Lenovo faces memory chip shortages and rising prices in 2026 after leading the PC industry in 2025.
Lenovo is aiming to partner with Humain, Mistral AI, Alibaba, and DeepSeek rather than build its own large language models (LLMs) as part of its plan to repeat its 2025 success this year.
Through partnerships with leading AI companies, Lenovo is saving itself from having to navigate complex global regulations while still providing regions with the needed AI solutions.
Lenovo ended 2025 as a leader in the PC industry, shipping 71 million units. However, increased memory and storage prices could pose a challenge in 2026.
Lenovo aims to become an AI leader through multi-model partnerships
At the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, Lenovo Group’s Chief Financial Officer, Winston Cheng, detailed the company’s plan to become a leader in the global artificial intelligence (AI) market.
Instead of creating its own AI models, Lenovo is striking deals with the world’s top developers to power its next generation of devices.
Through partnering with multiple firms, Lenovo aims to navigate complex global regulations and provide regional AI solutions that work within its massive ecosystem of Windows and Android devices, unlike competitors like Apple, which currently limits its AI integrations to OpenAI and Google’s Gemini.
Lenovo is calling its strategy the “orchestrator approach.” According to its CFO Winston Cheng, the company does not want to compete with model developers. Instead, it wants to be the platform where these models run.
Different countries have different rules for AI data and security. For example, AI models used in China must follow different standards than those used in Europe or the Middle East.
To meet specific local needs, Lenovo is lining up partners in every major market. In Europe, they are looking toward Mistral AI. In China, they are working with Alibaba and DeepSeek. In the Middle East, Lenovo is eyeing a partnership with Humain, a Saudi-based AI initiative.
Cheng also noted that Lenovo is the only company besides Apple that holds a significant market share in both the PC and mobile phone markets.
How will these AI partnerships change the way people use their devices?
Lenovo’s new built-in cross-device intelligence system called “Qira” was unveiled earlier this month at CES 2026. Qira is described as “Personal Ambient Intelligence” that stays active across laptops, tablets, and smartphones. Qira can summarize meetings, help draft documents, and even predict a user’s “next move” by looking at their calendar and files.
By integrating models from partners like Alibaba and Mistral AI directly into the Qira system, Lenovo can offer high-speed AI performance without forcing users to open separate apps.
Lenovo and Nvidia recently introduced the “AI Cloud Gigafactory” that uses Lenovo’s Neptune liquid-cooling technology and Nvidia’s advanced chips, including the new Vera Rubin NVL72 architecture, to build massive data centers.
These “gigafactories” are designed to help AI cloud providers set up operations in weeks rather than months. Cheng mentioned that Lenovo and Nvidia are focusing on the global deployment of these systems and plan to expand in Asia and the Middle East.
Global PC shipments grew by over 9% in 2025, and Lenovo closed the year as the market leader with 71 million units shipped. However, memory and storage prices increased by as much as 40% to 70% throughout 2025.
Due to the rising costs, Lenovo plans to increase prices for consumers to protect its profit margins.
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