Nokia and NestAI announce strategic partnership and NestAI raises €100m to accelerate physical AI innovation
Press Release
Nokia and NestAI announce strategic partnership and NestAI raises €100m to accelerate physical AI innovation
- Nokia and NestAI form a strategic partnership to drive innovation in AI-powered defense and critical infrastructure solutions.
- In addition, Nokia and Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) invest in NestAI, with the combined value of the investments being €100 million.
20 November 2025
Espoo, Finland – Nokia and NestAI today announced a strategic partnership to advance AI-powered defense solutions. In conjunction with this collaboration, Nokia and Tesi invest in NestAI, with the combined value of the investments being €100 million. As one of Europe’s fastest-growing physical AI labs, NestAI is building next-generation AI for unmanned vehicles, autonomous operations, and command and control (C2) platforms across logistics, inspection, surveillance, security, and defense domains.
Connectivity is a strategic asset in defense, empowering AI-driven, faster, and more informed decision-making. As defense forces increasingly adopt AI-native dual-use technologies, Nokia has launched a dedicated defense incubation business unit to accelerate co-innovation with partners in the U.S., Finland and other NATO and Five Eyes countries.
Through the strategic partnership, Nokia and NestAI will jointly innovate defense-focused, AI-native solutions by combining Nokia’s expertise in secure, AI-native connectivity, sensing, and multimedia with NestAI’s platforms in unmanned systems, C2 systems and next-generation AI. Together, the companies will leverage strong capabilities in forward-deployed engineering and R&D with the ambition to accelerate the development of AI capabilities into unmanned systems, data-centric C2, and modern information and knowledge management. This further accelerates and deepens the collaboration with European defense forces and other partners.
“At Nokia, we believe that the future of defense and critical infrastructure will be defined by secure, AI-native solutions. Our strategic partnership with NestAI is a testament to our commitment to innovation with partners. By combining Nokia’s expertise in secure advanced connectivity with NestAI’s pioneering platforms, we are accelerating the development of next-generation capabilities for defense and national safety. This investment reflects our shared ambition to shape the future of AI-driven solutions,” said Justin Hotard, President and CEO of Nokia.
“Strategic partnerships are imperative to strengthen Europe’s security and resilience. In line with PostScriptum’s mission, NestAI was founded to deliver mission-critical physical AI capabilities at scale and to safeguard Europe’s sovereignty. Nokia’s role as a cornerstone of leading global technology and innovation enables us to accelerate our impact and deepen the operational advantage NestAI brings to European defense. The Finnish sovereign fund Tesi brings institutional stability and long-term perspective to build resilient technological leadership. This partnership lays the foundation for a future in which Europe sustains a technological edge, and allows NestAI to deliver at scale,” states Peter Sarlin, Chairman of NestAI and PostScriptum.
“We see NestAI emerging as a foundational technology partner for mission-critical defence and security environments across Europe. Our investment reflects the value it is already demonstrating for organisations facing increasingly complex and evolving operational demands. This aligns with Tesi’s renewed strategy to back Finnish companies with outlier potential in strategically important sectors. NestAI combines strong technical depth with a focused, purposeful approach. It is the demonstrated progress and the direction of their solutions combined with Nokia’s global lead in secure, advanced connectivity that gives us confidence in their long-term significance and return potential for our investment,” states Juha Lehtola, Head of VC & Growth investments, Tesi.
About Nokia
Nokia is a global leader in connectivity for the AI era. With expertise across fixed, mobile, and transport networks, powered by the innovation of Nokia Bell Labs, we’re advancing connectivity to secure a brighter world.
Nokia Defense delivers secure, AI-driven communications and connectivity solutions tailored for defense organizations, supporting modernization and operational effectiveness in a rapidly evolving security landscape.
About NestAI
NestAI is a rapidly growing European physical AI lab that builds next-generation AI technologies. Headquartered in Finland, NestAI focuses on open, modular and interoperable platforms and physical AI for unmanned and command-and-control systems across domains such as logistics, inspection, security, surveillance, defence and critical infrastructure. Backed by PostScriptum, NestAI develops AI designed for real-world readiness and long-term resilience — building boldly to shape the trajectory of physical AI and Europe’s technological edge.
About Tesi
Tesi (officially Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) is a state-owned, market-driven investment company that invests in venture capital and private equity funds and directly in Finnish startups and growth companies, and to new industrial scale businesses.
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