Nokia and NestAI 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.
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.
Justin Hotard, President and CEO at 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.
Peter Sarlin, Chairman of NestAI and PostScriptum
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.
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.
Juha Lehtola, Head of VC & Growth investments at Tesi
Source: Nokia Press Release
