Artificial intelligence
266 of 521 companies added a paragraph in Risk Factors that uses one of these words:
AI, artificial intelligence, machine learning, generative, large language model.
The paragraph is in the latest 10-K and nothing like it was in the one before.
It counts text; it does not say how serious a risk is. Words in capitals only (such as AI) must be in capitals.
By sector
Sector is the SEC's industry description of the company. Each count opens that sector's quotes below.
| Sector | Companies | Compared |
|---|---|---|
| Orthopedic, Prosthetic & Surgical Appliances & Supplies | 5 | 5 |
| Services-Consumer Credit Reporting, Collection Agencies | 3 | 3 |
| Computer Peripheral Equipment, NEC | 2 | 2 |
| Men's & Boys' Furnishgs, Work Clothg, & Allied Garments | 2 | 2 |
| Retail-Catalog & Mail-Order Houses | 2 | 2 |
| Rubber & Plastics Footwear | 2 | 2 |
| Services-Medical Laboratories | 2 | 2 |
| Transportation Services | 2 | 2 |
| Air Courier Services | 1 | 1 |
| Aircraft & Parts | 1 | 1 |
| Aircraft Parts & Auxiliary Equipment, NEC | 1 | 1 |
| Apparel & Other Finishd Prods of Fabrics & Similar Matl | 1 | 1 |
| Bottled & Canned Soft Drinks & Carbonated Waters | 1 | 1 |
| Communications Equipment, NEC | 1 | 1 |
| Drawing & Insulating of Nonferrous Wire | 1 | 1 |
| Electrical Industrial Apparatus | 1 | 1 |
| Electromedical & Electrotherapeutic Apparatus | 1 | 1 |
| Electronic Components & Accessories | 1 | 1 |
| Engines & Turbines | 1 | 1 |
| Farm Machinery & Equipment | 1 | 1 |
| Games, Toys & Children's Vehicles (No Dolls & Bicycles) | 1 | 1 |
| Gas & Other Services Combined | 1 | 1 |
| General Industrial Machinery & Equipment, NEC | 1 | 1 |
| Grain Mill Products | 1 | 1 |
| Heavy Construction Other Than Bldg Const - Contractors | 1 | 1 |
| Insurance Carriers, NEC | 1 | 1 |
| Leather & Leather Products | 1 | 1 |
| Meat Packing Plants | 1 | 1 |
| Misc Industrial & Commercial Machinery & Equipment | 1 | 1 |
| Miscellaneous Manufacturing Industries | 1 | 1 |
| Motors & Generators | 1 | 1 |
| Newspapers: Publishing or Publishing & Printing | 1 | 1 |
| Oil & Gas Field Machinery & Equipment | 1 | 1 |
| Ordnance & Accessories, (No Vehicles/Guided Missiles) | 1 | 1 |
| Paints, Varnishes, Lacquers, Enamels & Allied Prods | 1 | 1 |
| Paper Mills | 1 | 1 |
| Real Estate | 1 | 1 |
| Retail-Computer & Computer Software Stores | 1 | 1 |
| Retail-Drug Stores and Proprietary Stores | 1 | 1 |
| Retail-Eating & Drinking Places | 1 | 1 |
| Retail-Grocery Stores | 1 | 1 |
| Retail-Home Furniture, Furnishings & Equipment Stores | 1 | 1 |
| Retail-Radio, Tv & Consumer Electronics Stores | 1 | 1 |
| Retail-Retail Stores, NEC | 1 | 1 |
| Rolling Drawing & Extruding of Nonferrous Metals | 1 | 1 |
| Services-Advertising Agencies | 1 | 1 |
| Services-Detective, Guard & Armored Car Services | 1 | 1 |
| Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management | 1 | 1 |
| Services-Equipment Rental & Leasing, NEC | 1 | 1 |
| Services-Misc Health & Allied Services, NEC | 1 | 1 |
| Special Industry Machinery (No Metalworking Machinery) | 1 | 1 |
| Special Industry Machinery, NEC | 1 | 1 |
| Sugar & Confectionery Products | 1 | 1 |
| Telephone & Telegraph Apparatus | 1 | 1 |
| Television Broadcasting Stations | 1 | 1 |
| Trucking & Courier Services (No Air) | 1 | 1 |
| Wholesale-Electronic Parts & Equipment, NEC | 1 | 1 |
| Wholesale-Medical, Dental & Hospital Equipment & Supplies | 1 | 1 |
| X-Ray Apparatus & Tubes & Related Irradiation Apparatus | 1 | 1 |
| Computer Storage Devices | 4 | 5 |
| Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. | 4 | 5 |
| Investment Advice | 6 | 8 |
| Retail-Eating Places | 3 | 4 |
| Services-Prepackaged Software | 14 | 19 |
| Surgical & Medical Instruments & Apparatus | 7 | 10 |
| Finance Services | 19 | 28 |
