Baidu and Huawei Sign Strategic Agreement to Lead the New Era of Mobile and AI
December 21 2017 - 1:08AM
Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) and Huawei have announced a comprehensive
strategic cooperation agreement that spans from artificial
intelligence (AI) platforms and technology, to internet services
and content ecosystems. The two companies aim to cultivate an open
mobile and AI ecosystem built on shared success, while spurring the
development of new AI applications and providing global consumers
with AI that “knows you better.”
“It should come as no surprise that Baidu and
Huawei are working together, because we have many similarities -
technology is embedded in our DNA and we have developed our own
technologies in order to grow," said Robin Li, Baidu Chairman and
CEO. "The Internet era is evolving into the era of AI. Baidu has
been dedicated to the field of AI for a long time. Huawei has a
large user base. Together, Baidu and Huawei can do many things
which we were not able to do in the past. The Chinese saying ‘let a
hundred flowers bloom’ is a good way to describe our cooperation –
today we planted the seeds, and I believe soon they will grow into
many flowers.”
"The future is all about smart devices that will
actively serve us, not just respond to what we tell them to do,"
said Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's Consumer Business Group. "With a
strong background in R&D, Huawei will work with Baidu to
accelerate innovation in the industry, develop the next generation
of smartphones, and provide global consumers with AI that knows you
better.”
Baidu and Huawei plan to build an open ecosystem
using Huawei’s HiAI platform and Baidu Brain, a compendium of the
company's AI assets and services. The open ecosystem will leverage
Huawei’s Neural Network Processing Unit (NPU) and Baidu’s
PaddlePaddle deep learning framework to empower AI developers, and
provide consumers with a broad range of AI offerings and new smart
service experiences. The two companies will work together on voice
and image recognition for smart devices to enable more seamless
human-machine interaction. They will also jointly build an
augmented reality (AR) ecosystem, combining hardware and software
to create a more immersive and accessible AR experience for
everyday consumers.
Regarding internet services and content ecosystems,
the companies will strengthen cooperation in areas such as search
and feed to bring consumers a wealth of quality content with a more
intuitive and convenient service experience.
Baidu is the leading Chinese language Internet
search provider. Baidu's strategy is focused on two core pillars:
strengthening its mobile foundation and leading in AI. Baidu is
using AI to elevate its current core business, and in parallel,
building out new AI-enabled initiatives through an open platform
and ecosystem approach.
Huawei is the third largest smartphone manufacturer
in the world. With a strong belief in the importance of
customer-centricity, Huawei is actively exploring the future of
smart technologies to help improve people's digital experience,
which includes innovation in the 5G, AI, AR, virtual reality (VR),
and other related domains. In 2017, Huawei released the Mate 10,
the world's first smartphone powered by an embedded AI chipset, the
Kirin 970. Huawei has been actively building the HiAI ecosystem
based on these chips.
After a decade of rapid progress, the mobile phone
industry has reached a critical point in its development and the
next generation of smartphones is about to be born. Interactive
technologies including voice, machine vision, AR and VR will drive
the upgrade of the mobile phone industry. Originally developed to
be personal tools, mobile phones will become a natural extension of
humans and an everyday AI assistant for consumers. At this
important time for the industry, Huawei and Baidu will continue to
prioritize consumers and leverage both sides’ strengths to form a
mutually beneficial, open and in-depth strategic cooperation.
AI is driving a new round of industry
transformation. In-depth strategic cooperation between Baidu and
Huawei will open up more possibilities for the development of AI
and other technologies. It will help lay the foundation for a
sustainable mobile and AI ecosystem, so that future technology can
better understand users, better serve people, and promote better
economic and social outcomes around the world.
About Baidu
Baidu, Inc. is the leading Chinese language
Internet search provider. Baidu aims to make a complex world
simpler through technology. Baidu's ADSs trade on the NASDAQ Global
Select Market under the symbol "BIDU". Currently, ten ADSs
represent one Class A ordinary share.
About Huawei Consumer Business
Group
Huawei’s products and services are available in
more than 170 countries, and are used by a third of the world’s
population. Fifteen R&D centers have been set up in the United
States, Europe, Japan, India and China, etc. Huawei Consumer BG is
one of Huawei’s three business units and covers smartphones, PC and
tablets, wearables, mobile broadband device, family device and
device cloud service, is the third largest smartphone manufacturer
in the world. Huawei’s global network advantages, global operation
capacity and global partnership are built on 20 years of expertise
in telecom industry. Huawei Consumer BG is dedicated to delivering
the latest technologies to consumers and sharing the happiness of
technological advances with more people around the world. Walk the
walk and make dreams come true.
For more information please visit:
http://consumer.huawei.com/en
Media Contact
Baidu International Communications
intlcomm@baidu.com
HUAWEI Corporate Communications
DeptCorporate.Comms@huawei.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7ffd4b89-aeed-4018-9f12-46e59022836a
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