Inside China Tech: Rivalry in smartphones and AI patents
- Explaining Honor’s sale, Huawei’s founder said US sanctions against the company threatened millions of jobs as well as supplies from Huawei dealers and agents
- China said it filed more than 110,000 AI patent applications last year
This week’s round up of our top stories includes comments by Huawei’s founder about the recent sale of its Honor budget brand, China claiming to overtake the US in artificial intelligence patents, and indications that Microsoft’s Xbox Series X will be released in China next year.
Divorcing from Huawei
“Be the strongest competitor of Huawei in the world, surpass Huawei, and even use defeating Huawei as your motivation,” Ren said at a farewell party for Honor, according to a transcript released on Huawei’s official employee community platform.
Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker and China’s biggest smartphone vendor, announced the sale of all Honor assets to Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology, a consortium of over 30 agents and dealers, in a statement on November 17.
The deal came after the US imposed tighter restrictions on Huawei in May this year, restricting its access to Huawei’s acquisition of chips made with American software and technology, even from companies outside the US.
Comparing the sale to “divorce”, Ren said Honor will be divested completely in compliance to international rules. “We should not be connected any more. We are adults. We should handle things separately, strictly follow compliance management, strictly abide by international rules and each achieve our own goals,” he said.