Ox Horn: The Faux ‘European’ Campus Homing Asia’s R&D Leader

In the age of material and practical advancements, where AI is creating images in an instant and autonomous cars are taking over from drivers, you would be forgiven for thinking that taking time to focus on things like atmosphere or environment are superfluous.

Yet, even the icon of innovation and tech, Steve Jobs, knew its significance. The co-founder and CEO took a personal role in the designing and build of Apple’s HQ Apple Park, conjuring the design himself and specifically selecting a firm he believed could help make his vision of a "spaceship" campus a reality. Under Jobs, Apple became the world’s most valuable tech company.

This is because true leaders understand the importance that the environment plays in creating an atmosphere of innovation. Nowhere should this be more important than an R&D centre, the engine of a company’s innovation. 

It’s here where Huawei, Asia’s biggest R&D spender, has understood the significance. Operating out of the Chinese city of Dongguan, about an hour drive from its HQ in Shenzhen, a faux-European town picturesque enough to feature on a postcard, is powering the company’s innovations in everything from AI to telecoms.

Innovation at Ox Horn campus 

Ox Horn, the 300 acre campus, is both cohesive and colossal. Opened in 2019 and costing around US$1.5bn, the campus is capable of accommodating 20,000 employees daily and is designed to exhibit the best architecture of Europe, with workers treated more to baroque palaces than grey office blocks. 

Featuring 12 areas known for their charm, from Paris to Heidelberg, Bologna to Cambridge, specific workers are allocated a certain city and work together in the district as part of their day to day functions. 

For instance, Windermere, based after the area in the UK that straddles the Lake District National Park, is the Global Telecommunication System R&D department, a vital arm for Huawei as it leads the world as the largest telecommunications equipment company.

Although self-contained with their own coffee shops and restaurants, a three-line metro train pulls in at the various departments to help ferry workers around from meeting to meeting, to lunch, or even on their daily commute. 

Yet it is in the windows of the wonderful buildings overlooking the bell towers or lakes that the real innovations are taking place, innovation is obvious wherever you look. For instance, it is from that train where Huawei’s technological endeavours become apparent. 

When the electric train stops at some stations to onboarding passengers, it takes the three minutes or so changeover time to charge itself so it is capable of doing another loop around the line. 

Although nothing is commercially available, Huawei has previously disclosed a patent which describes wireless charging for vehicles that can be applied to smart cars, new energy vehicles, and self-driving cars, its description shows.

Indeed on a smaller scale, Huawei has been working a lot with the idea of wireless charging, having released many iterations of wireless chargers for smart devices. 

Huawei is able to proceed with patenting such processes because it has the means and drive to follow through with its research projects. In 2023, Huawei invested over 23% of its sales revenue into R&D, and for a company that reported US$33.bn in revenue in the June quarter of this year, you get an idea of how much weight is behind that. 

It’s as a result of these aggressive development ideals, Huawei has had a series of firsts. 

In 2019, Huawei launched the world's first 5G base station core chip for simplified 5G; in 2023, Ascend clusters had been used to train trillions of high-quality parameters for Pangu AI foundation models, and in 2024, Huawei introduced what the world's first, double-hinged, tri-fold smartphone.

Alongside these feats, they’ve ushered in innovative developments in energy management with their Intelligent Distribution Solution to focus on the critical 'last mile' of power grids; ADS which allows cars to navigate complex urban environments nationwide automatically and the Medical Technology Digitalization 2.0 Solution, which allows healthcare providers to build AI applications that can do diagnosis on medical imaging.

Leading with research

Having invested so much in research and development, it is safe to say Huawei has a thing or two to impart with both the industry and eager enterprises about the use, strategy and benefits of technological adoption.

Therefore, Huawei has released a number of white papers sharing their findings. From everything on 6G, to IP and cloud security, Huawei is using its thought leadership to guide enterprises into their journey into digital technologies. 

Its more recent report, the Global Digitalization Index (GDI), which builds on the Global Connectivity Index, factors in new indicators that look at digital infrastructure, including computing, storage, cloud, and green energy. 

Assessing 77 countries that represent 93% of the world's GDP and 80% of the global population, it provides a comprehensive view of digitalisation worldwide. The report categorises countries into three clusters: Frontrunners, Adopters, and Starters, based on their ICT maturity and economic development. 

One of the key findings is the strong correlation between ICT industry maturity and GDP per capita growth, with Frontrunner countries experiencing 5.4 times more economic value from a one-point increase in GDI score compared to Starter countries. 

Highlights of which found that each US$1 investment in ICT results in an US$8.3 return in a country's digital economy.

The GDI also identified four crucial enablers for digitalisation: Ubiquitous Connectivity, Digital Foundation, Green Energy, and Policy & Ecosystem, emphasising the importance of these factors in driving successful digital transformation.

These insights on digitalisation, alongside the latest rollouts from Huawei’s R&D campus can be witnessed at this year’s GITEX. From October 14 to 18, Huawei will be a Diamond Sponsor at the 44th GITEX GLOBAL 2024, one of the world's largest technology exhibitions. 

With the theme of "Accelerate Industrial Digitalization and Intelligence", Huawei will launch a series of flagship products and solutions for the global enterprise markets, Reference Architecture for Intelligent Transformation, and rich innovative practices in digital intelligence in the global industry. 

At the same time, Huawei will hold the Huawei Industrial Digital and Intelligent Transformation Summit 2024, dozens of forums, hundreds of talks and keynote speeches, exchanging thoughts with the industry. 

At this exhibition, Huawei's booth is located at B10&B20, Hall 22, Dubai World Trade Center. It covers an area of more than 1400 square metres, with the focus on two themes: "Accelerate Industrial Digitalization and Intelligence" and "Leading Digital and Intelligent Infrastructure". 

They are extending a welcome for all to visit the GITEX Global Huawei exhibition area to experience and join its journey of "Accelerate Industrial Digitalization and Intelligence".

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