Microsoft, Qualcomm, General Electric among multinationals boosting R&D investment in China
Despite antimonopoly probes, multinationals are using mainland cities as global hubs for their innovation programmes, writes Wang Yue
Major technology multinationals have been under the microscope in China but this issue has failed to hold back their development plans.
Microsoft Corp and Qualcomm are being watched closely by China’s antimonopoly regulators while Apple’s iPhone was once branded a national security threat because of its ability to track users’ locations.
However, the tech giants have largely brushed off these obstacles and appear to be taking a long-term view of China, where they continue to upgrade their research and development capabilities.
The China-based R&D centres of General Electric, International Business Machine and Microsoft are emerging as global innovation bases for the companies, which have stepped up their R&D investments in order to deliver breakthrough technology in next-generation environmental, health care and information products.
The Microsoft Asia-Pacific R&D Group, which includes the company’s Beijing-based Asia research lab, is investing more than US$600 million each year in technology incubation, product engineering and research on areas such as big data and cloud computing. The results will support a range of products, including the Bing search engine and Xbox One. The company sees the investment as a way of ensuring its “continued leadership” in information technology, an area that Beijing counts as a strategic emerging sector and in which it doesn’t hesitate to exert its influence. The company says it will continue to support innovation in China, with the firm’s success “always about partnership ecosystems and co-operating with governments”.
General Electric is also increasing R&D investment in China. Last year, the company had spent more than US$250 million to boost its 11-year-old Shanghai-based China technology centre, where it plans to increase yearly investment by 5 per cent, according to reports. GE is working on an advanced membrane that could withstand high alkaline and temperature environments, computed tomography and energy-saving turbines, while developing technologies in what is known as the internet of things (IOT), which stitch together machines through the internet to allow better data transmission and more effective remote collaboration.
IBM is strengthening its IOT push through its research centres in Beijing and Shanghai, catering to a market whose size has surpassed 500 billion yuan (HK$631 billion) last year, nearly 30 per cent from 2012.