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June 19, 2023

Lenovo achieves record AI infrastructure revenue surpassing $2 billion

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Lenovo, a global technology company, has reported a significant milestone in its annual revenue from AI infrastructure, exceeding $2 billion. The company has also unveiled its future growth strategy, including a $1 billion investment over the next three years to accelerate the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in businesses worldwide. With the increasing global digitalization and demand for IT infrastructure upgrades, Lenovo aims to simplify the implementation of AI capabilities by bringing AI directly to the data source. The company will leverage its extensive network of industry-leading partners to develop turnkey solutions that enable intelligent computing at the edge. This investment will further enhance Lenovo’s comprehensive portfolio of smart devices, infrastructure solutions, and services, fostering innovation across various sectors such as finance, manufacturing, healthcare, retail, and smart cities.

As part of this additional investment, Lenovo has allocated $100 million to expand the Lenovo AI Innovators program. In collaboration with 45 leading independent software vendors (ISVs), the program has already delivered over 150 cutting-edge AI solutions in its first year. These solutions, which include generative AI, computer vision, voice AI, and virtual assistants, are designed to facilitate rapid deployment and utilization of advanced AI capabilities. By partnering with the AI Innovators ecosystem, customers can effectively harness AI technologies to transform their operations across industries.

Kirk Skaugen, President of Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group, emphasized the significance of this investment in further developing AI-ready infrastructure solutions. He stated that Lenovo aims to help customers overcome deployment challenges and effortlessly implement AI, enabling them to deliver groundbreaking services and products to the market. As Lenovo continues on its path to becoming the leading end-to-end infrastructure solutions provider globally, the company remains committed to empowering its customers’ intelligent transformation by bringing AI to the forefront of their data operations.

AI presents a wealth of opportunities for businesses, but many companies face hurdles when it comes to implementation due to resource constraints and complex infrastructure requirements. To address this, Lenovo’s AI Innovators program offers tailored and proven AI solutions, covering diverse operations such as computer vision, audio recognition, prediction, security, and virtual assistants, catering to each industry’s specific needs.

Lenovo is actively assisting organizations in unlocking the value of their data by deploying purpose-built AI solutions. For instance, the collaboration with NVIDIA’s accelerated computing platform enables Lenovo to deliver optimal solutions across different customer verticals with the fastest time to results and the lowest total cost of ownership. In sectors such as retail, food service, and hospitality, Lenovo is working with DeepBrain AI to offer generative AI virtual assistants integrated with powerful large language models (LLMs), enabling 24/7 automated concierge services. Additionally, Lenovo and Vistry have partnered to implement computer vision technology in quick-service restaurants worldwide, automating cook times and predicting supply quantities to minimize food waste and enhance customer satisfaction.

In the manufacturing sector, Lenovo is addressing the digitalization needs of businesses by offering innovative AI solutions in collaboration with Guise. These solutions leverage computer vision, predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, and advanced prediction capabilities, helping industrial customers reduce unplanned downtime, optimize processes, and gain insights into customer behavior on the production line.

Furthermore, Lenovo’s AI solutions are now available through the TruScale Infrastructure as a Service, providing customers with ultimate flexibility as the company continues its transition to a service-led model. The collaboration between Lenovo, Al Hathboor Bikal.ai, and NVIDIA AI is pioneering the rollout of an AI-enabled data center at the Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park (SRTIP) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This partnership grants public and private organizations access to AI capabilities, facilitating digital transformation projects across education, research and development, retail, and the oil and gas sectors.

 By employing Lenovo TruScale HPC and AI as a service, organizations can harness advanced AI features, including models like GPT-3, to enhance their own operations. The data center at SRTIP aligns with the UAE Net Zero 2050 policy and employs industry-leading Lenovo Neptune™ direct water-cooling technology, which enhances performance, efficiency, and reduces power consumption.

