£200m boost for British tech tycoons as AI boom sends Computacenter shares soaring

Updated: 13:11 EDT, 26 October 2026 The founders of a British computer company have added more than £200million to their fortunes as they cash in on the artificial intelligence boom.Shares in Computacenter jumped 13 per cent on Monday after it upgraded its annual profit forecasts for the fourth time this year.The Hertfordshire-based business, one of the FTSE 100’s few technology stocks, is benefiting from strong demand for its goods and services from customers building the data centres behind the AI revolution.The company, which has been hailed as ‘a rare UK-listed beneficiary of the AI arms race’, now expects to report profits of no less than £425million this year having targeted £380million less than two months ago.Shares jumped 600p to 5190p – taking gains in the past year to 85 per cent and valuing Computacenter at £5.5billion.The rally is yet another boost for founders Peter Ogden and Philip Hulme who saw the value of their stakes rise by £157million and £48million respectively. Tech tycoon: Peter Ogden co-founded Computcenter in 1981 and how holds a £1.36billion stakeOgden’s near-25 per cent holding is now worth £1.36billion while Hulme’s 7.6 per cent slice is valued at £417million.Neil Wilson, an investor strategist at Saxo, said Computacenter is cashing in ‘off the back of surging AI demand in the US and UK’.There may be wider doubts about the sustainability of the current AI spending splurge but for now Computacenter is one of a small but successful cohort of UK-listed names benefiting from the theme.Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: ‘Computacenter is effectively acting as a middleman in the AI infrastructure build-out, procuring, assembling and installing the complex hardware required to run artificial intelligence models.‘One modest downside of how dominant this work is becoming for Computacenter is that it is typically lower margin than areas like software sales and the provision of other tech-related services.‘Having been seen as being at the dull end of the technology space, Computacenter’s recent growth trajectory has been anything but. Next month’s strategy day is management’s opportunity to show this isn’t just a flash in the pan.’Once seen as a fusty old computer company, 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 listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1998.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.The AI boom propelled it into the FTSE 100 in June this year.In today’s update, Computacenter said its third-quarter performance was ahead of expectations, building on a strong first-half, with its order backlog rising from £9.3billion at the end of June to £12.6billion at the end of September.Business in the quarter was driven by hyperscale and neocloud customers in North America and the UK, the company said.A former banker at Morgan Stanley, Ogden was chairman of Computacenter until 1998 when he became a non-executive director. Hulme also remains on the board having stepped down as executive chairman in 2001.Ogden co-owns MotorSport vision, which operates six tracks in the UK including Donington Park.In May 2024, Ogden’s children bought a controlling share of his home town football club Rochdale.DIY INVESTING PLATFORMSAJ BellAJ BellEasy investing and ready-made portfoliosHargreaves LansdownHargreaves LansdownFree fund dealing and investment ideasinteractive investorinteractive investorFlat-fee investing from £4.99 per monthFreetradeFreetradeInvesting Isa now free on basic planTrading 212Trading 212Free share dealing and no account feeAffiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. This does not affect our editorial independence.Compare the best investing account for you