Track Hyper | What did Lenovo do in Seattle?

Author: Zhou Yuan/Wall Street News, from Seattle

TSMC's third-quarter financial performance far exceeded market expectations, addressing recent market concerns about AI demand.

Prior to this, Lenovo Group Chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing, at Lenovo Tech World 2024 held in Seattle on October 15th, also clearly stated, "We believe that artificial intelligence is not a fleeting trend, nor is it an inflated bubble."

Lenovo Group sees hybrid artificial intelligence as the future direction of AI development, including seamless and secure integration of private and public clouds, personal and enterprise solutions.

At the same time, Lenovo Group unveiled the next phase of the Smarter AI for All vision, showcasing a comprehensive portfolio of artificial intelligence solutions, services, and devices, bringing transformation and tangible investment returns to thousands of industries and households worldwide.

Lenovo Group Chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing/Photo: Zhou Yuan

On October 15th, Lenovo Group announced several key technologies and products to support the above goals.

For example, the launch of Lenovo Hybrid AI Advantage for enterprises; the new generation Lenovo Neptune liquid-cooled server; the latest ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Aura Edition AI PC, Lenovo AI Now, Lenovo Learning Zone software platform, etc.

More importantly, Lenovo has built a comprehensive open ecosystem, with CEOs from six top global technology companies such as NVIDIA and AMD participating in Lenovo Tech World 2024 in various forms, showcasing a series of collaborative achievements with Lenovo.

Leader: Hybrid AI Vision

If TSMC is at the upstream providing equipment manufacturing technology for AI, and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, AMD Chairman and CEO Lisa Su, and Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who attended Lenovo Tech World 2024 on October 15th, are responsible for core device design and development for AI devices, positioned in the midstream of AI, then Lenovo Group, as an integrator, is responsible for the crucial task of integrating and implementing technologies from the midstream to upstream.

In other words, Lenovo Group acts as a bridge between AI technology and the supply and demand between individuals/enterprises, as well as value realization.

In fact, Lenovo Group has aggregated various midstream software and hardware technology companies in AI, forming an open super ecosystem, developing various AI solutions, services, and device combinations, enabling transformation, tangible investment returns, and enhancing personal work efficiency and quality of life for thousands of industries and households globally Yang Yuanqing told Wall Street News, "Our criteria for choosing ecological partners are not limited to giants, but also include technology companies of various sizes that can provide valuable support for Lenovo to realize AI services."

On October 15th, Wall Street News noted that in addition to the leaders of NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel personally attending the event, leaders of tech giants such as Qualcomm CEO and President Cristiano Amon, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, Meta founder and CEO Mark Elliot Zuckerberg participated in Lenovo Tech World 2024 in the form of video speeches. A significant number of leaders from technology companies of various sizes also appeared at Lenovo Tech World 2024 and delivered speeches.

Since the Lenovo Tech World conference in 2023, what has Lenovo Group been up to?

"Building on the foundation announced at the 2023 Tech World conference, Lenovo has been actively presenting our vision of hybrid artificial intelligence to global customers and partners," Yang Yuanqing said. "We have seen that artificial intelligence is improving individuals' quality of life, bringing higher productivity to businesses, and Lenovo is making this paradigm shift faster, easier to access, more interconnected, and more sustainable."

According to Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo Group's overall strategy for AI is to "combine modularity and customization to quickly respond to customer needs while tailoring our solutions to them."

Dr. Tolga Kurtoglu, CTO of Lenovo Group, stated, "Our vision of Smarter AI for All is becoming a reality, and our key strength lies in integrating artificial intelligence across a wide range of product portfolios, from intelligent devices to more efficient server architectures. Lenovo is also tirelessly working with partners on scientifically rigorous exploration, enabling us to define the future of artificial intelligence."

NVIDIA: Lenovo's Best Partner in Servers

NVIDIA has attracted attention for providing data transmission speed channels, training, and inference device modules for AI technology, making it the focus of this round of AI technology and a major driver of the recent surge in US stocks.

Jensen Huang said, "Speed is sustainability, speed is performance, speed is energy efficiency."

When performance grows at two or three times the speed— "and this is annual growth— we can effectively reduce the cost, workload, and energy consumption of AI, while also increasing its revenue-generating capabilities." Jensen Huang believes, "Unlike data centers that store files, these data centers are AI factories that produce tokens. You would want the tokens— which are essentially artificial intelligence— to be produced at the highest possible speed."

As a key technology company in AI, NVIDIA's position in Lenovo Group's entire AI technology ecosystem is also very clear, leading to increasingly close technical cooperation between the two companies The collaboration between these two companies this year has resulted in the launch of the new generation AI server ThinkSystem SC777 by Lenovo Group. This server adopts Lenovo's sixth-generation Neptune liquid cooling technology, equipped with the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell GB200 AI accelerator card, and utilizes a 100% water-cooling design, eliminating the need for any fans or dedicated data center air conditioning.

