BRUSSELS, Feb 26 (Reuters) - The EU Commission on

Wednesday said it had unconditionally approved the $2.3 billion

acquisition of U.S. optical semiconductors and networking

equipment maker Infinera ( INFN ) by Nokia.

The commission said the takeover raised no concerns, as the

companies' combined market share in the supply of optical

transport equipment would be moderate and would still face

credible competition.

Reuters already reported earlier this month that Nokia was

set for the unconditional approval for the deal, which it

announced in June last year.

The acquisition will make it the second-largest vendor in

the optical networking market with a 20% share, behind Huawei,

which is benefiting from the minimal presence of Western

companies in China.

The acquisition will allow Nokia to sell more equipment to

big tech companies such as Amazon ( AMZN ), Alphabet

and Microsoft ( MSFT ), which are investing billions of dollars

in building new data centres to service the artificial

intelligence boom.

(Reporting by Bart Meijer and Foo Yun Chee; Editing by GV De

Clercq)