The Thinkpad maker's chief financial officer Winston Cheng told Bloomberg TV his outfit is sitting on inventories about 50 per cent higher than usual.
The rush to build AI data centres stuffed with high-end hardware is pushing up costs for consumer tech makers, although Lenovo reckons its early hoarding gives it a handy edge over rivals desperate for scraps.
Cheng said: “The price is going very, very high, of course, and I think it’s been unprecedented in terms of this rate driven by the AI demand.”
He added that Lenovo’s long-term contracts and sheer scale should help the company hold its ground as buyers scramble for whatever they can get.
The CFO insisted Lenovo will avoid passing those rising costs on to customers this quarter because it does not want to ruin the strong sales run it has enjoyed this year. He said the outfit will try to strike a sensible middle ground between pricing and product availability in 2026 as the market settles.
Lenovo boasted last week that it already holds enough memory to see it through all of 2026, which it claims puts it ahead of rivals that were slower to react. The company appears confident that this buffer will let it deal with shortages with less panic than the rest of the industry.
The AI gold rush is causing headaches far beyond the realm of memory. Suppliers are warning of tight availability for power components, networking chips, and high-bandwidth modules as cloud giants scoop up everything not nailed down.
Lenovo has been broadening its component sources to dodge bottlenecks and is said to be leaning on long-standing relationships with Asian suppliers to secure priority shipments.
Industry watchers say the scramble is reminiscent of past cycles when sudden demand from data centre builders distorted the PC and server market. Analysts are now watching to see how long Lenovo can keep margins from shrinking as the component price spiral continues into next year.
Some observers believe Lenovo’s bet on deep inventories might pay off handsomely if parts shortages intensify and competitors are forced to scale back production. Others warn that if the supply situation eases faster than expected, the company risks sitting on expensive stock bought at peak prices.
Lenovo is also trying to push further into AI-ready PCs and hybrid devices, which require more advanced components than the bog-standard laptops the company is famous for. Keeping a tight grip on supply will be essential as it pursues this higher-margin segment.
Cheng’s remarks hint that Lenovo expects the AI-driven supply crunch to continue throughout 2026, which suggests the company is preparing for a long haul rather than a brief surge. Whether its hoarding strategy turns out to be a masterstroke or an expensive gamble will depend entirely on how violently AI demand continues to distort the component market.
