Ask AI · How can Lenovo’s AI transformation leverage university collaborations to break through?

01, The “Most Expensive CEO” Donates Again

On April 6, at Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s 130th Anniversary “Alumni Homecoming Day,” Lenovo Group Chairman and CEO, Shanghai Jiao Tong University trustee, and 1981 Computer Science alumnus Yang Yuanqing not only returned to his alma mater but also announced a personal donation of 200 million yuan.

This money will be used to support the renovation and revitalization of the old building on the Xuhui campus’s Teaching Building 3. After renovation, the building will support research innovation and talent development in artificial intelligence disciplines. Meanwhile, Lenovo and Shanghai Jiao Tong University jointly announced an upgrade to their strategic partnership. Lenovo will invest an additional 300 million yuan over five years, and both parties will deepen research cooperation, talent cultivation, and technology incubation around innovative fields like AI.

This is not the first time Yang Yuanqing has made a substantial donation to Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

In May 2015, Yang Yuanqing donated 10 million yuan to his alma mater and jointly established the “Computer 85 Fund and Yang Yuanqing Education Fund” with classmates from the 1985 Computer Science class, to fund outstanding students in the computer science department and support young teachers with outstanding performance.

In April 2021, Yang Yuanqing contributed 100 million yuan to build the Yang Yuanqing Scientific Computing Center at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Over ten years, Yang Yuanqing has donated more than 300 million yuan to Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Born in Hefei, Anhui Province, in 1964, Yang Yuanqing graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, then obtained a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1989, the same year he joined Lenovo Group. In December 2023, Yang Yuanqing also personally donated 200 million yuan to USTC’s Boya College to support the construction of the college building, aiding his alma mater’s basic scientific research innovation and talent development.

Some may naturally wonder: with such generous giving, where does Yang Yuanqing get so much money?

In fact, Yang Yuanqing is not just an ordinary worker. According to Forbes’ list of CEO salaries in Chinese-listed companies, Yang Yuanqing has long ranked among the top, often holding the number one spot, and has been called China’s “most expensive CEO.”

Lenovo’s 2024/2025 annual report (covering April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025) shows that Yang Yuanqing’s total compensation is $19.42M. That means, in one fiscal year, Yang Yuanqing received about 161 million RMB from Lenovo (based on the March 31, 2025, exchange rate).

In the 2023/2024 fiscal year, Yang Yuanqing received a total of $1.33M, roughly 138 million RMB; in 2022/2023, he received $22.27 million, about 153 million RMB.

Of course, Yang Yuanqing’s salary is not fixed annually. For 2024/2025, his compensation includes a fixed salary of $5.9M, discretionary bonuses of $14.6M, long-term incentive rewards of $56k, pension and employer retirement plan contributions of $56k, and other benefits worth $497k.

Lenovo states that for the compensation of the chairman, CEO, and senior management, the compensation committee considers various factors to determine their pay, including industry-standard wages and total remuneration, job responsibilities and scope, Lenovo’s performance, and individual contributions.

From the compensation structure, Yang Yuanqing’s fixed salary accounts for only 5.9%; discretionary bonuses make up 26.4%. Lenovo explains that these bonuses are determined based on the assessment of financial and non-financial indicators and personal performance contributions; long-term incentives are the core of his pay, accounting for as much as 65.2%.

Wind data shows that since the 2013/2014 fiscal year, Yang Yuanqing’s annual salary has exceeded 100 million RMB. Caijing Tianxia’s statistics reveal that over the past 12 fiscal years, Yang Yuanqing’s total cumulative compensation from Lenovo has been about 497k RMB. Additionally, Yang Yuanqing holds Lenovo shares directly and indirectly, earning substantial cash income through dividends. He has also repeatedly cashed out by reducing stock holdings.

On the 2025 Hurun Rich List, Yang Yuanqing’s wealth is 9.5 billion RMB, ranking 755th. Forbes’ real-time wealth list shows that as of April 7, the 61-year-old Yang Yuanqing’s wealth is $1.3 billion, roughly 9 billion RMB.

Lenovo and Yang Yuanqing’s “investment in tech talent” is now extremely clear. Universities are the core innovation hubs for AI in China. Whoever can seize talent resources at the university level will lock in the future AI ecosystem.

In fact, in 2021, Lenovo Group once filed for an IPO on the STAR Market but withdrew it after just 8 days. At that time, the prospectus showed that Lenovo’s R&D investment accounted for less than 3% of total revenue, and R&D staff did not hold shares, contrasting sharply with Yang Yuanqing’s billion-yuan salary. Later, Yang Yuanqing had to respond that compared to the thresholds for R&D investment required by the STAR Market, Lenovo had already exceeded many of them.

