With US sanctions hitting hard, Huawei’s business has certainly seen better days. The Chinese manufacturer however remains undeterred and claims it has overcome these setbacks through self-reliance.
According to the South China Morning Post, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei delivered a speech at Nanjing University in February, during which he revealed details on how the company was able to beat the sanctions.
Key among these is the redesign process of more than 4,000 circuit boards and the search for local suppliers that could provide the needed 13,000 components for the company’s products. In addition, Huawei built more of its own chips, which have been the subject of reports online since 2021 in an effort to use fewer imported components for its smartphones and other products.
Ren also shared that the production of these circuit boards has stabilized, in stark contrast to previous years when the company had to halt production due to chip shortages. This also comes as the Chinese tech giant may potentially lose its license to 4G and WiFi 6 tech amid tightening export restrictions.
On the software side, Huawei claimed it achieved self-sufficiency by developing its very own operating system called HarmonyOS, along with a data system, a programming language known as Cangjie, and a compiler. Next month, the company is set to launch a new MetaERP solution to utilize these software developments.
Surprisingly, despite Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots being all the rage these days, having their own alternative to ChatGPT and Google Bard is not something that Huawei is currently working on according to Ren. Instead, the company has shifted its focus towards becoming the computing power platform of AI itself and providing solutions for enterprises.
In 2022, Huawei spent $23.8 billion on research and development. Ren said the company may increase its R&D spending as the company becomes more profitable.