FTSE 100 newcomer Computacenter's shares hit record high as it cashes in on AI boom

The transformation of a fusty old British computer company into an AI champion has landed its founders a combined fortune of nearly £2billion.Computacenter has been hailed as ‘a rare UK-listed beneficiary of the AI arms race’ after nearly almost doubling its profits.The Hertfordshire-based business, which became one of the FTSE 100’s few technology stocks when it joined the index in June, this week posted a 95 per cent rise in first-half profits to £143million.The boost came after Computacenter cashed in on demand for data centre equipment to power AI systems in the US.The company said it now expects annual profits of at least £380million – ‘significantly ahead’ of previous forecasts of around £340million.Tech tycoon: Peter Ogden co-founded Computcenter in 1981 and how holds a £1.4billion stake Shares rose more than 7 per cent to a record high of 6015p in early trading on Tuesday before easing back as investors banked profits. They ticked higher again on Wednesday.The stock has more than doubled in value in the past year, valuing the firm at around £5.5billion.Founders Peter Ogden and Philip Hulme are now sitting on stakes worth £1.4billion and £415million respectively – or close to £2billion combined.Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at broker AJ Bell, described Computacenter as ‘a rare UK-listed beneficiary of the ongoing AI arms race’.He added: ‘Once seen as a mundane business at the boring end of tech, which if anything would be a victim of AI disruption, Computacenter continues to convince people it is a lasting beneficiary of the AI push.’First-half revenues rose 71.6 per centre to £6.9billion, with North America the standout region for the firm while the UK also recorded solid growth.Computacenter – which provides data centre hardware and services – insisted it has no plans to switch its stock market listing to New York despite its scale in the US and the increased focus on tech on that side of the Atlantic.Describing himself as ‘a patriotic Brit’, chief executive Mike Norris said ‘it would be a shame if we went’ given the shortage of tech companies in the UK. But while he said there are ‘no plans to move at the moment’, the listing is ‘something we have to keep under review for the sake of our shareholders’.North America was the standout region for the firm, comprising 62 per cent of group adjusted operating profit before central costs as investment in AI infrastructure from hyperscale, neocloud and enterprise customers accelerated.The firm's operations in Britain also delivered a significantly stronger performance, driven by AI-related data centre projects. Revenue more than doubled to £1.51billion and adjusted operating profit jumped 52.6 per cent to £26.4million. It said: 'Technology Sourcing revenue more than tripled, primarily driven by our continued success in delivering AI-related infrastructure projects and also supported by good growth in enterprise and public sector customers.' Computacenter ended June with a record committed product order backlog of £9.3billion, up 323 per cent year-on-year, with orders continuing to rise after the period end.Norris said: 'Computacenter delivered a record first half, significantly ahead of our expectations at the start of the year, as we converted strong and growing customer demand for digital infrastructure into substantial revenue, gross profit and operating profit growth.'Computacenter was founded in 1981 and from the 1990s began to act as an IT services contractor for large businesses in Britain. It expanded into Europe and the US and in 1998 listed on the London Stock Exchange, joining the FTSE 100 in June 2026. The firm's shift into data centre hardware and services accelerated in 2022 when it secured a contract with what it described as 'one very large volume customer', believed by analysts to be Facebook owner Meta, which was attempting to build infrastructure for its 'Metaverse' augmented reality project. Adam Vettese, an analyst at eToro, said: 'The sharp open in Computacenter shares is the market treating this as an AI infrastructure stock rather than another tidy IT reseller beat.'He added: 'After a sharp rerating in the space of a year the shares were already pricing a lot of good news. Today’s move is justified confirmation rather than a fresh discovery. The investment case now rests on whether Computacenter can keep winning the work and gradually lift the services mix so margins stop falling. If they can, this is a multi-year story. 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