Europe is funding Huawei in 6G and AI research: Report

It was revealed that Europe is planning to ban Huawei from 5G infrastructure around the bloc. There’s new input, which shows that Huawei is also a part of important research on 6G and AI.

FT reported that Huawei is part of a critical research program called Horizon Europe and it includes several sensitive projects ranging from AI to 6G. The Horizon Europe program also has projects for cloud computing, quantum sensing, links, and autonomous driving frameworks.

Under this, Huawei is receiving up to 14% of funding per scheme at a total of €3.89 million ($4.2 million). Huawei provides infrastructure equipment and AI platforms for EU-backed research projects.

Aside from these 11 projects, Huawei is also a part of two programs in Europe and it didn’t claim any funds. The EU said that the amount was the equivalent of less than 1% of funding for 6G, AI, and cloud computing-related research programs under Horizon Europe.

“The openness of the Horizon Europe work program to international co-operation is balanced with the need to safeguard EU interests in strategic areas, as well as with respecting international rules and fundamental EU values,” the commission said.

Huawei’s statement:

Huawei said it had participated in more than 30 programs within the EU’s flagship R&D framework since 2007. It added that international cooperation was vital and the company’s involvement in Horizon Europe was “evaluated independently by different panels of experts selected by the EU” and officially approved.

Expertise and Competitiveness:

Thanassis Giannetsos, the project coordinator, said Huawei had the “expertise” to support the consortium’s goal of building the methodology for future autonomous driving. “We are aware that some companies and their customers could have concerns about Huawei’s participation but that was already discussed in the phase of the proposal,” he said.

Huawei has the world’s best telecom technologies, far ahead of its competitors. The company is already the largest telecom equipment maker and the fastest researcher in AI and cloud tech.

EU’s stand on banning Huawei is derived from the US but major markets such as Germany don’t want to restrict the Chinese tech maker. However, the US is pushing its allies to deny Huawei from 5G infrastructure and uncertainty is still there.

We’ll keep you posted.