Lenovo Warns Memory Chip Disturbance to Last Entire Year

Bloomberg News

Thu, February 12, 2026 at 5:27 PM GMT+9 2 min read

In this article:

LNVGF

+4.55%

Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) – Lenovo Group Ltd. expects the memory crunch to affect the global hardware industry for the rest of the year, Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing said on Thursday.

The company earlier reported a 21% decline in net income over the December quarter, pushing its shares down 4.7% and underscoring concern about the pressure on margins from rising memory costs that have hit every corner of the electronics industry. That overshadowed a better-than-expected rise in revenue to $22.2 billion.

Most Read from Bloomberg

NJ Transit Service Between Trenton and New York City Resumes

NY Private School Startup Seeks Edge by Giving 42% Fee Discount

The Best Tactics for Tackling Speeders

New York Faces Slippery Evening Commute as Storm Moves in Fast

Slums? Informal Settlements? Just Call These Cities ‘Homegrown’

“This structural imbalance between supply and demand is not simply a short-term fluctuation,” the CEO said in an interview. Memory costs increased by 40% to 50% for Lenovo over the last quarter, and even the contract price could be doubled in the current quarter, Yang said.

Holiday sales and advanced orders placed before widely expected price hikes are lifting the PC sector, with the market expanding 9.6% last quarter, according to consultancy IDC. Alongside Lenovo, fellow category leaders HP Inc. and Dell Technologies Inc. each recorded double-digit shipment growth. But appetite for AI is squeezing availability of memory chips and other essential components. The impact of that global shortage is expected to grow in the coming months.

“We expect the pulled-forward demand to somewhat persist in the March quarter, but we believe the cheaper inventory should be largely depleted during 1Q. As such, we are likely to see more price hikes going forward, eventually affecting end-demand, especially for consumers,” UOB Kay Hian analysts wrote in a report.

Larger industry players like Lenovo are better positioned to negotiate with suppliers for priority, and the company reported strong momentum for its developing AI server business.

Lenovo’s infrastructure solutions group, which provides servers and storage hardware, generated $5.2 billion in revenue, up 31% to a quarterly record. Major suppliers to the AI boom, from Nvidia Corp. to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. have issued upbeat outlooks for continued demand in the face of concerns about a potential bubble in the sector.

(Updates with stock performance and Lenovo CEO’s comment from first paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

UPS’s Missteps Have Made the Company’s Road Ahead Less Certain

Drug Cartels Are Shifting Their Money Laundering to Crypto. Cops Can’t Keep Up

Fibermaxxing Is a Diet Trend Even Nutritionists Can Love

What It’s Like to Be a Banker in Russia During Wartime

Being Black on Wall Street Has Gotten Tougher as DEI Disappears

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Terms and Privacy Policy

Privacy Dashboard

More Info