“I got to see the caliber of the Huawei leadership. It was fascinating to see this expert level of presentations where there was a lot of technical detail, but also a very strong storyline about how they're going to be used and why it's better than the current competitors and industry leaders. In many ways, yes, there were great numbers. Yes, there were stunning visuals, but it was really that overall orchestration that really reminded me of an Apple presentation. It's just that you were doing this for technical infrastructure.” - Jeremy Au
“There's zero doubt how serious Huawei is about advancing the frontier across the entire technology stack and product lineup. It’s interesting how swiftly they're working their way up the technology value chain across both the manufacturing side, as well as the research and development side. It's about how good their products are on a standalone basis because they're designed to be modular and on industry standards. It’s also about how their ecosystem approach really works, where you have the synergies between products to be a one-stop shop, but also have that forward-deployed workforce. They have a very deep conviction in the importance of technical leadership at R&D.” - Jeremy Au
“What I found interesting about Huawei was that it had the same focus on AI, coupled with the fact that it was focused on hardware. There was the technical infrastructure like 5.5G to routers and switches. All of it was about how we take this hardware and the requirements that AI needs and get it from point A to point B. For example, you can have a great data center with the best GPU chips, but if you don't have memory storage that’s really top-of-the-line, then it can be a bottleneck on the whole AI system, especially in terms of the processing throughput that you're looking for.” - Jeremy Au
Jeremy Au partnered with Huawei to share his observations of their 2024 APAC Congress in Bangkok, which highlighted their latest advancements in AI, hardware, and infrastructure. He analyzed Huawei’s R&D investment commitments, vertical integration, manufacturing scale, globalizing workforce and local partnerships - positioning them as a formidable force in shaping the global tech landscape as well as Southeast Asia. Huawei was the world's #1 patent filer at the World Intellectual Property Organization for the past six years, with nearly 8,000 patent applications in 2022 alone. Jeremy witnessed Huawei leaders' expert-oriented presentations and their intentional engagement with regional leaders, SMEs and media. He noted their Southeast Asia partnerships, featuring prominent regional speakers like Mr. Nararya S. Soeprapto (ASEAN Deputy Secretary-General), Mardiana Azura Mahidin (Malaysia Airports), Mr. Prasert Jantararuantong (Thailand Minister for Digital Economy), Dr. Piti Srisangnam (ASEAN Foundation), and Akina Ho. The speakers all underscored the importance of localization and genuine discussions for true long-term win-win partnerships.
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(01:29) Jeremy Au:
Hey! I just want to share that I had a great time at the recent Huawei APAC Congress in Bangkok. It was great to have a partnership with them in order to really see and hear what they have to say about their engagement in Southeast Asia and their products.
So I wanted to share about my insights from this entire conversation, especially because in this decoupling world, there's a lot of debate about who versus what versus why. And I wanted to share with you my first person's perspective from what I can see.
(02:08) Jeremy Au:
Firstly, AI, AI, AI. It was just nonstop, and at some level, it should be no surprise because everywhere, the online world is talking about AI. OpenAI and ChatGPT were the fastest to 10 million users ever in the world in terms of technology adoption. So it's no surprise that everyone from Meta to Google is very much focused on AI.
What I found interesting about Huawei was that it had the same focus on AI, coupled with the fact that it was really focused on hardware. There was the technical infrastructure like 5.5G to routers and switches. All of it really was about how we take this hardware and the requirements that AI needs and really get it from point A to point B. For example, you can have a great data center with the best GPU chips, but if you don't have memory storage that is really top-of-the-line, then it can be a bottleneck on the whole AI system, especially in terms of the processing throughput that you're looking for.
Personally, there's now zero doubt about how serious Huawei is about advancing the frontier across the entire technology stack and product lineup. What's also interesting is how swiftly they're working their way up the technology value chain across both the manufacturing side, as well as the research and development side. Huawei has been in the world's number one filer of patents under WIPO for the past six years with almost 8,000 patent applications in 2022. They are also now pursuing a very proactive US patent strategy and they are competing with Samsung and all of the other folks in the US, just to make sure that they have trademarked their brands, but also their IP is protected.
Honestly, it's a big difference because 20 years ago, you have not seen any Chinese technology leader really had the technology or R&D capability to be so proactive about filing for patents, let alone had the desire to do so. So on one hand, it's about how good their products are on a standalone basis, because they're designed to be modular and they're designed on industry standards. That being said, what surprised me was really about how their ecosystem approach really works, where you have the synergies between products to be a one stop shop, but also have that forward deployed workforce. And they honestly have a very deep conviction in the importance of technical leadership at R&D.
Secondly, ASEAN partnerships. There was a thoughtful integration of speakers across the region. For example, Mr. Nararya, who was the ASEAN Deputy Secretary General. There was Mardiana Azura, who was a representative of Malaysia Airports. There was Mr. Prasert, who was Thailand's Minister for Digital Economy. There was Dr. Piti, who represented the ASEAN Foundation and was a co-host. There were speakers like Akina Ho from Hong Kong as well. Every regional representative and speaker really emphasized the need for localization as well as genuine partnership. Huawei shared that they are providing public services in more than a hundred countries. I expect to see many more transactions, deals, and alliances to be made in the coming years between Southeast Asian entities as well as Huawei.
Lastly, I got to see the caliber of the Huawei leadership. It was fascinating to see this expert level of presentations where there was a lot of technical detail, but also a very strong storyline about how they're going to be used and why it's better than the current competitors and industry leaders. In many ways, yes, there were great numbers. Yes, there were stunning visuals, but it was really that overall orchestration that really reminded me of an Apple presentation. It's just that you were doing this for technical infrastructure. There was also a huge representation of senior leadership and there was a really deliberate effort to speak in English, to do media roundtables and to chat with local executives one on one.
It was also interesting to see the junior executives because they actually have a mix of US and UK educational experience and they are, of course, very fluent in English as well. So it was just interesting to see the different layers of leadership work with each other, be bilingual between English and Chinese, and also make the effort to engage deeply with local folks. I'm personally curious about how they're going to be continuing to build out their reputation as an employer and an MNC out in the region as well.
In conclusion, Huawei is a really formidable force shaping the future of global tech, especially in Southeast Asia. It's not to be underestimated. There's a cluster of strengths that are really interlocking right now. First of all, they have the R&D prowess that we talked about, which is a function of the company's commitment and a huge percentage of their revenues going into R&D.
Secondly, it's about their manufacturing scale, that they have that process engineering and iterative improvement. They have a globalizing workforce where they have research labs across China, across Europe, across Southeast Asia. They're also now pushing really hard to localize their partnerships to system integrators, local governments, and SMEs across the region. As I say this, it reminds me a lot about the strength that every MNC has. Huawei's strength is really rising to the global stage as another MNC competitor to other MNCs that already exist and service customers around the world.
As Huawei increasingly partners with Southeast Asian local players in the context of a decoupling world, it'll be interesting to see what each individual entity and country is going to choose. As part of the partnership with Huawei. I'll be recording a BRAVE podcast in the future with more insights from the team. On that note, see you next