Huawei is steering innovation to build a fully connected, intelligent world

Huawei held its 16th annual Global Analyst Summit in Shenzhen, China. The theme of this year’s summit was “Building a Fully Connected, Intelligent World”. Huawei was joined by more than 680 industry and financial analysts, key opinion leaders, and media representatives from across a range of industries, including telecoms, Internet, and finance. Together, they discussed how to build a fully connected, intelligent world through continuous innovation.

Ken Hu, Huawei’s Deputy Chairman, shared the company’s insight into industry trends and strategic determination, saying, “The intelligent world is already here. We can touch it. The ICT industry is currently facing unprecedented development opportunities.” Hu also noted that 5G is being deployed much faster than expected, and 5G device development is matching 5G network development for the first time in history. According to Huawei’s forecasts, by 2025, the world will have 2.8 billion 5G users. To support these large numbers of users, Huawei aims to develop simple, powerful, and intelligent networks, to continuously create value for its customers.

The wide adoption of AI is accelerating cloud adoption in enterprises. As part of Huawei’s larger market position, Hu explained, they consider cloud competition to actually be AI competition. Hu said, “With our strategic investment in AI, we are confident that we will lead in the race in the new cloud track.”

The digital consumer experience is being fragmented as more devices and applications become available. Huawei has already taken steps to give consumers the intelligent and seamless digital experience they want across all scenarios. All of these services, Hu described, greatly enable service search.

Hu stressed that Huawei will continue to pursue innovation, and that the company will not only invest for the present, but more importantly, for the future. He said that Huawei does not just pursue commercial success; it will lead industry development and drive social progress. Huawei’s ultimate goal is to bring the benefits of a fully connected, intelligent world to more people, homes, and organizations.

William Xu, Director of the Board and President of the Institute of Strategic Research of Huawei, announced that Huawei is moving into the era of “Innovation 2.0”.

Innovation 2.0 is all about vision-driven theoretical breakthroughs and inventions. “The Institute of Strategic Research will be mainly engaged in research into cutting-edge technologies for the next five or more years,” said Xu, “Each year, we invest 300 million US dollars to fund academic research in basic science and technologies, and technological innovation. This is an important part of our research efforts.” He also noted that Huawei will work with universities and research institutes to drive innovation in theories and basic technologies, and light the way for the industry and the world at large.

To drive industry innovation and upgrading, Huawei is committed to leading the industry in five areas: Redefining the technical architecture, redefining the product architecture, leading the pace of industry development, setting a new industry direction, and fostering a new industry.

“Connectivity, computing, and cloud will be the underlying infrastructure of the intelligent world, and AI will power this new world,” said David Wang, Huawei Executive Director of the Board, Chairman of Investment Review Board, and President of ICT Strategy & Marketing. “Looking to the future, we will redefine Moore’s law and challenge the Shannon limit to deliver the world’s best connectivity, and redefine the computing architecture to make computing power more accessible, more affordable. We will also build the best hybrid cloud for industry digitization, and use full-stack, all-scenario AI solutions to make AI pervasive.”

Concluding his speech, Wang added, “Huawei will invest more in R&D and strive to achieve a leading position in the long-term. We will keep pushing the limits and ultimately build a fully connected, intelligent world with our partners.”

From the session, it has been known that, innovation has always been in Huawei’s DNA, as well as being one of the key factors that drives Huawei’s continuous growth. And this innovation is always based on customer needs. Over the past three decades, Huawei has worked with its customers and partners to create value for all industries, as well as society at large. During this process, Huawei has grown into a leading global provider of ICT infrastructure and smart devices. An intelligent world has arrived and the ICT industry has unprecedented opportunities for growth. Huawei will continue to invest for the present and innovate in connectivity, computing, and cloud. The company will also invest for the future. That’s why Huawei has proposed the concept of “Innovation 2.0” and announced the establishment of the Institute of Strategic Research. The company will focus on research into cutting-edge technologies for the next five or more years.

The first Huawei Global Analyst Summit was held in 2004, and has continued annually since for 16 years. This year’s summit runs from April 16 to 18, with multiple parallel sessions. Attendees include industry experts from around the world, all of whom provide unique insights into a variety of topics and trends.