Lenovo pushes AI agent for devices, downplays impact of surging memory chip prices

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Lenovo Group, the world's largest personal computer maker, is betting that its own artificial intelligence agent will help grow its AI-powered consumer electronics business, even as the industry faces a global memory chip supply crunch.

Chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing on Thursday said the company would globally launch in January its "personal AI super agent", which would leverage AI models to anticipate a user's intentions via "portable devices and personal trusted computing hubs".

Beijing-based Lenovo's initiative in AI agents - software programs designed to autonomously perform tasks on behalf of a user or another system - forms part of its broader "hybrid AI" strategy for consumers and enterprises.

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The company on Thursday reported better-than-expected revenue of US$20.5 billion in its financial second quarter ended September 30, up 15 per cent from US$17.8 billion a year earlier. It claimed that sales reached a record high, surpassing the previous peak set during the pandemic.

That was driven by "high-double-digit revenue growth in AI servers and triple-digit revenue growth in AI PCs, AI smartphones and AI services", the company said in a statement.

Net profit slid 5 per cent to US$340 million from US$359 million a year ago.

Yang downplayed the potential impact on Lenovo of a global surge in memory chip prices, which had put increased pressure on manufacturers of consumer electronics devices. He said the company had enough components.

"Typically, we sign long-term contracts with top upstream suppliers," Yang said in a post-earnings call on Thursday. "So we are very confident that we can manage the situation better than our competition."

Lenovo's Hong Kong-listed shares gained 0.93 per cent to close at HK$9.72 on Thursday.

A Lenovo Group employee gestures next to a company display at Lenovo Tech World in Beijing on November 15, 2019. Photo: Reuters alt=A Lenovo Group employee gestures next to a company display at Lenovo Tech World in Beijing on November 15, 2019. Photo: Reuters>

Higher prices reflect the rapid shift in strategy for the major memory chipmakers, as they focus more on supplying large-capacity storage products for enterprises involved in AI projects and those running data centres. That has resulted in supplies of conventional memory products for consumer electronics being squeezed.

Prices of some DRAM chips, for example, jumped 171.8 per cent in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to a Reuters report, citing TrendForce data. Certain DDR5 chip prices experienced a sequential surge of 307 per cent since the start of September, according to TrendForce data released on Wednesday.

Rising memory costs had led to a decline in Lenovo's profit margins, as the memory "super cycle" put downward pressure on hardware manufacturers, according to a recent Morgan Stanley research note. It expected the chip supply crunch to continue into next year.

Still, Morgan Stanley predicted that Lenovo would be the best positioned among its peers in Asia and the most capable of mitigating such risks.

In his earnings call, Yang said he remained confident that the company's profitability would not be affected by higher memory prices over the next two quarters.

Chinese technology company Xiaomi, meanwhile, said it expected rising memory chip prices to eat into the profits of smartphone makers in China.

"[Some players] will fall behind or even leave the game," Xiaomi president Lu Weibing said earlier this week during the firm's earnings call. "In trying times, companies will have to compete on which one is better prepared or more deep-pocketed."

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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