In 1865, Fredrik Idestam, the founder of Nokia, established a wood pulp mill along the "Nokia River" in Finland, named Nokia. In 1922, Nokia's nearest neighbor, the Finnish Rubber Factory, which produces high-class leather shoes and tires, merged with the Finnish Cable Factory, which manufactures power and telephone cables. In 1960, Nokia, which has developed into a comprehensive production enterprise of paper, rubber, cable and other products, set up an electronics department in the cable factory, focusing on optical and electrical transmission. At that time, semiconductor technology was moving from laboratory to industrialization, which is the foundation of today's Nokia.

In 1967, Nokia and the merged Finnish rubber cable factory formed the Nokia Group. The group has invested heavily in the electronics industry. In 1992, Ollila took charge of Nokia. He focused his company's business on the telecommunications industry and promoted the production of GSM standard phones. In 1994, Nokia's shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1996, Nokia auctioned cable and color TV production business, and made rapid development in the field of mobile communication. In 1998, it produced the first billion mobile phones, becoming the largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world.