Lenovo showcases a USB-C connected AI Stick with a 32 TOPS NPU on board

(Image credit: Lenovo)

Lenovo has taken the wraps off the Lenovo AI Stick at MWC 2025 in Barcelona. The idea behind the product is right there in the name, and this time, the 'AI' isn't gratuitous. This USB-C Thunderbolt connected stick conceals a 32 TOPS NPU to enable those local AI-accelerated goodies Microsoft and its PC making partners are trying to convince you are the best thing since sliced bread. However, Lenovo's thumb-stick-sized device is flagged as a "proof of concept" for now.

Perhaps because the Lenovo AI Stick is a concept, we don't have many tech specs for the product. All we know from the specifications point of view is that the concept device includes an NPU that can deliver 32 TOPS. It also connects to the PC "via a USB-C Thunderbolt port," according to the official PR from Lenovo. Lastly, Lenovo suggests that the NPU will run faster if the AI Stick is powered with its adapter (connector on the side), which makes us wonder about USB-C-powered performance and the power requirements of this device.

It would be interesting to know who made this add-on NPU, but Lenovo isn't forthcoming with that detail. The major PC and device maker indicates that the AI Stick will deliver AI features, such as local Large Language Models (LLM) and AI-enhanced graphics apps, on the devices it connects with. Moreover, it is compatible with Lenovo's AI Now suite, which needs Windows 11 and an x86 CPU to run.

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So, if you fancy a little bit of NPU-accelerated local LLM fun, but your current PC doesn't have such hardware, Lenovo's AI Stick may be a good solution. It may appeal to those with a modern powerful processor without an NPU or a slower NPU (Hi, Arrow Lake). But remember, the Microsoft Copilot requirement is 40+ TOPS for wider AI feature support, so this stick isn't even up to that level.

Last but certainly not least, Lenovo also thinks the AI Stick might be of interest to those who already have NPUs or even discrete GPUs in their systems as it can "save GPU occupancy and reduce thermals for normal AI PCs."

Lenovo has an expansive range of wares at MWC this week. Earlier today, we published two detailed articles stuffed full of Lenovo devices. The first zoomed in on the range of new ThinkPads on show, as well as a Yoga device featuring an RTX 5070. The second pondered concept designs like a solar-powered Yoga PC, the ThinkBook Codename Flip with extending screen (which we have seen a few times before), a 3D-screen laptop, and some other concepts leveraging AI smarts.

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

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5 Comments Comment from the forums

AngelusF

So Thunderbolt over USB-C can provide up to 100W, and that's not enough??? I'm assuming that grille on the end of the thing is an exhaust port for a tiny fan, but that's still a heck of a lot of power to be putting into a small enclosure.
Reply
bit_user

IMO, whether or not this is very interesting has a lot to do with how much DRAM it has.

The shape does somewhat suggest that perhaps the compute is provided by a M.2 form factor board?

AngelusF said:
So Thunderbolt over USB-C can provide up to 100W, and that's not enough???
Not every host will be able to provide that much, however.

AngelusF said:
I'm assuming that grille on the end of the thing is an exhaust port for a tiny fan, but that's still a heck of a lot of power to be putting into a small enclosure.
Yeah, perhaps we could infer how much power it burns from the size of the grille. Even if the case is metal, they'd have to be careful not to let it get so hot that people could burn themselves on it.

Actually, the amount of TOPS it provides isn't crazy either for its size or a sane amount of power, if you consider what I've found some modern phones seem to offer:
"the Samsung Galaxy S24 series, with its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, has a more powerful NPU at 70 TOPS, compared to the 45 TOPS in the Google Pixel 9 Pro's Tensor G4 chipset."

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/1f2vh3q/g4_tops_performance_lower_than_sdg3/However, providing 32 TOPS in a reasonable power envelope would presume that whatever chip it contains is quite modern. I wonder what!
Reply
Notton

It looks approximately the same size as an external M.2 drive.
They use a max of 10W and that's already pushing the thermal limits of the better designs.

I doubt this AI stick uses more than 15W, and that's only if it features an internal fan to push air through the grills.
Reply
AngelusF

bit_user said:
Not every host will be able to provide that much, however.

Which is why I said "up to 100W"

But the Lenovo blurb implies that you'll need to provide it with more power to get full performance without any mention of whether or not it's already getting 100W from the host. Could be just poor copywriting, though.
Reply
Mr Majestyk

So instead of an eGPU we now have an eNPU.

Given it's a paltry 32TOPS which is sort of like what you get from a really weak iGPU what's the point. If it were 100TOPS+ sure as long as software like Topaz AI can leverage it.
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