Mohammed Al Hathboor, Management Committee Member of Al Hathboor Bikal.ai, expressed the collaborative efforts as a means to provide the UAE with a technological advantage within the innovation ecosystem. The partnership aims to create job opportunities for the youth, develop tech solutions for regional and global challenges, and foster collaboration between universities, businesses, and the government.

To accelerate AI discovery and adoption, Lenovo has established the AI Discover Center of Excellence. This center grants customers access to Lenovo’s data scientists, AI architects, and engineers, who provide guidance and support throughout the exploration, deployment, and scalability of AI solutions. Moreover, the center helps customers identify suitable software partners, optimize AI infrastructure, and ensures responsible AI practices through the Lenovo Responsible AI Committee. This committee assists organizations in designing, deploying, and utilizing AI ethically, addressing considerations such as privacy, fair usage, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.

Recognizing the exponential growth of global data, Lenovo understands the importance of next-generation infrastructure technologies that enable edge computing. These technologies are crucial for empowering AI in various domains, such as emergency response, public safety, accessibility, tourism, and retail experiences. Lenovo extends its comprehensive portfolio of AI-ready infrastructure with over 70 products, including new edge-to-cloud server platforms designed to handle diverse AI workloads. As emerging technologies like large language models (LLMs) and computer vision continue to advance, the need for processing power at the edge, where data is generated, becomes increasingly vital for real-time inferencing.

The latest addition to Lenovo’s purpose-built edge servers is the ThinkEdge SE360 V2, which delivers increased power to facilitate AI solutions like computer vision, voice AI, and generative AI. With support for Intel Data Center GPU Flex Series, the NVIDIA AI platform, and Qualcomm® Cloud AI 100 platforms, this server enables efficient AI workloads at the data source, whether in stores, factories, or offices. The ThinkEdge SE360 V2 boasts the highest GPU density in the smallest form factor available and exhibits superior quietness compared to competing products, making it suitable for deployment in remote and rugged environments.

Lenovo’s new range of AI-ready edge solutions also includes the ThinkEdge SE350 V2, ideal for hybrid cloud and modern hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) deployments. Leveraging the Intel Xeon® D processor, this solution offers twice the storage capacity and empowers customers to run AI workloads while consolidating various operations such as data backup, collaboration, and content delivery in the smallest form factor on the market.

In the data center domain, Lenovo introduces the ThinkSystem SR675 V3, the most versatile accelerated computing platform available. Purpose-built for AI, this system offers three server configurations within a compact 3U footprint, including support for NVIDIA HGX 4-GPU systems or 4-DW PCle GPU or 8-DW PCle GPU servers. By combining digital twin technology with AI, businesses can simulate and optimize entire buildings, factories, distribution centers, retail stores, or cities, thereby improving their operations and design outcomes. Lenovo collaborates with NVIDIA on the NVIDIA OVX system, which enhances the performance of NVIDIA Omniverse Enterprise workloads in the data center. The ThinkSystem SR675 V3, based on the OVX architecture, utilizes up to eight NVIDIA L40 GPUs to deliver advanced ray tracing, RTX-accelerated graphics, and AI capabilities. This robust and scalable platform unlocks the full potential of digital twins for businesses of all sizes.

Beyond infrastructure, Lenovo embraces AI throughout its smart devices and solutions to make data science accessible in the new era of hybrid and remote work. Lenovo ThinkPad commercial laptops now include the Lenovo View application, which utilizes AI-enabled computer vision technology to enhance video image quality and provide additional tools for improved collaboration. Lenovo ThinkReality XR solutions offer users access to immersive simulations, while purpose-built workstations like the Lenovo ThinkStation and ThinkPad P Series Data Science deliver high-performance capabilities necessary for mission-critical AI model development, data preparation, and training tasks.

With their AI-ready servers, cutting-edge smart devices, and a network of leading independent software vendors (ISVs), Lenovo brings pre-validated and performance-optimized AI solutions to the forefront of customer data, even in unique edge settings. These advancements aim to simplify the adoption of AI, making it accessible to organizations of all sizes and driving transformative intelligence across various industries.