Huawei offers most valuable secrets to software developers
Huawei Technologies is offering up its most valuable 5G secrets and $1.5bn to software developers, courting the global tech community at a time the US is heightening scrutiny of the Chinese giant.
China’s largest technology company aims to ramp up investment in its developer programme over the next five years, deputy chair Ken Hu told attendees at an annual conference. That effort is gaining urgency with Huawei in danger of losing access to US circuitry and code, including the Google software it needs to run the world’ s No 2 mobile device business.
Huawei is accelerating its outreach after the administration of President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the sale of US technology, encouraging allies to cut ties with the Chinese company, which it accuses of aiding Beijing in espionage.
In response, Huawei offered to sell a licence for its vaunted fifth-generation wireless technology, which is needed to drive future modern economies, to create a viable competitor and prove its gear is free of security loopholes.
“There are a lot of concerns over Huawei’s 5G solutions. We believe those concerns are groundless,” Hu told reporters in Shanghai. “By allowing others to acquire these technologies via commercial methods, it will help reduce the concerns.”
China’s perceived lead in 5G is at the heart of Trump’s campaign to contain the country’s rise. Already, Huawei had inked more than 60 commercial contracts to build the wireless standard globally, Hu said. China itself was ready to finish the first phase of its 5G rollout by the middle of 2020, he said.
Huawei executives turned out in force in the country’s financial capital on Wednesday, roping in foreign executives such as the director-general of interstellar research project the Square Kilometre Array to showcase the tech giant’s road map for dominating future technologies.
It is developing alternatives to US technology to help safeguard the world’s largest networking business. Part of that involves ensuring a thriving community of partners. Huawei established a developer programme to encourage external parties to create apps for Huawei services, including its just unveiled inhouse smartphone platform, HarmonyOS.
The company intended to build its base of partner-developers to 5-million eventually, Hu said. That army of firms and individuals could help craft apps optimised to run on Huawei’s Kunpeng and AI chip computing architecture, which will power everything from internet servers to machine learning solutions.
“This work has already started and we’ve received very good feedback. We have implemented this strategy and we’re looking forward to more partners joining us.”
Huawei’s rapid advances have, however, raised hackles in Washington, where the Chinese company symbolises a geopolitical rival’s growing technological might. Executives sought to tamp down those fears.
Hu, one of three main people who run Huawei’s day-to-day operations, reiterated an offer first voiced by billionaire founder Ren Zhengfei to share 5G blueprints.
Hu said that Huawei would be willing to open up its tech vaults for a fee, to help another company catch up on a technology that will drive applications from smart homes to selfdriving cars.
“Customers and the entire industry will benefit from more competition, which is something that Huawei is willing to see,” Hu said.