Nokia chief considers expanding US manufacturing to mitigate tariffs

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Nokia’s new chief executive has said he would “absolutely entertain” increasing the Finnish telecoms company’s US manufacturing to mitigate the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs, as the company reported worse than expected first-quarter results on Thursday.

Justin Hotard, who took over at Nokia on April 1, said he expected the tariffs to hit operating profits by €20mn to €30mn in the second quarter and that achieving the higher end of the company’s 2025 guidance would now be “challenging”. Nokia previously said it expected operating profits of €1.9bn to €2.4bn this year.

The company’s share price fell 6 per cent in early trading on Thursday.

Nokia’s chief executive, who was born in the US, was speaking as the company said operating profit fell to €156mn in the first quarter, a sharp drop from €600mn a year earlier and less than two-thirds of the €244mn analysts had expected. It blamed the fall on lower net sales at Nokia Technologies and the impact of a contract settlement charge.

Hotard underlined the importance of the US market to Nokia — where the company estimates that 90 per cent of all communications use its technology — and said he would “absolutely entertain” expanding manufacturing in the country to provide “additional resiliency” to tariffs.

“If there are opportunities to strengthen [US manufacturing], in that it will help us drive growth in the market, that’s one of the things I’ll look at,” he said.

Nokia has five manufacturing facilities in the US, including two semiconductor factories and a chip manufacturer in California.

Hotard’s comments come after Brendan Carr, a vociferous critic of Big Tech who was tapped by Trump to lead the Federal Communications Commission, said he would “look at” granting Nokia and Swedish rival Ericsson faster approval for new technologies should they move more manufacturing to the US.

The two companies are the largest vendors of mobile network infrastructure equipment in the US. Ericsson chief Börje Ekholm said the company would also consider expanding manufacturing in the US depending on the impact of tariffs.