Huawei announced plans to open an R&D centre in the French city of Grenoble, which will be mainly focused on smartphone sensors and parallel computing software development. The company said that this new addition brings to five the number of its R&D teams in the country. Two are located in Sophia Antipolis and Paris, researching image processing and design respectively, while the other two existing teams are based at Huawei’s facilities in Boulogne-Billancourt outside Paris, working on algorithms and mobile/5G standards.
Highlighting its contribution to the economy, Huawei also announced that it bought goods and services worth USD 410 million from French suppliers in 2017, bringing the total volume to USD 1.4 billion over the last five years. Its subsidiary has been gradually expanding in France since arriving in 2003. It now describes itself as the leading Chinese group in the country, with a workforce of more than 950 employees. The new R&D team in Grenoble will grow to 30 researchers by 2020, said the company.
Huawei has been facing a difficult political environment, most recently in Germany and New Zealand. Earlier this week, a French government spokesperson told Les Echos that there was not sufficient reason to enforce a complete ban on Huawei as a 5G supplier, on the basis of security concerns. Instead, the government's position remains one of openness, while maintaining a watchful eye and keeping current safeguards in place.
