The VETTDD 50 · UK IT channel · 2026MSPs & integrators
Mike Norris
Chief Executive Officer, Computacenter · computacenter.com ↗
Computacenter’s chief executive of 32 years has taken the company into the FTSE 100 on AI infrastructure demand, with North America now the largest source of its profit
- revenue, six months to June 2026
- £6.85bn
- rise in adjusted profit before tax
- 87%
- record product order backlog
- £9.3bn
- chief executive since
- 1994
Mike Norris has been chief executive of Computacenter since 1994, a decade after he joined its sales team as a graduate. Thirty-two years into the job, he runs a company that is larger, more American and more exposed to AI infrastructure spending than at any point in its history. In June 2026 it was promoted to the FTSE 100 for the first time.
A record half built on data centers
In the six months to 30 June 2026, Computacenter’s revenue rose 71.6% to £6.85bn and gross invoiced income rose 57.6% to £8.93bn, according to its half-year results. Adjusted profit before tax rose 87% to £152.4m. The product order backlog reached a record £9.3bn, up 323.2% on a year earlier.
North America did most of the work. Operating profit there rose 148.4% in constant currency on growth with hyperscale, neocloud and enterprise customers, and the region now accounts for 62% of adjusted operating profit before central costs, up from 44% a year earlier. In the half Computacenter also completed two US acquisitions: AgreeYa, a professional services business, at an enterprise value of $120m (£90m), and GAI, a value-added reseller serving the US federal government, for up to $92m (£69m).
Norris said Computacenter had delivered “a record first half, significantly ahead of our expectations at the start of the year”. The company now expects full-year adjusted profit before tax of no less than £380m, against analyst consensus of £340.9m.
Why it matters to the channel
Computacenter’s results show where the largest AI infrastructure budgets are going and what it takes to win them: purchasing scale, balance sheet and the logistics to ship at hyperscale volumes. The UK business, which the company says had “accelerating momentum” in the half, still matters, but with North America at 62% of operating profit it is no longer the center of gravity. For vendors, Computacenter is now as much a US route to market as a UK one. For UK partners bidding against it on large sourcing deals, a rival with a £9.3bn backlog and a growing US federal business is harder to undercut.
Norris has turned a services-led UK integrator into a volume supplier of AI build-outs, and in his 32nd year in charge he has taken Computacenter into the FTSE 100.