Nokia expenditure on research and development worldwide 1999-2023

In 2023, Nokia spent 4.33 billion euros on research and development (R&D), which is a decrease of around 220 million euros from the year before. The company’s R&D expenditures have recovered after dropping to below two billion U.S. dollars in 2014, a result from the company selling its devices segment to Microsoft and restructuring to focus on network infrastructure. 

Investing in mobile infrastructure

Much of Nokia’s spending on research and development goes into 5G technology and network infrastructure. Its competitors in the telecommunication equipment and infrastructure market include Ericsson, Huawei, and ZTE. As of early 2019, the United States and China are embroiled in a tense trade war, with the United States curbing equipment from telecoms manufacturer Huawei. Because of this, Nokia quickly became a more suitable candidate for implementing a 5G network in the United States and Europe, which brought up the company’s overall market value. Although 5G is only getting rolled out to the market now, Nokia is already involved in preliminary research on the next mobile generation standard of 6G technology. In June 2019 Nokia signed a memorandum of understanding with Ericsson, Samsung, and SK Telecom to conduct joint 6G R&D projects in the future.