Nokia Oyj's stock surged 5.54% in pre-market trading on Thursday, driven by the telecommunications equipment maker's second-quarter financial results that significantly exceeded market expectations and highlighted explosive growth in its artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure business.

The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.08, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $0.07 by 14.29%. Quarterly sales reached $5.598 billion, also surpassing expectations. More importantly, Nokia's strategic pivot toward AI-era infrastructure is delivering strong results, with sales to AI and cloud customers more than doubling year-over-year. The company booked €2.8 billion in new orders from this segment during the quarter.

Nokia also revised its full-year comparable operating profit guidance upward to a range of €2.1 billion to €2.6 billion, from €2.0 billion to €2.5 billion previously. CEO Justin Hotard noted that demand remains strong while supply constraints are prompting customers to place longer-term orders. The company's network infrastructure business, which houses its AI and data-center technology, saw sales grow 12% year-over-year, led by optical networks growing 20% and IP networks growing 16%.