Jensen Huang commented on this, "The efforts Lenovo has put into building high-performance computers over the years have paid off."

In fact, from an importance perspective, the ThinkSystem SC777 is just an appetizer. The real significant technological collaboration outcome between the two parties is the joint launch of the "Lenovo Hybrid AI Advantage."

This is an end-to-end AI platform for developing and deploying AI in the new era: based on technologically superior infrastructure, including AI devices, AI servers, storage, as well as edge computing, public cloud, private cloud, serving as a carrier for enterprises to store, clean, and organize data.

The Lenovo Hybrid AI Advantage framework includes the new Lenovo AI Library, which is a comprehensive repository of AI templates, allowing enterprises to implement AI solutions with minimal complexity, covering multiple industries and business functions, including marketing, IT operations, product development, and customer service.

Data algorithms and accelerated computing capabilities together drive the realization of enterprise AI, optimizing processes, making better decisions, and increasing productivity.

Among all these elements, services play a crucial role - managing the full lifecycle of infrastructure including design, deployment, expansion, maintenance, enhancing data analysis and governance capabilities, providing consultation and tuning for AI models, and expanding the AI software ecosystem for customers.

Building on the concept of a hybrid AI factory, Lenovo also offers the Lenovo AI Application Library. It is understood that Lenovo's strategy regarding the "Hybrid AI Advantage" is to combine modularization with customization to quickly respond to customer needs and tailor solutions for them.

All these areas together form the complete system of the "Lenovo Hybrid AI Advantage" resulting from the collaboration between Lenovo and NVIDIA.

At the 2023 Lenovo Tech World Conference, Lenovo Group and NVIDIA announced an expanded partnership, enabling the realization of the Lenovo-NVIDIA Hybrid AI Advantage through the collaboration of the two companies in full-stack AI product portfolios, and applying AI-driven computing quickly and conveniently anywhere.

Unprecedented Collaboration Driving Archrivals

Lenovo has a unique advantage in providing a diverse hybrid AI ecosystem, covering the widest range of products in the market - from personal computers, smartphones, mixed reality (MR), tablets, device accessories to servers, storage, and public/private clouds.

Speaking of personal computers, the CEOs of Intel and AMD also attended the Lenovo Tech World 2024 Conference and rarely expressed that both parties will reconcile and establish a new x86 ecosystem advisory group, aiming to reshape the future of x86 Henry Kissinger described the collaboration with AMD as "unprecedented and the first collaboration".

It is worth noting that Lenovo Group is also the founding company of this consulting group. Although it has not been officially confirmed by Lenovo Group, it is not difficult to imagine that Lenovo is likely the behind-the-scenes promoter of this collaboration, given that Henry Kissinger and Su Zifeng personally attended and jointly announced the collaboration.

In addition to Lenovo, Intel, and AMD, members of the x86 ecosystem consulting group also include Tim Sweeney, Broadcom, VMware, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, and Red Hat.

In the AI ​​section of personal computers, Lenovo Group has launched the world's first personal AI ​​smart agent for the global market—Lenovo AI Now. This is a personal AI smart agent built into PCs.

Yang Yuanqing described what a personal AI smart agent is: using natural interaction to understand user intent, extracting relevant information from the user's personal knowledge base on the device, breaking down tasks, providing answers, and devising execution plans.

"More importantly, it is connected to an open ecosystem, supported by heterogeneous computing, and ensures privacy and data security," Yang Yuanqing said. "Ultimately, it will become your personal AI twin brother."

Kissinger believes, "AI devices are fundamentally changing the cost economics of artificial intelligence. I don't need to go somewhere to use AI, it's on my device (AI PC). I don't need to put my valuable data in some cloud, it's on my device. I don't need network costs, it's on my device."

To make AI accessible, PC devices must have a heterogeneous computing chip, a combination of CPU, GPU, and NPU, also known as "XPU".

Lenovo Group has chosen Intel and AMD to provide this chip.

The collaboration with Intel is the Aura Edition personal computer launched by Lenovo— a series of high-end AI-enhanced laptops jointly developed by both parties, released by Lenovo at IFA 2024.

The Aura Edition features three exclusive key functions: the most important being Smart Share intelligent sharing.

Users can instantly share and edit by simply connecting their phone and computer, without switching between different ecosystems or complex steps. This series of laptops also have Smart Modes and Smart Care, which can adapt to different usage scenarios, guide users in self-diagnosis, and provide real-time agent support.

