For example, Steve Schwarzman, who is the head of an American company called Blackstone, is funding a new program at Tsinghua University modeled on the Rhodes Scholarship.

"This move was largely anticipated and follows Nokia's need to reduce its cost structure, " said Michael Schroder, an analyst at FIM Bank, a private bank in Helsinki.

The company's close involvement with the project, which began when the series went into production in 1999, has now been extended to the first batch of the third production tranche.