Chinese tech giants form alliance to help advance industrial internet initiatives in the country

Some of China’s largest hi-tech companies, including Huawei Technologies and Tencent Holdings, have teamed up in a quest to accelerate initiatives related to the industrial internet, as the world’s second-biggest economy remains locked in a heated tech and trade dispute with the United States.

These firms have recently established the Shenzhen Industrial Internet Union, which aims to help drive the development of new technologies and business models for the industrial internet era in the southern coastal city that is often called China’s Silicon Valley.

The industrial internet involves the broader adoption of advanced consumer and industrial applications that take advantage of next-generation wireless networks, big data, AI and the Internet of Things (IoT) for business purposes. This is in line with China’s wider ambitions to lift its industries up the value chain and better compete globally in emerging technologies, dubbed as the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

“Industrial internet development is a national strategy that requires the cooperation of different parties,” said Wang Lixin, Shenzhen’s vice-mayor, on Tuesday at an industry conference held in the city where the new alliance was announced.

Telecommunications network operator China Unicom and Taiwanese firm Hon Hai Precision Industry, the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer, are among the more than 10 companies that have initially joined the government-backed union.