Huawei ramps up foreign university investment

Huawei is ramping up investment into foreign universities, despite United States lawmakers pressuring academic institutions to cut ties with the Chinese telecoms group, writes Yuan Yang for the Financial Times.

“Our collaborations with universities, especially in basic research, not only will not stop, but will increase,” Huawei Board Director William Xu said in an interview, disclosing for the first time that Huawei spends more than US$300 million per year on university funding and partnerships.

Several elite universities in the US and the United Kingdom, including Stanford and Oxford, have cut ties with Huawei and refused funding in recent months after the US government issued a criminal indictment accusing Huawei of stealing American technology and breaking US sanctions against Iran. Xu played down the impact of universities cutting ties with the company, saying they had faced “interference” and “although they think co-operation is win-win with Huawei, they are temporarily suspending co-operation”.
Full report on the Financial Times site