LENOVO EYES 120b YUAN IN SALES WITH JD.COM DEAL
Renewed partnership covers a range of next-generation AI devices and services amid efforts in global PC industry to embrace latest technology
Lenovo Group, the world’s largest personal computer (PC) maker, and Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com have renewed their partnership with a mission to drive sales of new artificial intelligence (AI) devices to consumers across the nation.
The two Hong Kong-listed partners are targeting 120 billion yuan (HK$129 billion) in sales over the 2024-26 period via JD.com’s online and offline channels, covering Lenovo’s nextgeneration AI PCs, AI-powered smartphones, tablets and other “AI-oriented infrastructure such as servers”, according to a statement published on Sunday by both companies on their respective WeChat accounts.
That total would double the three-year, 60-billion-yuan goal the two firms had set in 2016, which was “successfully completed”, according to the statement.
It said JD.com “has long been the largest retailer of Lenovo’s consumer electronic products”.
The new deal also involves AI marketing, smart logistics delivery and trade-in services via JD.com.
“Lenovo has entered into a new decade of embracing AI,” said executive vice-president Liu Jun, who also serves as president of China operations.
Liu also assured the partnership’s commitment to promote “AI for the benefit of tens of thousands of families and industries”.
Lenovo’s sharpened focus on AI reflects efforts in the global PC industry to integrate the technology into various products and services, in response to a projected shift in demand to machines that can run generative AI tasks locally.
That trend was expected to stimulate another industry refresh cycle, as users required devices designed for more creativity and productivity, Lenovo chairman and chief executive Yang Yuanqing said during the company’s earnings webcast for the December quarter in February.
At the firm’s 9th Global Tech World event held in Austin, Texas, last October, Lenovo launched its “AI for All” strategy that covers purpose-built AI-ready devices, infrastructure, solutions and services.
The company would roll out its first-generation AI PCs in the first half of this year, executive vice-president Luca Rossi, who also heads the firm’s Intelligent Devices Group, said during the earnings webcast in February.
Rossi assured “there will be several generations of AI PCs with evolutionary and more sophisticated features going forward”, adding Lenovo’s portfolio of AI devices would “dramatically expand” from the second half of this year through 2025.
Lenovo’s AI strategy received a major push in January at the CES trade show in Las Vegas, where the company unveiled a line-up of more than 40 new devices and solutions powered by AI.
JD.com, meanwhile, has also been stepping up its own AI development efforts. In July last year, the firm launched its AI large language model (LLM), ChatRhino, called Yanxi in Chinese, that purportedly offers targeted solutions across a range of industries, from retail and logistics to finance and healthcare. LLM is the technology used to train ChatGPT and other generative AI services.