We know that companies around the world are investing heavily in AI. So intense is the race to win the AI battle, that it feels like there&#x27;s almost no upward limit on how much you could spend on it. So how are CFOs thinking about capex in the AI age? In this episode we speak with Winston Cheng, CFO of Chinese-founded multinational tech firm Lenovo. Lenovo is known for its personal computers, especially its Thinkpad line of laptops, but they are making a push to move beyond its role as one of the leaders in personal computing, integrating AI agents into their devices and investing in building out an “AI Cloud” infrastructure alongside Nvidia. We talk to Cheng about how Lenovo&#x27;s allocating capital during one of the biggest capex booms in history. We also discuss involution and market competition in China, and how Lenovo&#x27;s been adapting its supply chain to tariffs. Read more: AI Sales Start to Justify Data-Center Spending Boom, Report Says Anthropic Accuses Alibaba of ‘Illicitly’ Accessing AI Models Only Bloomberg - Business News, Stock Markets, Finance, Breaking &amp; World News subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots Subscribe to the Odd Lots Newsletter Join the conversation: discord.gg/oddlots See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How Lenovo's CFO Is Allocating Capital During One of History's Biggest Booms

Odd Lots

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**Podcast:** Odd Lots

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[SPEAKER_C] Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, radio, news.

[SPEAKER_D] Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Tracy Alloway.

[SPEAKER_C] And I'm Joe Weisenthal.

[SPEAKER_D] So Joe, we are here in Hong Kong still, and we're learning a lot of different things, a lot of interesting things. One of the most interesting things we heard actually came yesterday from the Baidu CFO, where we were just talking casually ahead of our interview, but he was saying that the word token has now officially been added to the Chinese Mandarin dictionary, and that the characters that actually make up the Chinese word for token are something like word currency.

[SPEAKER_C] I think that's so fascinating. You know, I'm fascinated by the etymology of the word token specifically, so I was thrilled to hear that. But it is, you know, it's like we know the word token in the monetary context. We know Chuck E. Cheese tokens, we know crypto tokens, but we also know that since the middle of the 20th century, linguists have ...

How Lenovo's CFO Is Allocating Capital During One of History's Biggest Booms

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

How Lenovo's CFO Is Allocating Capital During One of History's Biggest Booms

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.