#Huawei - €70 million for R&D in Ireland

Huawei has announced a €70 million investment in Irish research and development (R&D) over the next three years to support its growing business in Ireland, write Jakub Hera­Adamowicz and Yingying Li.

The company has said the R&D will focus on the areas of video, cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and site-reliability engineering (SRE). The work will be supported by over 100 highly-skilled researchers, experts and engineers Huawei employs across its R&D offices in Cork, Athlone and Dublin.

Guo Ping, Huawei Rotating Chairman, making the announcement in Shenzhen, said: “Ireland has outstanding talent and some of the best researchers in the world. Our R&D efforts are diverse in Ireland, like software in Dublin and hardware in Cork. Ireland has a great opportunity to continue to grow as an economy and become a technological hub. We are looking forward to strengthening our relationship with our local customers and partners.”

Jijay Shen, CEO of Huawei Ireland, said: “Our focus is on long-term investment and building positive relationships with key partners in Ireland. This investment over three years will help us drive innovation and collaboration in Ireland.”

The company’s Dublin R&D office is part of Huawei’s European Research Institute and forms part of Huawei’s research ecosystem. Huawei’s Irish R&D function is an important part of the local technology ecosystem in Ireland. It has developed positive and long-standing relationships with startups, government agencies and third-level institutions.

Huawei works with a number of Irish third-level institutions, including Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, and University College Cork.  It helps fund vital Irish research into video, artificial intelligence and cloud computing.  The company also partners key Science Foundation Ireland centres such as Connect, Insight, Adapt and Lero.  In 2018, Huawei Ireland received a Technology Ireland award for its work with Adapt which focused on a system that enables automatic in-scene detection and placement of advertisements in videos.

About Huawei

Huawei is the world’s leading ICT solutions company with revenue exceeding US$100 billion in 2018.  Last month it announced a 23.2% increase in 2019 H1 revenue over the same period last year. Employing more than 180,000 employees across 170 countries and regions, the company was founded in 1987 and is a private company fully owned by its employees.

About Huawei Ireland

Huawei has been in Ireland since 2004, with its business now serving over 2 million people and employing around 500 directly and indirectly here.  Huawei’s business activities in Ireland continue to thrive. Intelligent connectivity with fibre and 5G technologies has begun and will empower the market of mobile network and broadband network, AI, and IOT.  Huawei Ireland is working very closely with local operators and partners, and we are focused on nurturing future talent and highly-skilled professionals in these areas across the country.