Lenovo eyeing partnerships with AI models

Lenovo is pursuing partnerships with multiple large language model developers globally to power its devices as part of its strategy to become a global AI player, Reuters has reported, citing the company’s chief financial officer. The world’s largest personal computer maker intends to equip its extensive product portfolio, including PCs, smartphones, and wearables, with AI technology. This month, Lenovo launched Qira, a built-in cross-device intelligence system designed to integrate with LLM partners.

Chief Financial Officer Winston Cheng stated in an interview with Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Davos that Lenovo is the only company besides Apple with significant market share across both PCs and mobile devices within the open Android and Windows ecosystems. He noted that, unlike Apple, which currently collaborates only with OpenAI and Google’s Gemini, Lenovo is seeking agreements with a broader range of LLM developers.

Cheng identified potential partners including Humain in Saudi Arabia, Mistral AI in Europe, and Alibaba and DeepSeek in China. He described Lenovo’s strategy as an orchestrator approach, emphasizing that the company is not developing its own LLM but is instead forming partnerships due to varying global regulations. Cheng, a former technology investment banker who joined Lenovo in 2024 and assumed the CFO role in April 2025, made these remarks.

Regarding rising memory chip prices, which have impacted the outlook for consumer electronics manufacturers worldwide, Cheng acknowledged increasing costs and stated the company plans to pass these increases on to customers. He also observed an AI bubble in both private and public equity valuations, suggesting the market should closely examine operating costs in addition to capital expenditure.

In January, Lenovo, which also manufactures servers, announced a partnership with U.S. AI chip leader Nvidia. The collaboration aims to assist AI cloud providers in rapidly deploying data centers through a liquid-cooled hybrid AI infrastructure. Cheng told Reuters the two companies will focus on the global deployment of this capability with local manufacturing, and may consider launches in Asia or the Middle East.