Despite the political-commercial conflict between the United States and China, which led to the imposition of restrictions on Huawei four years ago, including a trade ban in Europe and Oceania due to allegations of alleged acts of espionage through its technology, the Chinese company has found ways to mitigate the impact on its business.
One of these strategies has been signing license agreements with other companies to allow them to use their technology. In 2021, for example, Huawei reached an agreement with the Volkswagen Group to allow the automaker to use the essential patents of the 4G standard to equip its cars with wireless technology.
In addition to Volkswagen, Huawei has managed to establish several agreements with companies in the automotive sector, although the specific names have not been disclosed for confidentiality reasons, according to Benjamin Wu, head of Huawei’s Intellectual Property department.
“These deals have allowed major players in the auto industry to become more involved in acquiring Huawei’s key patents for these advanced licenses on their vehicles,” Wu said.
In 2022 alone, the company generated $560 million in patent licensing revenue, which includes deals with both auto companies and other industries. Currently, Huawei has approximately 200 bilateral license agreements with other companies, and more than 350 companies have licensed patents from the Chinese giant through patent pools.
Huawei is also collaborating with some Asian automakers present in Mexico to accelerate the development of electric vehicles through cloud solutions. Among the companies that have entered the Mexican automotive market are Baic, Changan, JMC, Jac, Chirey, Jetour, Omoda, Jaecco, MG and BYD.
With the advancement of 5G technology, which will facilitate automation, the automotive industry will become one of the most interested in acquiring Huawei developments. Last year the company invested $23.2 billion in research and development of new technologies, such as 5G and now 5.5G, which represents an increase of 25.1% compared to the previous year.
With the objective of consolidating itself as the main provider of cloud solutions in Latin America, Huawei is focusing its efforts on satisfying the growing demand for cloud services in various sectors, including the automotive industry. As part of its strategy, the company plans to launch four new availability zones in Latin America this year, two of them in Mexico, one in Brazil and one in Chile. In addition, in October, they will open their third Data Center in the country, although its precise location has not yet been revealed. These announcements were made during the Huawei Cloud Latam Partner Summit 2023.
Cloud services play a critical role in storing and processing the large volumes of data generated by sensors in connected vehicles. This data includes information about location, speed and traffic conditions. In addition, this technology enables efficient remote access to the data and applications required for the operation of smart electric vehicles, allowing manufacturers to update systems and fix problems quickly and efficiently.
Alfonso Jiménez revealed that Huawei already has its Artificial Intelligence Model Arts platform, which allows the collection of information on user driving patterns, road and highway recognition, to integrate solutions into smart vehicles. However, Jiménez also highlighted that this artificial intelligence model is in a training phase.
“It is one of the longest and most delicate processes for the digitization of cars,” says Jiménez.
Although some regions of the world are moving faster than others in this transformation, it is only a matter of time before this trend spreads to different countries.