[ad_1]
SHENZHEN, China (AP) – Long before President Donald Trump threatens to cut Huawei's access to US technology, Chinese telecom equipment maker was spending money on jobs research that reduces its need for US suppliers.
The founder of Huawei says that instead of crippling the company, export restrictions make it a tougher competitor by forcing managers to focus their resources on their most important products.
Little known to Americans, Huawei Technologies Ltd. is the second largest smartphone brand in the world and the largest manufacturer of switches in the heart of telephone networks. Its equipment is used by 45 of the world's 50 largest telephone operators.
Huawei is a pioneer in the emerging field of 5G telecommunications. It promises not only a faster Internet connection, but also support for autonomous cars and other futuristic applications. This feeds Western security concerns and makes the 5G politically sensitive. The United States claims that the company could help Chinese espionage, although Huawei denies it and the US authorities have not provided any evidence.
Huawei needs some US innovations, including Google services used on Android phones, but industry experts say the company is becoming more autonomous after spending 485 billion yuan ($ 65 billion) on research and development during the last decade.
"Their strategy is to become completely independent of US technology, and in many areas they have become independent," said Bengt Nordstrom of North Stream, a Stockholm-based research firm.
Ren Zhengfei, founder of the company in 1987, acknowledged in an interview that phone sales would suffer if access to technology, including Google services for smartphones, was disrupted by the addition of Huawei to the "list of entities" of the US Commerce Department that required it. get permission from the government to buy American technology. Phone sales could be $ 20 to $ 30 billion lower than expected over the next two years, said Ren and other executives, but the company will survive.
"When the list of entities was published, they hoped that Huawei would die," Ren said. "Not only is Huawei not dead, he's even better."
The company was added to the list of entities on May 16, but it has already obtained two 90-day extensions after US suppliers of processing chips and other technologies warned that they could lose Billions. According to industry analysts, Intel Corp. and other manufacturers received some $ 12 billion last year, with Huawei asking the Trump administration for permission to continue sales.
The biggest potential blow of the United States for Huawei would be the loss of Google services that are standard features on Android-based phones. Huawei could use Android, which is an open source, but would lose music, cards and other Google applications, which would complicate competition with Samsung, the # 1 smartphone brand.
"Nobody is going to spend money to buy a Huawei premium phone if it does not have a card, YouTube, Google Play," said Samm Sacks, expert in Chinese digital policy within the New America think tank.
Ren said he wanted to continue using Android and work with US providers. But as an alternative, the company unveiled its HarmonyOS operating system in August and said that Android phones could be switched to the new system in a few days if needed.
Huawei, with $ 107 billion in revenue in 2018, spent 100 billion yuan ($ 15 billion) in research and development last year, more than Apple or Microsoft. It has 76,000 engineers and other researchers spread across its large main campus in southern China and Silicon Valley, Russia, Bangalore, India, and other industrial centers.
Huawei "is growing rapidly" in R & D, said Charlie Dai, a Forrester analyst.
In the AP interview, Ren presented his case in Washington: to mitigate security fears, Huawei will license 5G technology to US developers.
"I am open to the possibility of a remunerated transfer of 5G technology and production techniques to US companies," Ren said.
It's a long shot, given the pressure exerted by Washington on telephone operators for them to avoid Huawei. But this would increase the company's presence in 5G and generate license fees and demand for its products.
Huawei is on a global charm offensive, trying to convince European and other governments that there is no truth about the fact that the United States claims that it is a security risk .
Washington has lobbied European governments to exclude Huawei from 5G networks, but Germany, France, and Ireland have announced that they have not planned to ban any supplier.
Early on, Huawei had to deal with complaints about technology copied by industry leaders. The company was temporarily removed from the United States in 2003 after admitting to having copied the Cisco software into the routers.
But society is catching up with Western developers, according to industry experts. Huawei said it has collected $ 1.4 billion since 2015 in license fees from other companies using its technology.
Huawei is, with Ericsson and Nokia, a leader in the development of network equipment supporting 5G. The company claims to have invested $ 4 billion since 2009, producing its own equipment and not using any US technology.
"These are almost all our own components," Ren said.
Huawei is also part of the hundreds of companies that create 5G phones and other devices, making it the only competitor to be straddling between the two markets.
"They are very well positioned to develop the 5G – at least at the same level as their competitors," said Nordstrom.
The 5G is intended to significantly expand telecommunications networks to support autonomous cars, factory robots, nuclear power plants, medical equipment and other applications.
This, coupled with the increasing use of networks to connect combat aircraft and other military equipment, increases the potential cost of security failures and the political sensitivity of 5G.
Huawei believes that its Mate 20 X smartphone, which went on sale in China last August, is the first to offer 5G capacity.
It uses Huawei's Kirin 980 and Balong 5000 chips instead of Qualcomm or Intel chips. HiSilicon also manufactures Kirin chips for low-end phones and Kunpeng chips for servers.
Huawei launched its Ascend processor chip range in October for artificial intelligence. The 310 for standalone cars and the most powerful 910 are based on the architecture of British designer Arm Ltd chips.
According to Arm, in July, he may be forced to sever ties with Huawei, who is doing research in the United States. This highlighted the challenge of finding suppliers without US links.
Arm said in an email that he "communicated" with the US Department of Commerce about this relationship.
[ad_2]
Source link