Lenovo takes the top spot in global x86 server shipments for the first time

A person putting a Lenovo server rack in its place.

Lenovo has taken the No. 1 spot in global x86 server shipments for the first time, IDC's figures suggest, helped by a sharp rise in demand for servers used to run AI workloads.

Newton Gitonga, Published 09/11/2026

AI GPU Business

As per MyDrivers, IDC's second-quarter figures show Lenovo's x86 server shipments grew 45.6% from a year earlier. That was well ahead of the 8.9% growth recorded across the wider server market. Lenovo ended the quarter with a 7.4% share of global x86 server shipments, moving up two places from the same period last year.

The company also saw a big jump in server revenue. Lenovo's x86 server revenue increased 96% year-over-year and 46.9% from the previous quarter passing $8.26 billion.

The wider server market had a strong quarter as well with Nvidia recently reporting Q2 revenue of just over $96 billion.

Server prices are also going up as manufacturers deal with higher memory costs and other supply pressures. Even so, shipments continued to increase. IDC recorded a 15.4% year-over-year rise in total server shipments during the quarter.

AI is a big part of that growth, but the spending is no longer coming only from the biggest cloud companies. Enterprises and governments are also building out infrastructure for AI training and inference.

The notable shift in the server market this quarter is in who is now buying," said Kuba Stolarski, IDC research vice president for Computing Platforms and Service Provider Infrastructure.

Meanwhile GPU-powered servers accounted for nearly 53% of server market revenue in the quarter. Their average selling price also rose by almost 44% to $170,200, although GPU server unit shipments fell 10.8% year-over-year.

Lenovo's AI server order backlog also climbed 157% from the previous quarter to $54 billion. Its overseas server business was particularly strong. Revenue from x86 servers outside China rose 160.1% year-over-year, while shipments increased 73.1%.

IDC expects AI infrastructure spending to keep growing. The firm forecasts global spending of $487 billion in 2026, up around 53% year-over-year. For Lenovo, that could give its server business another strong market to chase after securing the top shipment position for the first time.