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FTSE 100’s likely new entrant puts a British spin on the AI boom<br>Hardware reseller’s trick will be to convince investors artificial intelligence can augment its services rather than replace them
Computacenter CEO Mike Norris © Richard Cannon/FT
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PublishedJune 1 2026
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The UK’s fusty FTSE 100 will finally get some AI-related excitement this week, albeit in a surprisingly old-school form. Computacenter, a 44-year-old hardware reseller based in leafy Hertfordshire, is likely to be confirmed as a new entrant to the benchmark index, its growth turbocharged by orders to outfit data centres for US tech giants.<br>Computacenter supplies the sort of dull-but-essential tools that AI superpowers need to build their massive investment projects, like cooling equipment and miles upon miles of cabling. Clients have included Tesla, Facebook owner Meta Platforms and xAI, which forms part of Elon Musk’s soon-to-go-public SpaceX. Strong demand from hyperscalers has helped push up Computacenter’s stock by 50 per cent so far this year.<br>The rally is more than pure speculative frenzy: Computacenter’s revenue jumped 32 per cent in 2025 to £9.2bn, helping it return to operating profit growth after a 9 per cent decline the previous year. It is also a surprising second wind for a company that has been around for nearly 45 years. Its chief executive, Mike Norris, is the longest-serving CEO in the FTSE 350.<br>As to how sustainable all that demand is, a focus on large contracts tends to make Computacenter’s finances a little unpredictable, resulting in a volatile share price. Analysts cautiously pencil in a 14 per cent revenue increase this year but only single-digit annual growth thereafter, according to Visible Alpha. If US groups lift capital expenditure higher, as they tend to every quarter, or if investment in Europe accelerates, that could prove conservative.<br>The downside, however, is that straightforward hardware sales have fairly measly margins. Computacenter gets more profit per pound of revenue from advising companies on how to handle all that tech spending, or managing infrastructure on their behalf. Services make up 18 per cent of sales but around 30 per cent of gross profit, according to analysts at BNP Paribas.<br>In that business, AI could be a threat, not a boon, since it is already pretty good at a lot of the core jobs of consultants. Coding tools like Anthropic’s Claude offering could make it easier for companies to create in-house solutions instead of outsourcing care of their systems. The trick for Computacenter will be to emulate companies like Snowflake, which has convinced investors AI can augment its services rather than replace them.<br>Computacenter’s focus on hardware rather than software, and a customer list that includes many public sector institutions, should help mitigate risks. Block’s Jack Dorsey might be willing to shed thousands of jobs and entrust much of his company to AI, but the French army or German federal government are likely to be a little more cautious. On Thursday Computacenter announced a small acquisition to help it start building a similar public sector business in the US.<br>If the AI giants in the S&P 500 are two-tonne rhinoceroses, the FTSE’s newest entrant is more like an oxpecker — the small birds that perch on their backs. If the big beasts keep charging forward, so will Computacenter, even if the ride is sometimes a little bumpy.<br>[email protected]
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