You must read between the lines. This record comes at a favorable point in the cycle, turbocharged by the AI boom, with serial renewals of aging equipment and a peak in investments in the data center sector.

It also largely stems from the acquisition of Juniper Networks - which, by the way, has not been without hiccups - signed in 2024 and closed this year.

With a constant perimeter, HPE still faces a serious growth problem. Without Juniper, in 2025 its revenue would have been identical to what was achieved ten years ago.

That, despite a global cycle that is broadly favorable, volatile but helped by the advent of the cloud, which has indeed modestly benefited equipment makers. See for example Dell's case, which is managing better than HPE, but which also faces - or faced? - a structural growth problem.

Juniper was acquired for $14bn, i.e., a multiple of almost 3x its revenue and 30x its EBITDA. Note that HPE is valued at around 1x its expected revenue next year, and less than 10x its EBITDA.

Obviously, investors are not convinced about the group's ability to break with a decade of stagnation, AI boom or not. Despite the perimeter change and the Juniper integration, HPE's management also projects a flat free cash flow for the coming year.

In this context, the group, which now carries a deteriorated balance sheet and net debt that amounts to nearly seven years of free cash flow, will likely not be able to raise capital distributions to shareholders.

https://www.marketscreener.com/news/boom-in-ai-remains-highly-theoretical-at-hewlett-packard-enterprise-ce7d51dcde80f22c