--- title: "Nokia Winds Down Its China Business: By the End of 2026, the Company Will Close Most of Its Divisions and Cut Staff" description: "Finnish Nokia will close most of its divisions in China by the end of 2026 and cut local staff, ending more than 40 years of presence in the market. The cause was competition with Huawei and ZTE." date: 2026-08-19T23:45:48.000Z lang: en url: https://xab.info/en/posts/nokia-winds-down-china-business-2026 tags: [nokia, china, layoffs, telecom, huawei, market-exit] publisher: "XAB.info" --- # Nokia Winds Down Its China Business: By the End of 2026, the Company Will Close Most of Its Divisions and Cut Staff ![Nokia logo on a blue sign: company winds down its China business and closes most divisions by end of 2026](https://xab.info/media/2026/08/20/nokia-zakryvaet-biznes-v-kitae-2026/nokia-zakryvaet-biznes-v-kitae-2026-1.webp) ## 🎯 Key Points - Nokia will close most of its divisions in the PRC by the end of 2026 and cut staff, retaining only after-sales equipment maintenance specialists. - Nokia's revenue in China has fallen by nearly half since 2019 to €913 million, while the region's share of global revenue dropped from 7.9 to 4.6 percent. - Integrating the stake in the Chinese "subsidiary" bought out from Huaxin will cost €350 million in the current year, with an expected annual saving of €200 million. According to South China Morning Post, the Finnish corporation Nokia intends to close the majority of its divisions in the People's Republic of China by the end of the current year, 2026, and to phase out its local workforce. The decision to exit a market where the company has been present for more than 40 years is attributed, according to experts, to intense competition from local players. The cuts will affect employees working in both the mobile networks segment and the network infrastructure sector as a whole. The bulk of the workforce optimization measures is to be completed by the end of the year. ### Scale of Presence and Severance Terms As of the end of last year, Nokia had approximately 7,200 employees across the PRC, Hong Kong, and Taiwan combined. The exact share of staff who will lose their jobs specifically in mainland China was not disclosed at the time of publication. The company's offices operate in five major PRC cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. The Nokia research center in Hangzhou alone employed around 1,600 people, and, by estimates, the majority of them risk losing their jobs. Already dismissed employees of the Chinese divisions reported that their severance pay is calculated using the "N+3" formula, where three additional monthly salaries are added to the number of years of service (N). Some Chinese specialists were transferred to work at the Finnish headquarters. ### The Economics of the Exit: Revenue Decline and Subsidiary Integration The financial trend in China has been steadily deteriorating: since 2019, Nokia's revenue in this market has fallen by nearly half — to €913 million — while the region's share of the company's global revenue dropped from 7.9 to 4.6 percent. Meanwhile, in 2010, China was Nokia's largest sales market with revenue of €7.62 billion. During the 5G network expansion in recent years, the Finnish company rapidly lost ground to China's Huawei Technologies and ZTE. Since the end of last year, Nokia has solely owned its Chinese subsidiary, having bought out Huaxin's stake; integrating this business will cost the company €350 million in the current year alone. Going forward, Nokia expects to save €200 million annually and to complete the integration of its Chinese "subsidiary" in a couple of years, faster than originally planned. ### Contradictory Data There is a notable discrepancy between Nokia's official rhetoric and expert assessments. In its comments, the company merely noted that its business in China "has been in decline for a long time," so the scale of local operations "should be adjusted to reflect new realities," and declined to comment on the closure of divisions and the layoffs. Experts, however, interpret the retention of only after-sales equipment maintenance specialists in the country as equivalent to a phased exit from the market. Moreover, open sources provide no single figure for the share of staff being cut: only the total number of employees in the PRC, Hong Kong, and Taiwan (around 7,200) is known, but not the distribution of layoffs by territory and business line. ### Historical Context and the Trend Among Western Companies Nokia has been present in the PRC since 1985, when its representative office was opened in Beijing. In the 1990s, the company actively participated in developing the national communications network infrastructure, and its mobile devices were quite popular in the local market. However, in recent years, against the backdrop of growing competition and the PRC infrastructure's shift toward import substitution, Western corporations are increasingly forced to wind down their local operations. To one degree or another, similar steps have already been taken by IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon, making Nokia's exit part of a broader trend of Western business reevaluating its presence in the Chinese market. ## 🔍 Fact-Check Verification - [Nokia could not withstand the competition and plans to wind down its China business by the end of the year window-new](https://3dnews.ru/1147091/nokia-ne-vidergala-konkurentsii-i-sobiraetsya-svernut-biznes-v-kitae-do-kontsa-goda) - Первичный текст с деталями: 7200 сотрудников, формула N+3, центр в Ханчжоу ~1600 чел., выручка 913 млн евро, интеграция 350 млн евро. - [Nokia closes almost all its sites in mainland China and cuts staff](https://www.pravda.ru/news/economics/2392013-nokia-exits-china/) - Независимое подтверждение факта закрытия площадок и сокращения штата. - [The Chinese IT market in 2026: a guide for Russian exporters](https://www.cnews.ru/articles/2026-07-22_kitajskij_it-rynok_v_2026_godu_gid) - Контекстный источник по состоянию китайского ИТ-рынка в 2026 году; прямых данных по Nokia не содержит. ## ❓ FAQ ### Q: When does Nokia plan to complete the closure of its divisions in China? **A:** The bulk of the workforce reduction and division closure measures is to be completed by the end of 2026. ### Q: How many Nokia employees worked in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan? **A:** As of the end of last year — approximately 7,200 people; the exact share of those being laid off in mainland China was not disclosed. ### Q: What is the reason for Nokia's exit from the Chinese market? **A:** The company cites a long-term decline in its business and the need to adjust the scale of operations, while experts point to intense competition from Huawei and ZTE. ### Q: What will remain in China after the cuts? **A:** Only Nokia's after-sales equipment maintenance specialists, which experts interpret as a phased exit from the market.