Huawei

The Huawei China Tour 2025, coinciding with the World Intelligent Industry Expo in Chongqing, focuses on AI’s transformative role in manufacturing. Government officials and industry leaders explored AI-driven upgrades, with Huawei showcasing its strategic, technological, and collaborative ecosystem approach. Chongqing aims to become an AI-centric industrial hub, fostering collaboration with Huawei. The tour highlighted AI applications in various manufacturing aspects, including R&D, production, and supply chains, exemplified by success stories from Seres and Changan Automobile. Huawei is partnering to build a “manufacturing + AI” ecosystem in Chongqing.

Wu Xiaoqiu anticipates the rise of Chinese tech giants like Nvidia and Apple, though acknowledges short-term challenges. He highlights the potential of numerous smaller tech firms (“mini-Huaweis”) and established companies to drive innovation. A shift in investor focus from traditional dividend stocks to technology ventures is expected, supported by regulatory reforms. Wu emphasizes the importance of tech IPOs for market maturation, requiring a supportive ecosystem including talent acquisition and access to resources, to compete globally.

Huawei launched the Mate XTs, its second-generation trifold smartphone, on September 4, 2025. Priced from $2,520, the Mate XTs features a unique dual-hinge design which unfolds into a tablet-sized display. Huawei aims to solidify its position in the Chinese market, where it holds a leading market share in foldables. The launch highlights Huawei’s resurgence after U.S. sanctions, with its HarmonyOS and domestically sourced chips. Despite its success in China, global expansion remains a challenge. The Mate XTs features HarmonyOS 5.1, multitasking capabilities, and offers enhanced after-sales support.

Huawei Chairman Guo Ping addressed new hires in July 2025, discussing the company’s strengths and weaknesses in a “decoupling world.” Acknowledging restricted access to advanced technologies, Guo emphasized Huawei’s strong domestic base and ambition to become a global leader in ICT and smart devices. He highlighted strategies like “hardware-software synergy” and “non-Moore’s Law approaches” to overcome limitations and offer “another option” to the world. Guo urged new employees to seize opportunities in the dynamic industry and contribute to reshaping it.

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei met with Xi’an Jiaotong University leaders to discuss deeper collaboration in research, education, and talent development. Ren emphasized the importance of fundamental research, particularly mathematics, and Huawei’s strategy of collaborative innovation with universities. He expressed confidence in China’s technological advancement, highlighting opportunities in chip development through mathematical solutions and diverse operating systems. Ren stressed the crucial role of education and talent cultivation.

Huawei’s Richard Yu addressed the company’s use of the phrase “leading far ahead” in a recent interview, clarifying he uses it sparingly, reserved for genuine achievements. He highlighted the significant impact of U.S. sanctions, causing smartphone shipments to plummet from 240-250 million annually to just over 20 million. Yu also refuted rumors of a fine imposed by Ren Zhengfei for using the phrase, stating it has been overused and the rumors were false. The company aims to only use the term when definitively leading in a specific area.

Huawei is expected to unveil a significant AI inference technology at an upcoming forum, potentially reducing China’s reliance on High Bandwidth Memory (HBM). HBM is crucial for AI inference due to its high bandwidth and capacity, enabling faster access to large language model parameters. However, HBM supply constraints and export restrictions are pushing Chinese companies to seek alternatives. This innovation could improve the performance of Chinese AI models and strengthen the Chinese AI ecosystem.

Huawei’s HarmonyOS 5 has reached over 10 million devices, signaling significant ecosystem growth. Alongside this milestone, the HarmonyOS 5.1 rollout is underway. To incentivize upgrades, Huawei launched the “HarmonyOS Gift” campaign, rewarding users with daily check-in bonuses, including cash prizes and memberships to popular apps like Bilibili and WPS Mobile. Upgrading users can also receive free memberships for Huawei Music, Themes, Reading, and Video, plus chances to win annual free coupons for select apps, covering entertainment, learning, and productivity needs.

At the China Digital Entertainment Congress (CDEC) in Shanghai, Huawei highlighted HarmonyOS 5 and its impact on the gaming industry. HarmonyOS now powers over 10 million devices, with over 6,500 HarmonyOS games available. Fueled by technological advancements and content integration, China’s game market is booming, generating significant revenue both domestically and overseas. HarmonyOS’s architecture, performance, and openness are promoting high-quality game development. Huawei is empowering developers with AI, interconnectivity, and optimized performance via the Ark Engine, also expanding globally and supporting mini-games, with 8 million registered developers.

ChinaJoy 2025 featured Huawei’s Gaming Center, highlighting over 50 HarmonyOS games, including popular titles like “Honor of Kings” and “NBA 2K Showdown.” The 1,000㎡ HarmonyOS gaming zone showcased advancements like a 21% responsiveness improvement in optimized games and innovative “Tap-to-Play” multiplayer features, enabling quick file sharing and offline gaming. Demonstrations included car console gaming and AI-powered game assistants, emphasizing speed, intelligence, and cross-device integration within the HarmonyOS ecosystem.