Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) founder intends to launch a three-to-five-year overhaul of the networking giant, creating an “iron army” that can help it survive a US onslaught, while protecting its lead in next-generation wireless.
Major structural shifts are around the corner as US sanctions threaten the survival of its cash-cow smartphone business, Ren Zhengfei (任正非) warned in an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News and verified by a Huawei spokeswoman.
The consumer business faces a “painful long march,” Ren wrote, a possible reference to the Chinese Communist Party’s historic cross-country trek.
Photo: AFP
China’s biggest technology company is grappling with an existential threat after Washington blocked Huawei from buying US technology, cutting off vital components from Qualcomm Inc chipsets to Google’s Android operating software.
Ren, 74, said an internal revamp is needed to meet war-time needs, meaning that organizations deemed unnecessary or redundant would be removed.
He did not provide details about how such a restructuring might unfold.
“We have to complete an overhaul in harsh and difficult conditions, creating an invincible iron army that can help us achieve victory,” Ren wrote in the letter dated Aug. 2. “We absolutely have to complete this reorganization within three to five years.”
Ren, a former engineer with the People’s Liberation Army, has a penchant for militaristic language. The entrepreneur has spoken previously about a “strategic withdrawal” from certain markets in response to escalating US scrutiny.
Huawei itself has not been clear about how the curbs set in place by US President Donald Trump’s administration would affect its about 190,000 employees worldwide, but the company has begun to lay off US-based staff, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
Huawei on Friday last week unveiled its in-house HarmonyOS, saying that it can replace Android if Google’s software is barred from its future smartphones.
However, Ren said that the company needed a lot more time to build an apps ecosystem, a major requirement for any operating software to thrive in the long run.
“Two bullets fired at our consumer business group unfortunately hit the oil tanks,” Ren said in his letter, without elaborating.
Still, Ren talked about Huawei’s edge against the US in 5G telecommunication technologies.
“The US doesn’t use the most advanced 5G technology,” the Huawei founder wrote. “That might leave it lagging behind in the artificial intelligence sector.”
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day