According to the Global Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker report released by International Data Corporation (IDC), global PC shipments reached 75.9 million units in Q3 2025, marking a year-on-year increase of 9.4%. Unlike in previous years, this resurgence in the global PC market is not due to vendor inventory adjustments but has entered a new explosive market cycle driven by artificial intelligence. The report indicates that leading manufacturers in the AI PC market are rapidly increasing their market shares, gaining strategic advantages in the competitive landscape of edge AI. Lenovo Group (00992) has widened its gap over the second-ranking manufacturer, HP (19.8% market share), with a market share of 25.5%, exceeding by 5.7 percentage points. Lenovo's impressive growth rate of 17.3% far exceeds the market average of 9.4%. At the same time, Dell recorded only a 2.6% growth this quarter, with its market share dropping from 14.2% last year to 13.3%. The divergence in growth among leading manufacturers highlights that companies with clear advantages in technological upgrades, especially in AI technologies, are accelerating demand for device upgrades, leading to a rising trend in industry market concentration.

In this competitive landscape of edge AI, Lenovo Group and HP are no longer competing solely on sales volume; their rivalry is increasingly driven by strategies to capture the edge AI entry point. In the initial phase of AI computing, core capabilities were concentrated in the cloud, but inherent flaws in this model, such as high API calling costs, network latency, and strict corporate requirements regarding sensitive data privacy and sovereignty, have become increasingly evident. Global AI giants like NVIDIA, OpenAI, and Microsoft have agreed on the tremendous potential of edge AI: core processing capabilities must shift to end devices, bringing AI from the "cloud factory" to the "physical world," with PCs being the most substantial player in the AI terminal space. Earlier, NVIDIA announced a $5 billion investment in Intel, with a significant partnership focusing on AI PCs. According to Jensen Huang, this collaboration could lead to an AI PC market potentially reaching $50 billion. Intel’s strategic value to NVIDIA lies in establishing upstream control in the market of 150 million laptops and the trillion-dollar AI terminal entry.

This strategy isn’t just about gaining a competitive edge over AMD for NVIDIA; it is fundamentally about transitioning the PC industry from a "performance race" to an "ecosystem war." Under NVIDIA's vision of "physical AI," the role of PCs as AI intelligence terminals is being redefined. For instance, AI PCs are no longer simple data processing tools; they are local execution terminals for Agentic AI, serving as entry points for sensors that apply cloud-trained models in actual user environments. This strategic positioning sees AI PCs as crucial hardware carriers for enabling intelligent operations and collaborations. The highly advanced NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 series GPU, based on the Blackwell architecture, promises "unprecedented performance enhancements" for gaming, content creation, and enterprise applications. This indicates that NVIDIA views PC GPUs as essential computing power for the realization of generative AI across consumer and professional domains.

The emergence of NVIDIA's "AI supercomputer" Project Digits is another strong signal of its edge strategy, implying plans to downscale the previously centralized AI stack capabilities (training, testing, inference) onto desktop systems, blurring the lines between professional workstations and personal computers, and solidifying the PC’s status in high-performance AI workflows. Microsoft is also enhancing the PC's role as an "AI assistant" through deep integration of AI capabilities within the Windows ecosystem and Copilot. OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman has previously acknowledged that the company is exploring hardware domains as well. As a pioneer in generative AI, OpenAI ensures its lead in the next generation of large model training and cloud API services through extensive collaborations with NVIDIA and AMD. However, responding to enterprises' demands for data privacy and cost control, OpenAI has adopted a strategic pivot: launching its open-source model GPT-OSS series to promote automation and intelligent interaction of AI on PCs. This strategic intent is clear: even as processing power becomes decentralized, OpenAI's model standards will still aim to dominate at the terminals.

The collective decisions of these AI giants stem from similar strategic considerations: ensuring their strategic presence in edge AI. They view AI PCs as the gateway to edge AI, considering the three main advantages that AI PCs inherently possess: first, controllable local computing power enabling data privacy and low latency; second, high-frequency user interactions, making them ideal testing grounds for Agentic AI; and third, mature ecosystems capable of rapid scalable deployment. In this new battleground for edge AI, Lenovo's "hybrid AI" strategy aligns closely with these giants' layouts. The proposed "cloud-edge-end" collaborative architecture directly responds to the giants' needs for localized models, edge inference, and terminal execution.

Lenovo positions AI PCs as terminals for realizing "personal AI" and "enterprise AI," not merely as hardware providers but as "system integrators" for AI capabilities. The trend of AI is reshaping Lenovo's valuation logic in the edge AI context, positioning AI PCs as high-value premium products for traditional PC manufacturers within the global AI industrial chain. Research firm Canalys predicts that from 2024 to 2028, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of AI PCs will reach 44%, with their shipment volume expected to reach an astonishing 70% by 2028. This significantly outpaces the compound growth of the traditional PC market, confirming the additional market value contributed by AI PCs. A broad analysis of the advancements of various manufacturers in the AI PC sector reveals Lenovo Group's leading position is strikingly pronounced.

In Q3 2025, Lenovo's PC shipments reached 19.4 million units, holding a market share of 25.5% and remaining the global leader with a year-on-year growth rate of 17.3%, far exceeding the industry average. More importantly, data indicates that its AI PC shipment proportion has surpassed 30%, with 27% in the Chinese market alone, securing the number one position in the global Windows AI PC market. This dominance provides Lenovo Group with absolute authority within the edge AI ecosystem, as the massive number of terminal users serves as an optimal platform for the major global AI players to promote their edge AI strategies. Indeed, during the PC era, Lenovo was already one of the key partners for NVIDIA, Intel, and Microsoft.

Of course, while reconstructing the growth logic of the PC business, edge AI is also reshaping Lenovo's valuation logic in the capital markets. Compared to traditional PCs, AI PCs are positioned as high-value premium products, and increasing the shipment volume of AI PCs along with their revenue contribution can enhance Lenovo Group's overall gross margin. Lenovo's real opportunity for valuation leap lies in the deep integration of its high-margin services business (SSG) with AI PCs. Lenovo can leverage its sustained high growth and high-profit margin in service business to bundle AI PCs with customized AI services, synchronously enhancing the value of hardware and software services.

According to the latest financial quarter data, SSG operates with a profit margin of 22%, significantly higher than the hardware business. As the complexity of AI PC deployment increases, corporations’ needs for AI hosting, model training, and data security services are surging, suggesting that SSG may contribute stable ongoing high-growth and high-margin outcomes. For Lenovo Group, AI PCs not only represent hardware upgrades but also signify a crucial step in Lenovo's strategic transformation from "selling devices" to "selling services." This transition aims to help Lenovo evolve from a traditional cyclical hardware manufacturer (OEM) to a high-growth, high-sticky "hybrid AI service empowerment platform."

Simultaneously, Lenovo is continuously investing heavily in the domain of super intelligent agents, advancing an "integrated multi-terminal" strategy to connect and integrate the AI ecosystems of PCs, mobile phones, and platforms, enhancing user engagement and driving hardware premiums and repurchases. This structural transformation is the core basis for Lenovo to obtain a higher valuation premium. In comparison to its competitors, one significant competitive advantage of Lenovo deserves special attention. Amid the increasing complexity in the supply of critical components in communication fields and the international trade environment, Lenovo's supply chain and operational resilience become key moats for maintaining its market leadership. Efficient cost control and rapid delivery capabilities that meet the large-scale, high-standard procurement demands of enterprises are vital for Lenovo to continue gaining market share and sustaining profitability.