Huawei To Open Another R&D Center in Shanghai

Huawei Technologies plans to open a new research and development (R&D) center in Shanghai and has set aside 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) to pour into the project.

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Covering an area of about one square kilometer, the new center will focus on R&D in areas including chips for different devices, wireless networks and Internet of Things (IoT). Over 30,000 employees will be hired to run the new establishment, a company spokesman told local government officials last week.

The new plan aligns with the Chinese government’s repeated calls to develop self-reliance on key technologies. China’s President Xi has stressed the significance of building up the country’s R&D capability in new technologies since the China-US trade war started last year.

Tech companies like Huawei have suffered the consequences of the trade dispute as they were blacklisted by the US Department of Commerce due to national security concerns back in May, which resulted in the company being barred from buying hardware, software and services from American suppliers.

Currently, Huawei has 14 R&D centers across the globe. Its existing R&D Center in Shanghai’s Pudong district is also one of its biggest. The company declined to comment on details of the new plan.

Last year, Huawei spent a total of 101.5 billion yuan on R&D, accounting for 14.1% of the company’s total revenue. The company has spent more than 10% of its sales revenue on R&D every year over the past decade, while 45% of Huawei’s workforce are involved in R&D.