Huawei unveils new AI compute strategy at partner event

Vendor launches 'full AI stack'

Huawei has unveiled its artificial intelligence (AI) and computing strategy at its Huawei Connect 2019 event.

Ken Hu, Huawei's deputy chairman, also revealed Huawei's plan to invest more than $1.5bn (£1.2bn) to build a "mutually beneficial ecosystem over the next five years".

Huawei said it will also provide its compute power to customers in the form of cloud services, and to partners in the form of components.

The announcements were built around the launch of two processors which it says will power the next generation of AI.

"As AI becomes an important engine for digital transformation, Huawei needs to promote pervasive intelligence and provide the best computing power for the intelligent world," Hu said.

"This idea continues Huawei's earlier belief in developing inclusive AI, and is now fundamental to Huawei's entire computing strategy.

"To meet the ever-growing requirements, it is time for Huawei intelligent computing to unlock the optimal computing power in a pervasive and inclusive manner.

"Huawei's new computing strategy is not only driven by the $2tn of the computing market, but is also a response to a world where intelligence is pervasive and powerful computing is required. It is an important part of Huawei's vision for building a fully connected, intelligent world."

At the software level, Huawei said it will release other products, such as server operating systems, databases, and compilers. It said that by connecting the whole ecosystem value chain and completing system-level verification, Huawei will improve partner sales of integrated solutions.

The vendor also said it has launched a "full stack" AI solution, comprising processes, neural networks and computing framework support. The stack is supported by training services that have been released in the Huawei Cloud.

Hu added that the wide application of AI technologies is posing unprecedented challenges to the traditional computing industry, claiming that the continuous evolution of computing models has made AI computing for machine learning mainstream.

The intelligent computing industry will be a "blue ocean of infinite possibilities", he said, citing figures that AI computing will meet 80 per cent of total computing requirements by 2025, and that the value of the global computing industry will climb from $1.5tn in 2018 to $2tn in 2023.