Huawei CEO Talks Chips, AI Amid US Tensions

Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei acknowledged that the company's chips remain one generation behind U.S. technology, despite substantial R&D investments and increased market success in China. Ren asserted that the U.S. has overstated Huawei's technological achievements and emphasized that Huawei is just one of many Chinese chipmakers. The company is using advanced techniques such as chip stacking, clustering, and novel mathematics to close the performance gap, with cluster computing helping to match leading international standards. Huawei's HarmonyOS ecosystem now spans over 1 billion devices, and the company is investing heavily in next-generation AI features, positioning itself as a strong competitor to Apple in the premium smartphone market. Ren highlighted China's robust infrastructure and large, youthful talent pool as key advantages in AI, arguing that U.S. restrictions are unlikely to impede China's technological advancement. These statements come as U.S.-China tech tensions escalate, with Huawei at the center of global trade and technology disputes.