-term demand will justify the capital being deployed. Investments in AI infrastructure — spanning data centers, chips, and related equipment — are projected to total $10.3 trillion between 2025 and 2032, an average of 3.63% of U.S. gross domestic product per year, according to research presented at the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity.
Shortages of key memory chips and energy are among the primary bottlenecks cited by the industry.
Nokia has repositioned itself as a significant player in AI infrastructure, selling technology that connects racks of chips within data centers and links data centers across geographies. That pivot appears to have attracted investor attention, with Nokia's stock up approximately 130% over the past year.
Hotard also addressed concerns that demand for AI infrastructure is too tightly tied to the release of new frontier models by laboratories such as Anthropic and OpenAI. He argued that deployment of existing technology alone is sufficient to sustain growth.
"Even if we didn't have another frontier model released in the next three years, we could probably make tremendous progress just deploying the technology that's there today," Hotard said.
Those remarks carry particular weight given recent turbulence in AI-related markets. Concerns about the pace of AI development escalated after an Anthropic researcher raised warnings about the existential risks of the technology, prompting Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to publicly call for a slowdown in the development of the most advanced models. The commentary triggered a sell-off in AI-related stocks last month.
Companies across the industry have turned to debt, joint ventures, and complex financing structures to fund data center expansion, a strategy that depends on sustained demand for AI services over the long term.
Nokia, headquartered in Espoo, Finland, is one of the world's largest telecommunications equipment makers. Its growing presence in the AI infrastructure supply chain reflects a broader pattern in which established hardware and networking companies have sought to position themselves as essential providers — or "picks and shovels" players — in the AI boom.
Whether the supply constraints Hotard cited ease in the near term will likely determine how quickly the industry can convert that latent demand into actual construction. For now, Nokia's leadership appears to view the gap between what customers want to build and what they are able to build as a durable commercial opportunity.
TechEchelon Staff bylines are produced collectively by the newsroom for short, breaking, and wire-style coverage. Longer-form reporting is published under the responsible reporter's name.
More from the Staff →Senior leaders from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and Meta testified under oath before the New York City Council on Monday at a rare full-body hearing on the risks of advanced AI models and potential legislative responses.
Neko Health, the Swedish body-scan startup co-founded by Spotify's Daniel Ek, has opened its first U.S. location in New York City, bringing a $500 one-hour preventative health scan to American consumers as its global waitlist exceeds 300,000 people.
Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman announced that the company has stopped using nondisclosure agreements with government agencies in data center approval processes, as community opposition and legislative moratoriums mount across the United States.
Written for readers who already know the basics — markets, AI, and the policy decisions that shape both.