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Nikkei Asia
a day ago
- Business
- Nikkei Asia
Huawei invested in 60-plus China chip firms since US sanctions
GUANGZHOU -- Huawei Technologies has bought into more than 60 Chinese chip-related companies since it became subject to U.S. sanctions in 2019, Nikkei has found, as it works to overcome a lack of access to Western technology with a homegrown supply chain. Huawei has been expanding investments in the companies through Hubble, a wholly owned investment company it set up in 2019 when Washington began to restrict the Chinese telecom leader's access to U.S. technology and its market.
Business Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Times
China's Honor developing humanoid robots in US$10 billion AI plan
HONOR Device, the smartphone maker spun out from Huawei Technologies, is developing humanoid robots as part of its push into China's crowded artificial intelligence (AI) arena. The Shenzhen-based company's department for new business opportunities has decided to go further with robotics including human-shaped machines, it said on Wednesday (May 28). It announced in March a US$10 billion initiative to expand into new industries, with a focus on AI and novel applications. China is leading the way in humanoid robotics with a handful of promising startups that have recently raised their profile. Last month, Beijing hosted a robot half-marathon that was completed by only a few of the 21 robots that entered. Nvidia chief Jensen Huang has said the field has the potential to turn into a trillion-dollar industry, especially in factories and warehouses designed for human workers. Honor's expansion into robots would mirror efforts by the likes of Xiaomi, which has gotten into making electric vehicles and smart factories, to diversify away from commodity electronics. Such as rivals Oppo and Vivo, Honor is building its own agentic AI services that will be integrated into its software for smartphones and other devices. BLOOMBERG
The Star
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Star
European Parliament names five lawmakers targeted in Huawei bribery scandal
The European Parliament has named five of its lawmakers whom Belgian prosecutors have targeted in a bribery scandal investigation involving Chinese technology giant Huawei Technologies. Authorities have asked the parliament to waive the lawmakers' immunity so that they can be investigated under the probe, which has been running for two months. They are accused of accepting gifts from Huawei in exchange for lobbying for the firm's interests in the parliament. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. European Parliament President Roberta Metsola on Wednesday named the lawmakers as Maltese Socialist MEP Daniel Attard, Bulgarian centrist lawmaker Nikola Minchev and three Italian members from the centre-right European People's Party – Salvatore De Meo, Fulvio Martusciello and Giusi Princi. The parliament's committee on legal affairs will now consider the request from Belgium's federal prosecutor and draft a report. The committee will vote on waiving immunity, after which a final decision will be taken in a vote of all the parliament's 720 members. Huawei has denied any wrongdoing, saying it 'has a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption or other wrongdoing, and we are committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations at all times'. The development comes after Belgian authorities asked the body to remove immunity for the lawmakers so that their involvement in the gifts-for-influence affair could be investigated. The scandal erupted in March when 100 Belgian police raided several premises in a case focused on 'active corruption' in the parliament as well as for 'forgery and use of false documents'. 'The corruption is said to have been practised regularly and very discreetly from 2021 to the present day,' the Belgian federal prosecutor's office said in a statement at the time. It transpired 'under the guise of commercial lobbying and taking various forms, such as remuneration for taking political positions or excessive gifts such as food and travel expenses or regular invitations to football matches', the office added. Following police raids on premises in Belgium, France and Portugal, eight people have been charged with active corruption, money laundering and criminal organisation. Among those charged is one of Huawei's top executives in Europe, Politico reported. Two of those named had already publicly confirmed that they were part of the investigation. In a statement posted on social media, Attard said he watched a football match in Huawei's corporate box at the stadium of the Brussels-based team Anderlecht. 'I was not made aware that the invitation originated from any company or that it involved a corporate box,' Attard said. 'It has since emerged that the invitation came from a person who is currently under investigation by the Belgian authorities and who intended to speak to me about Huawei during the match.' Minchev, the Bulgarian MEP, told local media that he also attended a match in the Huawei box last October. 'I will cooperate 100 per cent and I will ask the EP to lift the immunity as quickly as possible,' Minchev said, adding that his assistant at the time had said 'his friend and neighbour invited us to watch Anderlecht [play] Ludogorets at the stadium'. 'The organiser later turned out to be the main actor in an investigation that began in 2021, and my then-assistant was also involved in this case,' the Bulgarian politician added. 'My presence at that event is now the reason why the authorities want to investigate whether there was anything wrong with this.' Martusciello was among the lawmakers who signed MEP letters to the commission four years ago criticising policies closing the European market to Chinese firms. Princi, meanwhile, is accused of meeting with Huawei last summer but not declaring the engagement. According to Euractiv, a media outlet, Princi denied having attended, claiming she was in Italy at her daughter's school party that day and saying she could prove it with 'numerous supporting documents'. The scandal has upset the chances of a potential EU-China detente that has seen Beijing lift sanctions on sitting lawmakers to try to soothe ties that have deteriorated rapidly over the last few years. More from South China Morning Post: For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2025.
