Ren Zhengfei: China’s AI future and Huawei’s long game

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Ask Huawei’s founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei about China’s AI ambitions or the challenges his company faces, and his response might catch you off guard. \"I haven’t thought about it,\" he admits in a candid Q&A with People’s Daily. \"It’s useless to think about it.\"
In an era where corporate leaders obsess over strategic roadmaps and risk mitigation, Ren’s philosophy stands out for its simplicity: \"Don’t dwell on obstacles. Just keep moving forward, one step at a time.\"
This mindset isn’t just personal—it’s how Huawei operates amid relentless U.S. sanctions and supply chain disruptions. There’s a quiet resilience in his words, a refusal to be paralyzed by external pressures.
When the discussion turns to Huawei’s Ascend AI chips, Ren is strikingly modest. \"The U.S. has overestimated our capabilities,\" he says. \"Our best chips still lag behind by a generation.\"
So how does Huawei compete without access to cutting-edge hardware? Ren points to the company’s secret weapon: software innovation and mathematical ingenuity. \"We compensate for physics with algorithms,\" he explains, describing how Huawei optimizes existing chips through advanced coding and clustered computing power.
This pragmatic approach extends beyond technology to Huawei’s corporate culture. In an age of relentless self-promotion, Ren shuns the spotlight. \"Praise actually stresses us out,\" he confesses. \"Criticism keeps us grounded.\" He views customer feedback—even negative—as invaluable, saying: \"Ignore the noise. Focus on doing the work well.\"
But what truly excites Ren isn’t the next product launch—it’s the painstaking, long-term work of fundamental research. \"Without deep roots in basic science,\" he warns, \"even the mightiest tree will topple in a storm.\" Huawei backs this vision with staggering R&D investments: $8.3 billion annually—a third of its budget—goes toward theoretical research with no immediate payoff.
Looking ahead, Ren sees AI as civilization’s next great leap. He believes China’s advantage lies not just in technology, but in its vast infrastructure and human capital. The real AI revolution, he predicts, will come when domain experts—doctors, engineers, even miners—harness AI to solve real-world problems.
His optimism recalls a recent New York Times column titled \"I Just Saw the Future. It Was Not in America.\" Ren embodies this forward-looking calm—a leader focused not on political turbulence, but on planting seeds for a future that may take decades to bloom.
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