Huawei Urges China to Keep Pace in AI Growth

Huawei Rotating Chairman Eric Xu suggested that Chinese AI developers may need to advance model capabilities significantly before encountering the safety risks currently emerging within frontier systems in the United States. Xu informed reporters that Chinese AI providers might not yet possess the computational power or model sophistication required to experience the specific risks reported by leading American developers.

“Maybe the type of risk from AI that they can feel, they can perceive, is something that people in China or AI model providers in China cannot,” Xu noted, further stating, “I think maybe AI model providers in China may need to speed up their pace to the level that they could also feel the risks from AI development.” Concurrently, the executive advocated for a strategic balance between accelerating AI development and managing its associated risks.

In its most recent report, Huawei indicated its expectation that AI workloads will become increasingly dominated by autonomous agents. The company forecasted that agents will account for more than 90% of global AI traffic by 2035, as token consumption is projected to expand 100,000-fold from current levels. Xu also noted that six or seven Chinese AI laboratories could potentially target models with 10 trillion to 40 trillion parameters within the next two years.

The global discourse regarding frontier AI safety has escalated this week, following statements from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman supporting a measured pace for AI development. China, however, has expressed opposition. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun advocated for an open approach to AI, while state media characterized U.S. proposals as a Cold War-era strategy targeting China’s technological progress and geopolitical influence.

Xu conceded that Huawei remains less advanced than leading U.S. competitors in semiconductors but observed that U.S. export restrictions have incentivized Chinese customers to adopt domestic technologies. He added that the firm is pursuing total self-sufficiency regarding chips and the comprehensive semiconductor supply chain.