Chinese tech giant Huawei recently announced the launch of a cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) innovation lab in Singapore while pledging to commit “hundreds of millions” worth of investment in the Republic and the Asia Pacific market in the coming years.
Mr Edward Deng, Vice President of Huawei’s cloud business unit, said that the main aim of the new open lab, which will be available for everyone to use, is to promote cloud and AI technologies to be adopted in Singapore.
He told reporters on the sidelines of the Huawei Cloud Summit 2019 that the open lab mechanism has been shown to be very effective in China, Hong Kong and Europe. It is meant to serve developers and university students, companies, as well as to provide a platform to launch projects for public benefit.
University students, for example, will be invited to join and develop whatever they wanted. For companies, the lab could showcase AI applications in specific sectors, for example the medical industry, and gather industry players to work together.
Citing the company’s experience in China, Huawei also hopes to use the lab to roll out projects in environmental protection, disaster management and pollution prevention.
Huawei found Singapore to be an ideal location for the company to expand its cloud business and the firm has earmarked the Republic to be one of its largest cloud nodes outside of China.
Singapore has a good capacity of data centres and good connectivity, thanks to the submarine cable fibre connections. Huawei also found its efficient government, transparent investment environment and pro-business policies very attractive.
Looking in the future, Huawei will invest more not only in cloud and AI, but also in 5G and the enterprise business, where around 440 partners have registered with the firm, and more than 200 partners have already realised some form of cooperation.