In a nondescript office park on the outskirts of Hatfield, north of London, engineers at Computacenter have spent recent months wiring hyperscale data halls and sourcing racks of specialised hardware. Their work, invisible to most, now sits at the centre of one of the clearest demonstrations yet of how private enterprise can seize the opportunities of the AI era without waiting for government direction.
On 9 July the company released a trading update that laid bare the scale of that momentum. Adjusted profit before tax for the first six months of 2026 is expected to come in at roughly double the £81.5 million recorded a year earlier, an outcome close to £163 million. The second quarter ran ahead of even the strong first-quarter performance, driven by North American hyperscale customers whose appetite exceeded forecasts.
UK operations delivered robust growth through further AI-related technology sourcing projects and a solid expansion of professional services. Germany showed healthy gains in product supply, though services there remained more restrained. The picture that emerges is one of responsiveness to real customer need rather than central planning.
Order book swells as full-year guidance rises
By the end of June the committed product order backlog stood well ahead of the £7.1 billion recorded at the close of 2025. That visibility prompted Computacenter to declare that its full-year 2026 results would land comfortably ahead of market expectations. Analyst consensus currently sits at £313.7 million in adjusted profit before tax, with estimates ranging from £305 million to £324.3 million.
The market reacted immediately. Shares rose between 6 and 10 per cent on the day, touching a record high above 4,700 pence before closing around 4,579 pence. The surge reflected more than one set of numbers. It confirmed that the infrastructure layer of the AI boom continues to reward companies nimble enough to meet demand as it appears.
The strong performance in the second quarter exceeded expectations following an excellent first quarter.
Computacenter joined the FTSE 100 in June following the annual index review, a milestone that places it alongside other firms benefiting from the same technological shift. Its elevation is not the result of subsidy or industrial strategy but of consistent execution in technology sourcing, deployment and support services that large customers actually require.
