Light Reading is reporting that Huawei is renewing its focus on the cloud and artificial intelligence, establishing it as a fourth business group, alongside the consumer, enterprise and operator business groups.
According to Light Reading’s Robert Clark, details are sparse but “it seems the new unit will be primarily a product and technology division, developing the underlying public and private cloud platforms, big data, smart computing and other solutions for the customer-facing units.
“The focus on these key emerging technologies of cloud and AI is another sign of Huawei diversifying away from its core telecom equipment business. Last year the handset business eclipsed the carrier business to become the biggest source of revenue.”
Reporting on the same story, Business Insider compares Huawei’s latest ambitions with Google and says the Chinese company may be trying to duplicate Google’s success.
According to BI, “by focusing its cloud ambitions on the general cloud market as well as in support of its growing smartphone OS, Huawei can follow a strategy similar to Google. Google Cloud has become a major player in the large US cloud market, on course to generate $8 billion in revenue per year as the US’s third-largest cloud purveyor.”
What BI fails to take into account, however, is the ongoing allegations of Huawei being a conduit for spying by the Chinese government. The U.S. has already banned the company and pressured its allies to do the same. Given the sensitive data businesses store in the cloud, it’s likely Huawei will face an uphill battle convincing companies to trust it as a cloud provider. With a mere 8% of the Chinese cloud market, according to Light Reading, its efforts on the home front may be similarly stymied.