If Kissinger is not exaggerating, then the Aura Edition is definitely not the assembly product as it used to be.

"Aura Edition is not only our joint innovation, but also our joint conception," Kissinger said. "Can the x86 architecture have excellent battery life? Now, this debate is over. Aura Edition is equipped with Core Ultra, with outstanding performance and incredible battery life."

Kissinger admitted that the Aura Edition with built-in Lenovo AI Now is jointly defined by Intel and Lenovo Group In fact, the cooperation between AMD and Lenovo appears to be more comprehensive and in-depth compared to the collaboration between Intel and Lenovo on personal PCs. Su Zifeng said, "Through our collaboration with Lenovo, we have truly built a comprehensive solution from ThinkPad (AI PC) to ThinkSystem (AI server) to ThinkStation (AI workstation, including C, S, and P series)."

For example, a recent collaboration achievement between AMD and Lenovo is the joint launch of the 5th generation AMD EPYC™ processor. This CPU is specifically designed for cloud computing, enterprise applications, and artificial intelligence, primarily used in data centers (IDCs).

Su Zifeng believes that AMD's mission is to provide computing power for generative AI, which is also the direction Su Zifeng's relative, Jensen Huang, is working hard on.

According to Su Zifeng, the latest Instinct MI325X AI accelerator card from AMD will be shipped at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024 and will be supplied to Lenovo Group in the first quarter of 2025.

What is Openness? The Ambiguous Relationship of WoA

Intel and Lenovo Group are strategic deep cooperation partners, allowing them to jointly define important AI PC products. It is worth mentioning that some of the AI PC products launched by Lenovo are equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite CPU (based on ARM architecture). However, Lenovo Group's open ecosystem also includes more collaborative companies, such as Microsoft.

Yang Yuanqing said, "We are collaborating with Microsoft to develop Copilot+PC to add more artificial intelligence features to Lenovo's AI PC. These features include Live Captions for real-time audio translation and Windows Studio Effects for automatically improving brightness and eliminating noise during video calls."

Wall Street News noted that Qualcomm's CEO sent a congratulatory video message and did not attend in person. Indeed, the x86 ecosystem advisory group established by Lenovo, Intel, and AMD could easily make Qualcomm feel awkward.

Microsoft may also feel awkward, as even though the Lenovo Tech World 2024 conference was held in Seattle, where Microsoft's headquarters are located, Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella did not attend in person but participated via video, similar to Qualcomm's CEO.

Microsoft's awkwardness may stem from "betraying" its longtime partners and core members of the dominant technology alliance in the industry, Wintel—Intel. Microsoft has unexpectedly started the Windows on Arm (WoA) "system" with Qualcomm to target the AI PC market.

By entering the AI PC field with ARM-based CPUs, Qualcomm's processors based on ARM architecture have begun to catch up with x86 in terms of performance, with low power consumption being a core technological point of ARM architecture.

Of course, the interwoven interests among modern tech giants are complex. Despite Qualcomm and Microsoft belonging to the ARM camp, Lenovo's ecosystem is open, making Microsoft and Qualcomm still members of Lenovo's global ecosystem partnership Satya Nadella said, "We are collaborating to integrate the content security features of Azure AI into Lenovo's personal AI assistant to help detect and intercept potential risks, threats, and quality issues. We are also excited about the progress of the Copilot+ PCs project, including the brand-new AI experience released earlier this month."

Without being on the scene, Wall Street News is not yet fully aware of the extent of cooperation between Lenovo Group and Meta.

According to Yang Yuanqing, Meta is a "super important" partner of Lenovo Group in the fields of spatial computing, artificial intelligence, and mixed reality.

The recently launched AI Now by Lenovo, based on Meta's Llama model as revealed by Mark Zuckerberg, truly transforms PCs into more practical and personalized intelligent devices. This is also why we open-sourced Llama, so that companies like Lenovo can fine-tune large language models to optimize their performance in specific use cases.

Open sourcing is currently the most cost-effective, customizable, reliable, and performance-optimized choice.

Zuckerberg announced that Lenovo's PCs are compatible with Meta's first consumer-grade VR device Oculus Rift, "We collaborated to create its next-generation product Oculus Rift S."

Furthermore, Lenovo plans to launch a mixed reality headset with Meta Horizon OS, which will also be used in Meta's Meta Quest headset.

The collaboration between Meta and Lenovo is not limited to hardware but also includes software: In addition to planning to release Lenovo MR headsets with Meta Horizon OS, the two parties have jointly developed a 2D application.

This application will soon be available on the Meta Horizon store, allowing users to interact with any application on their Motorola phone in Quest without removing the headset. This means that users can interact with any application on their phone on a larger virtual screen