Faced with the surging wave of AI, Yang Yuanqing and Lenovo are both feeling some urgency.

02, All in AI, Lenovo Aims to Become an “AI Native Company”

“From this moment on, Lenovo will become an AI-native company!” On April 1, Yang Yuanqing said at Lenovo’s 2026 Strategy Mobilization Conference. This means Lenovo is also going to “all in AI,” transforming from a hardware company mainly focused on PC business into an AI-driven enterprise.

Two weeks earlier, in March, at the NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference, Lenovo and NVIDIA jointly announced the new generation Lenovo Hybrid AI Advantage solution, aiming to accelerate AI deployment, shorten the first Token Time (TTFT), and deliver measurable business results across personal, enterprise, and cloud environments.

Lenovo has raised the AI flag prominently. But can this veteran PC company in the public’s mind really do it?

Although Lenovo has long been the leader in China’s PC market, its reliance on a single PC business has put pressure on its performance. As of March 31, 2024, Lenovo’s annual revenue was $1.72B, down 8% year-on-year, with revenue and profit declining for two consecutive years.

The pressure is undoubtedly felt by Yang Yuanqing.

Lenovo has already started its transformation, actively developing AI PCs and exploring a second growth curve. Since launching the “3S Strategy” in 2019, Lenovo has formed three major business groups: Intelligent Devices Group (IDG), Solution Services Group (SSG), and Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG). In February this year, Lenovo’s Q3 FY2025 financial report showed that revenue for the first three quarters reached $61.5 billion, up 18% year-on-year; in Q3 alone, revenue hit a record high of $22.2 billion, also up 18%.

Lenovo’s traditional business remains its revenue ballast, with IDG contributing $44.3 billion in the first three quarters, accounting for over 70% of total revenue; in the third quarter, Lenovo’s PC market share reached a historic high of 25.5%, with 19.4 million units shipped. However, the market environment is changing rapidly. IDC’s report predicts that global PC shipments may decline by as much as 9% in 2026, and even in a moderate scenario, the market could shrink by 5%. Meanwhile, rising memory prices pose challenges and pressures for all manufacturers.

Lenovo must seek incremental growth from AI. In fact, it has already benefited from AI’s dividends: in Q3, AI-related revenue grew 72% year-on-year, accounting for 32% of total revenue. Lenovo has launched multiple AI PC products and adopted an “all-in-one multi-device” strategy, with AI PC sales surpassing 2.53 million units annually, making up one-third of notebook sales.

Driven by AI, ISG’s revenue in Q3 reached a record $5.2 billion, up 31% year-on-year. The financial report states this growth was mainly due to the expansion of large enterprise clients, leading to record cloud infrastructure revenue, and ongoing transformation of enterprise infrastructure.

But Lenovo’s AI transformation still faces deep challenges and anxieties. Gartner predicts that by the end of 2025, AI PC global penetration will be only 31%, far below Yang Yuanqing’s forecast of over 80% in three years, indicating that AI PCs may not yet support Lenovo’s growth in the short term.

There is also significant room for improvement in ISG. In the last fiscal quarter, this segment still posted a loss of $11 million, with a cumulative loss of $128 million over three quarters. Moreover, in Q3, ISG underwent a strategic restructuring, incurring a one-time restructuring expense of $285 million.

Notably, Lenovo underwent layoffs at the end of 2025, mainly involving ISG. In December 2025, multiple verified Lenovo employees on social media reported that layoffs had begun in Lenovo’s China region, affecting R&D centers in Beijing, Shanghai, and other cities, focusing on software, firmware, and OS development teams. Some employees described the layoffs as “a 15-minute lightning meeting.”

While Yang Yuanqing’s compensation exceeds 56.86B yuan, Lenovo is at a critical juncture of transformation. ISG is the core segment for Lenovo’s AI infrastructure buildout. The company’s strategic shift from “hardware seller” to “solution provider” is urgent. Yang Yuanqing has also announced that in the next two years, Lenovo aims to reach $100 billion in revenue and improve net profit margin to over 5%. This tech giant must deliver a more impressive performance to the market.

Yang Yuanqing has chosen “hybrid AI” as the future positioning of Lenovo’s AI ecosystem. A comprehensive AI transformation is also key to Lenovo’s market value revaluation. In today’s AI reshaping of global industries, what Lenovo needs is a deeper transformation.

(Authors | Yang Shier, Zhang Xiangyang; Editor | Yang Yi; Image source | Visual China; Content from Caijing Tianxia WEEKLY)