| Semiconductors & Related Devices | 10 | 15 |
| Insurance Agents, Brokers & Service | 4 | 6 |
| Electronic Computers | 2 | 3 |
| Measuring & Controlling Devices, NEC | 2 | 3 |
| Retail-Auto Dealers & Gasoline Stations | 2 | 3 |
| Retail-Building Materials, Hardware, Garden Supply | 2 | 3 |
| Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research | 2 | 3 |
| Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design | 2 | 3 |
| Wholesale-Drugs, Proprietaries & Druggists' Sundries | 2 | 3 |
| National Commercial Banks | 7 | 11 |
| Hospital & Medical Service Plans | 3 | 5 |
| Industrial Instruments For Measurement, Display, and Control | 3 | 5 |
| Laboratory Analytical Instruments | 3 | 5 |
| Services-Business Services, NEC | 9 | 16 |
| Real Estate Investment Trusts | 15 | 27 |
| Electric Services | 8 | 15 |
| Electronic & Other Electrical Equipment (No Computer Equip) | 2 | 4 |
| Search, Detection, Navigation, Guidance, Aeronautical Sys | 2 | 4 |
| Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation | 2 | 4 |
| Aircraft Engines & Engine Parts | 1 | 2 |
| Arrangement of Transportation of Freight & Cargo | 1 | 2 |
| Cigarettes | 1 | 2 |
| Cutlery, Handtools & General Hardware | 1 | 2 |
| Fats & Oils | 1 | 2 |
| Industrial Organic Chemicals | 1 | 2 |
| Instruments For Meas & Testing of Electricity & Elec Signals | 1 | 2 |
| Optical Instruments & Lenses | 1 | 2 |
| Paperboard Containers & Boxes | 1 | 2 |
| Printed Circuit Boards | 1 | 2 |
| Pumps & Pumping Equipment | 1 | 2 |
| Radio & Tv Broadcasting & Communications Equipment | 1 | 2 |
| Retail-Auto & Home Supply Stores | 1 | 2 |
| Services-Computer Programming Services | 1 | 2 |
| Services-General Medical & Surgical Hospitals, NEC | 1 | 2 |
| Services-To Dwellings & Other Buildings | 1 | 2 |
| Telephone Communications (No Radiotelephone) | 1 | 2 |
| Trucking (No Local) | 1 | 2 |
| Wholesale-Groceries & Related Products | 1 | 2 |
| Pharmaceutical Preparations | 5 | 11 |
| Crude Petroleum & Natural Gas | 3 | 7 |
| Electric & Other Services Combined | 5 | 12 |
| Retail-Variety Stores | 2 | 5 |
| Air Transportation, Scheduled | 1 | 3 |
| Computer & office Equipment | 1 | 3 |
| Computer Communications Equipment | 1 | 3 |
| Electrical Work | 1 | 3 |
| General Industrial Machinery & Equipment | 1 | 3 |
| Life Insurance | 1 | 3 |
| Perfumes, Cosmetics & Other Toilet Preparations | 1 | 3 |
| Plastic Materials, Synth Resins & Nonvulcan Elastomers | 1 | 3 |
| Soap, Detergents, Cleang Preparations, Perfumes, Cosmetics | 1 | 3 |
| Water Transportation | 1 | 3 |
| Security Brokers, Dealers & Flotation Companies | 2 | 7 |
| Fire, Marine & Casualty Insurance | 3 | 12 |
| Motor Vehicles & Passenger Car Bodies | 1 | 4 |
| Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services | 1 | 4 |
| Beverages | 1 | 5 |
| Biological Products, (No Diagnostic Substances) | 1 | 5 |
| Hotels & Motels | 1 | 5 |
| Petroleum Refining | 1 | 6 |
| State Commercial Banks | 1 | 6 |
833 paragraphs · Computer & office Equipment show all sectors
To successfully execute our strategy in a rapidly evolving market, we must maintain effective planning, forecasting, and management processes to enable us to continue to improve cost structures, align sales coverage with strategic goals, improve channel execution, and strengthen our capabilities in our areas of strategic focus, while continuing to pursue new product innovation in areas such as edge computing, hybrid cloud, AI, high performance computing, and networking. We must also make sufficient long-term investments in strategic growth areas to develop, obtain, and protect our intellectual property, and commit to transition significant research and development (“R&D”) and other resources before knowing whether our projections will align with customer demand for our solutions.
