Nokia President and CEO Justin Hotard says customers would build data centers twice as fast if they could get the necessary supplies. In an October 2026 interview on CNBC’s The Tech Download, he named memory chips and energy as constraints. The “2x” is Hotard’s conditional assessment of customer demand—not a measured construction rate or a forecast that global data-center capacity will double.
What did Nokia’s CEO say?
Hotard’s reported wording was: “If we could build 2x faster, our customers could build 2x faster, they probably would.” The quotation was attributed to his CNBC podcast interview in coverage by The Next Web and Quartz.
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He also said that even without another frontier AI model for three years, deploying technology already available could make “tremendous progress.” That is Hotard’s view of potential demand for existing AI, not a promise that companies will make a particular level of investment.
What is holding data-center construction back?
Memory chips
Hotard identified memory chips as one supply constraint. He did not quantify how much memory availability contributes to delays, or specify a share of projects affected.
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Energy
Energy was the other constraint he named. In a 2025 survey of 1,000 American executives conducted by Gemic for Nokia, 54% said reliable and sustainable energy availability limited AI scale-up, while up to 86% said energy costs would affect their AI expansion plans. These are respondents’ reported views, not a measurement of global construction delays. Nokia published the survey in “Build first, lead forever: infrastructure constraints on AI.”
Does the 2x claim mean data centers will double?
No. Hotard was describing what customers might do if supplies allowed them to build faster. He did not say that the global construction rate or operating capacity would double, and the statement is not an independently measured industry forecast.
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The claim points to one interpretation of the current build-out: demand is being held back by scarce inputs. A different concern is that committed investment could outpace durable revenue from AI services. Nokia’s figures provide evidence of activity at its own customers, but they do not settle that wider debate. The key test is whether demand persists as supply constraints ease—and whether orders become operating infrastructure.
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Nokia reported €2.8 billion in AI & Cloud order intake in Q2 2026. The company said around half of those orders were expected to convert to revenue over the following 12 months and that constrained supply was prompting customers to place longer-term orders. Nokia also reported 105% year-over-year growth in net sales to AI & Cloud customers for the quarter. These are Nokia’s company results and explanations, not independent proof of total industry demand or of customers’ ability to double construction.
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The company’s relevant business is connectivity infrastructure: its switches, IP routers and optical products link computing equipment inside data centers and connect facilities to one another. Nokia’s Q2 report also recorded constant-currency growth of 20% in Optical Networks and 16% in IP Networks. That exposure helps explain why its CEO is focused on demand for data-center build-outs; it does not make Nokia’s order figures a measure of the whole industry. See Nokia’s Q2 and half-year 2026 report.
Quick Recap
How should readers judge the claim?
- It is a CEO assessment: Hotard described customers’ likely appetite if supply improved; the 2x figure is not a measured rate.
- There is company-level evidence of demand: Nokia’s orders and sales grew, but those figures cover Nokia’s business, not every data-center operator.
- Orders are not completed capacity: Longer-term orders and expected revenue conversion do not establish that equipment has been installed, powered and put into service.
- The overbuilding question remains open: The available figures do not show whether future AI revenues will justify all planned investment.
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