Nokia CEO Says Supply Limits Slow AI Data Center Construction

Nokia President and CEO Justin Hotard said shortages of memory chips and energy are slowing AI data center construction, even as companies continue to deploy models already available.

“If we could build 2x faster, our customers could build 2x faster, they probably would,” Hotard said in an interview published Oct. 5. He did not quantify the shortages or how much faster construction could move in practice.

Hotard said companies can make substantial progress using current AI technology. Even if no new frontier model were released for three years, he said, firms could keep advancing deployment with models available today.

A projection puts U.S. investment in AI-related buildings, power, networks, chips and other equipment at $10.3 trillion from 2025 through 2032. That amounts to an average of 3.63% of U.S. gross domestic product annually. The figure is a projection, not a total of completed spending or confirmed commitments.

Nokia sells networking technology for data centers. It is investing to capture demand from AI and cloud customers in its Optical and IP Networks business, which the company expects to grow.

The construction constraints Hotard described affect the infrastructure needed to support AI deployment. His comments point to continued use of current models as one source of demand, alongside the development of new frontier models.