Lenovo’s Puducherry plant to manufacture AI servers, aims for 60% export to APAC

Lenovo has started manufacturing AI servers in India. The production line at its Puducherry facility, operational since 2005, will now produce enterprise AI and GPU servers for AI workloads to meet the growing demands of local and international markets. These servers, equipped with Lenovo’s advanced 8-way GPU architecture, will address the booming AI infrastructure needs, with over 60 per cent of the production slated for export across the Asia-Pacific region.

The Puducherry plant will manufacture five offerings from Lenovo’s portfolio, including three rack-mounted enterprise AI servers and two flagship 8-way GPU servers. These technologies are poised to drive substantial growth for Lenovo’s India business in the coming year.

With a production capacity of around 50,000 enterprise AI rack servers annually and 2,400 high-end GPU units, Lenovo’s supply chain will serve the domestic demand and account for potential expansion into overseas markets.

Alongside, it has established a high-performance AI server manufacturing in India and inaugurated its state-of-the-art Research & Development (R&D) lab dedicated to advancing Lenovo’s Infrastructure Solutions.

Lenovo set up its manufacturing in India nearly two decades ago and R&D for Motorola 10 years ago. In the past few months, Lenovo also inaugurated the Global Shared Support Center and launched PMA-compliant PCs with made-in-India motherboards. The next phase of Lenovo’s multi-million-dollar investment plan includes AI server manufacturing and a new Infrastructure R&D lab.

In 2023, it announced an additional investment of $1 billion between FY23-25 to accelerate AI deployment for businesses around the world – specifically AI devices, AI infrastructure, and AI solutions.

AI for All

“This development marks a significant step toward achieving both Lenovo’s and the Indian government’s ‘AI for All’ vision,” said Amar Babu, President, Asia Pacific, Lenovo. “We remain committed to driving India’s growth as an innovation hub by expanding our global manufacturing footprint and harnessing the strength of Indian talent and the industry ecosystem for technology R&D.”

Lenovo has also launched an Infrastructure R&D Lab in Bengaluru, India, adding to its global network of 18 existing R&D Labs. This Bengaluru R&D facility is one of four critical labs worldwide dedicated to Infrastructure Solutions, joining server design and development centers in Morrisville, Beijing, and Taipei.

The company also stated this lab will help in system design, development, and testing of next-generation server platforms, including hardware, firmware, and software development. It has advanced tools for electrical, design/testing, power characterisation, thermal analysis, and compliance testing.

Shailendra Katyal, Managing Director, Lenovo India, said, “With today’s announcement of AI server manufacturing in India, we complete Lenovo’s pocket-to-cloud technologies ‘Made in India’ for the world. The Infrastructure R&D Lab’s focus on designing and developing next-generation mainstream servers further underscores Lenovo’s dedication to ‘R&D in India for the world.’”

All future mainstream server design, developments, and new technical initiatives will be conducted at this lab, contributing to Lenovo’s global R&D initiatives. The company’s global R&D spend was $2.3 billion for FY24.

With over seven million devices produced in India during FY24, Lenovo said it is enhancing its manufacturing and R&D capabilities, positioning India as a crucial component of its global network, which includes over 30 manufacturing sites across nine markets.