Straits Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Malaysia backtracks on Huawei AI amid US-China chip war
- Malaysia has abruptly distanced itself from an earlier announcement of a China-backed artificial intelligence (AI) project, amid heightened scrutiny over geopolitical sensitivities and ongoing trade talks with the United States. The reversal exposes Malaysia's precarious balancing act as it navigates fierce US-China rivalry over semiconductors – a sector accounting for 40 per cent of its exports. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim called the announcement on the AI project by a junior minister on May 19 as 'premature', and insisted that Malaysia remains 'fiercely independent' in choosing technologies. 'To clarify, (the project is) still in the midst of this negotiation. Because it is the private sector, I don't think it's for the government to announce, but as a policy we made it very clear. We are fiercely independent. We want what is best for our country,' he told a media briefing on May 21. He added: 'For a country like Malaysia, I'm not taking into account the skirmishes and the tensions between countries, particularly China or the EU or the U S. We choose what is best for our country.' Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching announced on May 19 that Malaysia would develop a first-of-its-kind AI system powered by Huawei Technologies chips, with plans to deploy 3,000 Huawei Ascend chips as the backbone of a national AI initiative by 2026. Only a day later , her office was quoted by Bloomberg as saying it had retracted her remarks that were made at the launch of the 'Strategic Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure', without explanation. A Huawei representative was reported to have said that the company hasn't sold Ascend chips in Malaysia and that the government has not bought any. The Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) on May 21 also issued a statement repudiating Ms Teo's remarks, saying that the project was private-sector driven and not officially endorsed by the government. The about-turn comes as Washington pressures Kuala Lumpur to crack down on suspected smuggling of Nvidia chips to China, amid ongoing US-Malaysia trade talks, and with Beijing courting South-east Asia for AI tie-ups. Malaysia's cautious response appears to reflect its ongoing efforts to maintain strategic balance amid the intensifying US-China tech rivalry. 'MITI would also like to reiterate that Malaysia remains committed to full compliance with all applicable export control laws, national security directives and emerging guidance from global regulatory authorities, especially those that uphold the highest standards of transparency, accountability, neutrality and security, premised upon the principles of multilateralism with the World Trade Organisation at its core,' the ministry said in the May 21 statement. The proposed project – which includes deploying an AI language model by Chinese startup DeepSeek – drew the attention of the White House, which has been monitoring developments closely to counter Beijing's growing influence in global AI markets. 'As I've been warning, the full Chinese stack is here,' President Donald Trump's top AI adviser, David Sacks, posted on X on May 20. The Trump administration rescinded Biden-era global semiconductor curbs, which restricted chip sales to Malaysia, 'just in time,' he wrote. The following day , Mr Sacks ' post on X said: 'UPDATE: the Malaysian government has walked back the announcement. This is after the Deputy Minister of Communications stated, in prepared remarks, that Huawei Ascend chips would 'form the backbone' of the country's national AI effort.' Malaysia remains in discussions with the US on trade matters, including potential tariff adjustments, underscoring its sensitivity to geopolitical implications. While the South-east Asian country is unenviably caught between two rival superpowers, Datuk Seri Anwar sought to downplay the tug-of-war situation . 'This so-called tech rivalry between the United States and China sometimes has been overly exaggerated,' he told reporters at the briefing. Malaysia should clearly demonstrate that it complies with US trade requirements, said Malaysia Semiconductor Industry Association's president Wong Siew Hai. 'It is to our benefit to make sure that we are a country that can be trusted to do business with,' Datuk Seri Wong told The Straits Times. Dr Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said: 'Neutrality is nowadays no longer a viable option as both sides are clearly trying to impose their mutually exclusive choices on other countries such as Malaysia.' 'Malaysia would have to study the high-tech business and technological trends carefully and make its strategic choice accordingly, praying that at the end of the day, it would be the beneficial choice,' he told ST. US concern over AI chips being smuggled into China via other Asian transit points was sparked in January when Washington announced new curbs on their export and began probing whether countries like Singapore were being used as transit points to circumvent these restrictions. The semiconductor industry is an important part of Malaysia's economy, with electrical and electronic products making up 40 per cent of exports. The US government earlier this year pressured Malaysian authorities to crack down on the movement of prized Nvidia AI chips that enter the country, amid suspicions that many of these were ending up in China. Hazlin Hassan is Malaysia correspondent at The Straits Times. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
South China Morning Post
22-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Tech war: Malaysia walks back from AI project with Huawei as tech giant denies chip exports
The Malaysian government has walked back from an artificial intelligence (AI) project that involved the use of Huawei Technologies' equipment, as the Chinese tech giant denied exporting its Ascend chips to the Southeast Asian country, highlighting sensitivity on both sides amid US efforts to block the use of Huawei AI chips. On Monday, Malaysia launched its large computing project dubbed the Strategic Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure. The project marked the first deployment of Huawei's chips and servers outside China, Malaysia's Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching was quoted as saying to state news agency Bernama. The report did not specify which Huawei chips and servers would be used in Malaysia. In a subsequent update on Tuesday, references to Huawei were scrubbed from the report. The Malaysian Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry said in a statement on Wednesday that the AI infrastructure initiative involving Huawei was 'not developed, endorsed, or coordinated by the government of Malaysia', keeping its distance from the deal. The Malaysian AI project grabbed attention amid intensifying tech rivalry between Beijing and Washington. The US Department of Commerce recently issued guidelines that threatened regulatory action against anyone using Huawei Ascend chips in any part of the world, based on the argument that the chips violate US export control rules. A man speaks on the phone near a Huawei logo during a product launch in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, February 18, 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE The Chinese government hit back at the move, with the Ministry of Commerce issuing a statement on Wednesday saying that it would target those enforcing the US sanctions on Huawei AI chips with China's own anti-sanction law.
