People visit a Huawei booth during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, China on July 26. (Reuters)
People visit a Huawei booth during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, China on July 26. (Reuters)

Huawei Technologies will invest 18 billion yuan ($2.6 billion) globally ‌on research and development in smart driving technologies, including 10 billion yuan on computing power for training, ‌a senior executive said on Thursday.

Over the next five years, Huawei plans to spend 70 billion to 80 billion ⁠yuan on computing power, Jin Yuzhi, Huawei's senior vice president, said at an event in Beijing ahead of China's ⁠largest auto show, which opens on Friday.

Huawei is defending its leading position ​after rapidly emerging as a key supplier in China's ‌smart EV sector over the past four years, driven ‌by ‌advanced technologies increasingly favoured by affluent Chinese ‌consumers over German-engineered alternatives.

A total of ​38 vehicle models equipped with Huawei's smart driving and ⁠intelligent cockpit technologies were displayed at the event on Thursday, including four Audi models and Toyota's BZ7 developed with ⁠Guangzhou ​Automobile.

While the automotive ⁠business remains a relatively small part of Huawei's portfolio, which ​also includes telecommunications, smartphones, and cloud computing, it has been the company's fastest-growing segment. Automotive-related sales surged ⁠72 percent in 2025 to 45 ⁠billion ⁠yuan ($6.5 ‌billion).

Huawei's overall revenue rose 2.2 percent last year to 880.9 billion yuan.

The company also launched its latest Qiankun ​ADS advanced driving assistance system. (Reuters)