The vision and mission of Huawei is to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world. The technology supplier offers network and data center infrastructure, cloud computing solutions, and devices such as smartphones and tablets for business and residential customers in its Carrier, Enterprise, Consumer, and Cloud Business divisions. Huawei's customers include 45 of the world's 50 largest telecom providers, while also working with all major providers in Switzerland. Huawei has been present in Switzerland since 2008. Initially in Bern, but since 2012 also in Zurich and Lausanne. In Dübendorf, very close to Zurich's Stettbach station, Huawei has a state-of-the-art location. But this is not Huawei's only "footprint" in the Greater Zurich Area.
Huawei has lot of commitment to the Greater Zurich Area
Together with Sunrise, Huawei Switzerland operates a "5G Innovation Center" in Opfikon. Since 2019, the latest developments and application scenarios of 5G technology can be viewed up close in the showroom, and in some cases even tried out and experienced. The aim is to make the potential of the new mobile communications technology for a wide variety of industries – such as smart farming, smart manufacturing, or cloud gaming – visible and tangible. Huawei also wants to contribute to Switzerland's continuing leadership in using new technologies for its competitive strength, where the country is ranked second worldwide in the connectivity ranking published annually by Huawei.
Even more recent is the research center that Huawei opened in Zurich-Oerlikon in 2019. Huawei operates in over 170 countries and employs over 107,000 of its 195,000 employees in R&D. The technology company invests 22 percent of its total revenue annually in R&D, which is well above the market average. In 2021, it was an incredible 21 billion Swiss francs.
A melting pot for young talents and top researchers from around the world
Huawei now also conducts research at the highest level in Zurich. "Zurich scores with a technical university that belongs to the world's elite and provides for highly qualified young researchers. On platforms such as "Polymesse" or "Kontaktparty", we have the opportunity to draw attention to interesting and interested young talents, to whom we can, in turn, offer attractive career prospects in research. Everything is well organized, and the networking is excellent," explains Steven Majin, head of the Zurich Research Center (ZRC) since its establishment.
"The high quality of life in Zurich and the surrounding area also makes it easy for us to inspire luminaries of cutting-edge international research to work at the ZRC," he continues. "Our team is therefore very multinational. Our large Huawei research family enjoys living here because international schools, good infrastructures, the airport with connections worldwide, and the globalized thinking anchored in Switzerland make life and work pleasant for them."
Bill McColl, as an example, has been director of the Future Computer Systems Lab at Huawei ZRC since 2020 and leads a team researching algorithms, software, and systems. As a Fellow of Wadham College Oxford and former head of research in "Parallel Computing" and chair of the Faculty of Computer Science at Oxford University, he was drawn from the Thames to the Limmat.
The Zurich Research Center is part of a Europe-wide network that primarily conducts basic research. On 1'000 m2 it focuses on basic research and insights into the field of future computing. From a long-term perspective, Huawei's research in these areas is several years ahead of the commercialization of related technologies. Huawei wants to maintain and even increase this lead with a continuous expansion of its research location.
Huawei wants to continue to grow in Switzerland, particularly in the Greater Zurich Area. Research talents are just as much sought after as experienced business developers, ICT specialists, or motivated salespeople.
Together we stand "for a better connected Switzerland"
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