MORRISVILLE – Born in China with most of its operations there, its stock traded in Hong Kong and a headquarters in Beijing, Lenovo is consistently branded as a Chinese company. Lenovo occasionally pushes back on that narrative – and such was the case Monday when the company was named the world’s top supercomputer builder.
Media report after media report labeled Lenovo as a Chinese company and included it as one of three firms that, combined, make China the world’s No. 1 supercomputer builder.
WRAL’s report, built around a story provided by The New York Times, stressed Lenovo’s US connections and the fact that the business group responsible for supercomputer development is based in the Triangle. We have reported on this group and its artificial intelligence, supercomputer, high performance computing and server efforts in the past.
Nevertheless, a Lenovo spokesperson pointed out:
“Thanks for the coverage. Lenovo is a global company with dual headquarters in Morrisville, NC and Beijing, China.” He then noted the US connections. And he was right to do so. He asked further – would revisions be made.
Thus, this story.
The Triangle connections
To clarify the “made in the USA” connection and what’s going on, The Skinny pursued some followup questions about this under-reported, emerging success story for Lenovo.
Scott Tease, executive director, High Performance Computing and Artificial Intelligence, of the Lenovo Data Center Group, through the media spokesperson graciously answered some questions. And he clarified points of development that date back several years.
The Skinny asked: “Does the supercomputer center work build off the acquisition of IBM’s x86 server business?”
Yes. His response:
“In June 2014, Lenovo had zero listings on the TOP500 and we brought over a small handful of listings (less than 10) with the IBM acquisition,” he noted.
“The other 100+ have been organically won and installed systems by Lenovo.”
An expanding role
All, he added, are located at our dual headquarters in Morrisville on Development Drive.
The newest part of Lenovo’s HPC efforts is an Artificial Intelligence Center in Morrisville with others located in Beijing and Germany. These were announced late last year as part of an expanding commitment to HPC by Lenovo’s chair and CEO Yang Yuanqing.