The latest punitive tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on electronic products from China have already caused higher prices of PCs, notebooks, and digital signage media players. Now, the Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo is taking action and relocating all manufacturing to India.
Practically all current PC products from Lenovo – one of the world’s leading PC manufacturers – are produced in China. A few exceptions for tariff reasons are premium products, such as servers that are assembled in Hungary and Mexico for the EU and North America.
According to a report (behind paywall) from DigiTimes Asia, which various media outlets are referring to, Lenovo plans to completely relocate its PC production from China to India within three years. Other manufacturers such as Dell and HP are also moving their production from China to countries like Vietnam or Indonesia that are considered Trump-friendly. However, manufacturing PCs, notebooks, and media players in the USA or EU remains unlikely due to too high costs.
USA blocks China-shipment of AI on-device chips
New import bans on AI chips (NPUs) to China further complicate PC manufacturing for Western markets. Many manufacturers now integrate dedicated NPUs alongside CPUs and GPUs to enable on-device AI, but these chips cannot be shipped to China. NPUs also support new GDPR-compliant AI applications, particularly in digital signage.
