In a spectacular policy shift and despite ongoing US sanctions, Chinese tech giant Huawei is teaming up with its sharpest US rivals like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft.
Details
Huawei has joined the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) – an alliance to develop open AI standards. Co-founders: OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Anthropic.
Alliance goal: Establishing global open-source standards for the next big wave of artificial intelligence – agentic AI.
Why the alliance matters
Systems like OpenClaw (OpenAI) or Claude Code (Anthropic) mark the transition to tools that can independently code, plan, and execute complex workflows.
Huawei sees this as a core pillar of its future business model and wants to prevent being left behind on standards.
Huawei has been on US sanctions lists for years. Export controls prohibit global deployment of Huawei's Ascend chips.
Huawei's strategy
The Shenzhen corporation is already a global standard-setter for 4G and 5G. Experts warn that excluding China from important bodies could bring disadvantages for the EU and US, as China now produces the most AI research results.
❝"Huawei serves as a paradigm for technological catch-up through standardization – from latecomer to leading multinational corporation."
Wei Yang & Yurong Zhang, Nature Portfolio (2025)Sources: South China Morning Post, Tech in Asia, Nature
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