Read in the 10-K filed Dec 18, 2025 ↗
The cybersecurity threat landscape is rapidly evolving and becoming increasingly sophisticated, and there can be no assurance that our controls and procedures will be sufficient to address future threats or remediate future incidents. Further, there has been an increase in the frequency and sophistication of attacks, and we expect these activities to continue to increase, including malicious actors potentially leveraging AI to develop malicious code or sophisticated phishing attempts. It is possible that such incidents may embolden other malicious actors to perpetrate future attacks that may result in material misappropriation, system disruptions or shutdowns, malicious alteration, or destruction of our confidential or personal information or that of third parties. Additionally, the proliferation of generative AI models within the internal systems, processes, and tools of HPE, our suppliers, our customers, or other third parties with whom we do business may create new attack methods for threat actors. The emergence of deepfakes and advanced social engineering tactics presents new challenges in preventing deception and unauthorized access, underscoring the importance of advanced verification and detection mechanisms. Zero-day vulnerabilities may include newly discovered security flaws in software that are exploited before patches are released, requiring proactive monitoring and immediate remediation efforts. Quantum computing may in the future present a risk to our business by potentially breaking traditional cryptographic methods on which we rely, thereby necessitating the shift to quantum-resistant encryption techniques.
Read in the 10-K filed Dec 18, 2025 ↗
We have experienced, and may continue experiencing, lengthy sales cycles because our customers' decisions to purchase certain of our products, particularly new products, involve a significant commitment of their resources and a lengthy evaluation and product qualification process. Customers design and implement large IT deployments following lengthy procurement processes, which may impact expected future orders. Following a purchase, customers may also deploy our products and offerings slowly and deliberately. Furthermore, larger orders, including some orders for our AI systems, have typically required, and may continue to require, greater commitments of working capital, such as for purchases of key components, which could introduce variability in our quarterly cash flow and results of operations more generally. While we have seen the customer base for our AI systems offerings expand and expect it to continue expanding, our AI solutions have historically been purchased primarily by a small number of larger customers and cloud service providers. Sales of AI systems to such customers have caused, and may continue to cause, fluctuations in our results of operations, as such large orders may occur in some periods and not others and are generally subject to intense competition and pricing pressure, which can have an impact on our margins and results of operations. If we are not successful in continuing to expand sales to a broader base of customers, our financial results may be adversely affected. These sales and similar implementation cycle-related factors, including our expectation that customers may place large orders with the potential for widely varying implementation timelines, may cause our revenues and operating results to vary significantly from quarter-to-quarter.
Read in the 10-K filed Dec 18, 2025 ↗
•the imposition of government controls (including for critical infrastructure protection) and any related licensing requirements (particularly for certain AI enabling products) that could affect the timing of shipments of our products and/or our ability to sell certain products in other countries;
Read in the 10-K filed Dec 18, 2025 ↗