Lenovo raises PC shipment outlook for 2025 after strong earnings
Lenovo Group Ltd. has raised its forecast for global PC shipments through 2025 after posting better-than-expected earnings, saying AI features will help drive growth next year.
The overall PC market will grow in the current quarter, Lenovo’s Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing told Bloomberg News on Friday after earnings reports. He raised his outlook for global shipments in 2025 to double-digit percentage growth from a previous forecast of five percent to 10 percent, citing demand for AI PCs and the replacement cycle facilitated by Windows 11.
Yang added that Lenovo would not be particularly disadvantaged compared to its main competitors if newly-elected US President Donald Trump decides to impose tariffs on foreign goods after he formally returns to the White House.
Net profit grew 44 percent to $358.5 million (about Rs. 3,027 crore) in the September quarter, Beijing-based Lenovo said in a filing on Friday. That compares with an average estimate of $343.3 million (about Rs. 2,899 crore). Revenue rose 24 percent to $17.85 billion (approximately Rs. 1,50,738 crore), which also exceeded analyst expectations.
According to industry researcher IDC, the company’s quarterly PC shipments rose three percent from a year ago, while rivals such as Dell Technologies Inc. and Apple Inc. saw a decline. “The market is taking a breather before the year-end buying period,” said Bryan Ma, vice president at IDC.
PC makers are making a big push this year to add artificial intelligence capabilities – with a helping hand from Windows maker Microsoft Corp. – in an attempt to entice consumers into an upgrade cycle. As the industry recovers from the lows of recent years, the reception of this new crop of AI PCs will be crucial to future success. Mass market interest in such devices, which carry higher price tags, has yet to be tested.
Lenovo’s AI bet isn’t limited to end-user devices. The company’s infrastructure solutions group, which sells servers to large-scale customers, is another key pillar of its investments in the emerging technology. Lenovo sees this division driving growth by providing data center hardware that helps accelerate the training and calculations of AI models.
“Lenovo’s data center segment could grow substantially as it wins AI server orders and improves Nvidia’s GPU offerings, although profitability may remain subdued,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Steven Tseng and Sean Chen wrote in a report ahead of the publication of the profit figures.
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