Huawei making moves in China’s robotics industry with Jimu investment, new AI hub

Huawei Technologies, a formidable player in fields from smartphones to electric vehicles, is also looming large in China’s fragmented robotics industry amid the country’s drive to be a global leader in the field.

The Shenzhen-based telecommunications giant, which is the face of China’s self-sufficiency drive to break US sanctions, last week injected 3 billion yuan (US$413 million) into a subsidiary called Dongguan Jimu Machinery, according to corporate database Qichacha.

The move to increase the capital base of the fully-owned unit to 3.89 billion yuan from 870 million yuan has fanned speculation that Huawei is gearing up to enter the robotics industry. Huawei has not publicly disclosed Jimu’s business activities and declined to comment when contacted on Tuesday.

Public corporate data showed that Jimu is engaged in electronics component manufacturing.

Jimu is headed by Li Jianguo, an executive director at Huawei and the president of its manufacturing department, according to Qichacha.

Huawei’s increased investment in Jimu comes a month after it opened an embodied artificial intelligence (AI) centre in Shenzhen, focused on integrating AI into physical entities like robots.