NuAxiSemiconductor trade intelligence

HP Inc hires former GSK boss as CEO

What happened

HP Inc has hired former GSK boss Emma Walmsley as CEO. She spent eight years as the boss at pharma company GSK, previously held various marketing and general management positions at L'Oreal, and was on Microsoft's board; she has no track record running a tech company. As background: in the first nine months of HP's fiscal 2026, revenue jumped 10 percent year-on-year to $44.5 billion, with the print business shrinking in that time while PCs generated the growth. Amid a memory crunch with supplies dwindling, analysts are forecasting PC market contraction in terms of unit sales. Global PC shipments slumped 20 percent in Q3 as DRAM shortages forced up prices and customers opted instead to sweat their assets rather than replace their fleet of computers; things aren't expected to improve in the final three months of 2026. The CEO appointment is the observed core event, while the DRAM shortage and shipment decline are reported market context.