Lenovo to invest 100 billion yuan in R&D over 5 years

Chinese tech heavyweight Lenovo Group Ltd said on Wednesday that it will invest 100 billion yuan ($15.7 billion) into research and development over the next five years, as it is determined to grow its technological prowess and build new growth engines.

Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of Lenovo, said at the company‘s new fiscal year kick-off event that despite external challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and a shortage of components, the company has achieved a strong performance.

In the new fiscal year, the primary task for Lenovo is how to successfully pass development cycles and create new growth engines while the industry is still in an "expansionary" stage, Yang said.

He added that the company is striving to become a "new" Lenovo with stronger innovation capability, higher profit levels, greater social value and higher quality development at the beginning of the next cycle.

The 100 billion yuan to be pumped into R&D over the next half decade will be devoted to three areas -- innovating existing products, applications and business models in the next one to two years; incubating new technology-driven businesses over the next two to three years; and pioneering research into core fundamental technologies over the next three years and beyond.