Inventec expects both artificial intelligence (AI) servers and general-purpose servers to see growth in 2026, with company president Jack Tsai noting that orders for the latter are expected to grow through 2028. The company also plans to double capital expenditure in 2026, focusing on expanding production sites to meet customer demand.
GPU-CPU shift fuels recovery
According to Tsai, general-purpose servers are expected to see a clear recovery in 2026 as customers adjust the usage ratio between GPUs and CPUs, moving away from the previous 8:1 ratio. Shipments of both AI servers and general-purpose servers are expected to post double-digit annual growth, with the forecast understood to start at around 20%.
Inventec previously estimated that AI servers would account for 50% of total server revenue in 2026. However, Tsai said that given the strong recovery in general-purpose servers, the AI server share is not expected to reach that threshold. Even so, server products as a whole are expected to make up 50% of Inventec's total revenue in 2026, up from a range of 41% to 45% in 2025.
Factories, capex, and capacity
To meet customer order demand, Tsai stated that Inventec will expand factories in Taiwan, China, the US, Thailand, Mexico, and the Czech Republic. Capital expenditure in 2026 will exceed US$1 billion, nearly doubling from 2025, with most of the spending allocated to factory construction.
Inventec chief financial officer Chin-pao Yu said that once the current phase of expansion is completed in 2026, production capacity is expected to remain relatively stable for a period of time.
Riding China's AI capex wave
Chinese customers currently account for a large share of Inventec's AI server revenue. Following recent announcements by some Chinese customers that they plan to increase capital expenditure to CNY200 billion (approx. US$29.45 billion), Tsai said the company will grow alongside its customers.
For US customers, Inventec is mainly targeting those outside the top four cloud service providers (CSPs), including tier-2 and neocloud companies. However, its ASIC server business is expected to remain primarily concentrated among the top four CSPs.
Notebooks flat; smart devices look ahead
As for notebooks, Inventec estimates that second-quarter 2026 shipment volume could remain roughly in line with the first quarter of 2026, but sales in the third and fourth quarters may be affected by rising prices for memory and other components. Full-year notebook shipments are forecast to be flat or decline by a single digit.
In the smart devices segment, Inventec expects growth in 2026, driven mainly by IoT communication modules. In 2027, it plans to launch a new AI box product line targeting small and medium-sized enterprises.
1Q26 results: revenue surges, margins edge lower
Inventec posted first-quarter 2026 revenue of NT$200.31 billion (approx. US$6.36 billion), up 17% sequentially and 28% year over year. Gross margin was 5.1%, down 0.1% from the previous quarter and 0.9% from a year earlier. Operating margin came in at 1.8%, up 0.3% sequentially but down 0.4% year over year. Net profit after tax totaled NT$2.43 billion, up 17.1% from the previous quarter and 42.5% from a year earlier, while earnings per share (EPS) came to NT$0.68, up 19.3% sequentially and 44.7% year over year.
Article translated by Eifeh Strom and edited by Jerry Chen
