Nokia to Close Mainland China Operations by Year-End
Nokia, the Finnish telecom giant, is pulling out of mainland China, a market that once generated billions in revenue. The company will shut down almost every operation it runs in the country before December 31, affecting the vast majority of its roughly 7,200 employees in Greater China.
A Brutal Decline
Nokia's Greater China revenues fell from €2.2 billion in 2018 to €913 million in 2025, a decline of over 58%. The company's market share in China now sits below 3%. Domestic Chinese vendors, such as Huawei and ZTE, have dominated local 5G infrastructure contracts, making it difficult for foreign equipment makers like Nokia to compete.
Restructuring and Global Model
Nokia has framed the closures as a natural consequence of sustained business decline and the need to align its China operations with its global model. The company completed full ownership of its Nokia Shanghai Bell joint venture by the end of 2025, giving it the structural flexibility to make these cuts without navigating joint-venture politics.
A Global Telecom Supply Chain Shift
The geopolitical dimension cuts both ways, with Western governments restricting Huawei's access to their telecom networks on national security grounds. China has shown little appetite for giving foreign vendors a larger slice of its own 5G buildout, resulting in an increasingly bifurcated global telecom supply chain.
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