- Huawei has first pick on China’s elite STEM talent — the largest STEM pool globally
- It operates like a monopsony on top-tier engineers
- Its org structure allows rapid reallocation of R&D to new product adjacencies
- Comparable to Samsung and TSMC in Korea/Taiwan, but scaled up 20x and 50x respectively
- Similar dynamic in the U.S. with Big Tech (Google, Amazon) attracting top-tier recruits
- U.S. has added advantage of top global university system attracting international STEM talent
- Huawei intentionally highlights R&D spending and workforce in its reports
- 114,000+ R&D employees, highly paid when adjusted for Chinese cost of living and ESOPs
- This is a lottery-pick quality R&D workforce, not average engineers
- Ericsson had ~26,000 R&D workers when it was Huawei’s main competitor
- Huawei caught up with Ericsson by early 2010s — shouldn’t have been a surprise
- After telecom, Huawei naturally expanded into consumer phones
- Consumer hardware easier than 5G infrastructure (e.g. polar coding)
- U.S. sanctions accelerated Huawei’s diversification
- Entered new energy vehicles with major success (e.g. HIMA)
- Outperformed Apple in automotive with its Intelligent Automotive Solutions
- Huawei alumni periodically form spinoffs that become dominant players
- Honor was spun off after U.S. sanctions
- Shenzhen Inovance founded by Huawei engineers, now dominates manufacturing automation
- SiCarrier is Huawei-adjacent and targets semiconductor capital equipment
- SiCarrier part of effort to challenge ASML/TSMC dominance
- ASML has 14,000 engineers
- TSMC has 73,000 total employees, many not focused on R&D
- Huawei has a denser, more targeted R&D talent pool
- Assumption that existing IP moats can’t be disrupted is flawed
- Tech leadership now depends on continual investment in talent and motion
- Nvidia is an example of a company that understands this
- Many firms and policymakers don’t, and build backfiring policies
- Only viable Huawei counter-strategy is investing in elite human capital
- Export controls, tariffs, and containment are distractions
- Human capital and ecosystem organization determine long-term outcomes
5 replies (most recent on top)
that means you work 9-9, 6 days a week
I did a lot more than that as a US engineer. I'm grateful for the fear instilled by parents who went through both the great depression and WWII so I was able to grow fast and retire very early. I and a few others stay here to encourage people to own their career rather than to exist entirely at the whims of any given company.
Having watched the US and other countries achieve success in various fields then cut corners back to mediocrity while borrowing themselves into oblivion I'm curious if any culture once they've reached a certain level of comfort can remain driven to keep improving.
americans are wage slaves and the chinese are wage slaves multiply 2. take your pick
This page is called Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs. Perhaps you are very confused old bean..
its never too late to join their rocket ship, its guided by a simple principle you will love:
996
that means you work 9-9, 6 days a week
don't complain now, it will drive your Social Credit score down
if you can't keep up, there is a nice factory making Christmas ornaments that needs hard working young people to work the overnight shift