According to foreign media reports, Huawei plans to build a 400-person chip R&D plant near the ARM Holdings headquarters in Cambridge, England, which will be operational by 2021
Finance.ifeng mentioned that Huawei’s factory covers an area of 500 acres and was bought from the US biotechnology company NWBio and is said to cost about CNY 330 million, which will be used to design and manufacture optical communication modules. Other than the plant, Huawei will also establish a chip research center in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Huawei plans to invest CNY 16-17 billion in the next 5 years to build and operate optical device R&D and manufacturing bases, providing modules to the world. This news has caused many netizens to talk about it, and the reason is why it is necessary to build a chip factory in a foreign country.
Recently the United Kingdom decided to cooperate with Huawei, but only limited to 5G network construction bit, not core equipment and technology. Thus, the UK suffered tremendous pressure from the US.
In response to this matter, Huawei's UK technology research and development related person in charge said: According to the plan, the R&D center will be officially operated in 2021, mainly to develop broadband network chips, and can create up to 400 jobs. The reason for choosing this location is mainly because Cambridge has become a gathering place for UK chip research and development. In addition to the existing security companies, the British Bluetooth chip maker CSR plans to build a factory here, and Huawei plans to conduct a project in the UK. A five-year, 3 billion British pound investment plan, of which Cambridge is the focus of investment, will initially employ approximately 120 Cambridge talent, and as the business expands, Huawei will create thousands of jobs for the UK.
Only recently Huawei surpassed Apple in the first quarter of this year and became the world's second-largest mobile phone maker, taking another step toward replacing Samsung's global smartphone leadership.
According to market research firm IDC, Huawei's first-quarter shipments increased by 50% year-on-year, making it the only company among the top 4 mobile phone manufacturers, which has continued to grow for six consecutive quarters as the overall market shrinks.
Huawei also published its first 5G phone Mate 20 X and is one sale already in Switzerland. This is Huawei’s first ever 5G phone to be officially sold in a market.
Huawei’s 5G chip, the Balong 5000, is at least six months ahead of Qualcomm’s similar offering, according to Jean Baptiste Su, principal analyst with Atherton Research.
Qualcomm’s X55 chip, unveiled at MWC 2019 earlier this year, will not appear in 5G smartphones until the end of this year or in early 2020. The Balong 5000 will start shipping in June, first with the Huawei Mate X phone and the Mate 20 X 5G in July, he added.
Despite the pressure and allegations from the US, it looks like Huawei has not been bothered, either in its sales nor in its expansion.